After eight days of relative peace along the exotic and sparsely populated San'in Coast, we dropped ourselves smack dab in the middle of Japan's beaten paths. Mentally we should have been better prepared for the culture shock, as we're visiting the most spectacular of Japanese bridges and a nationally famous symbol of West Japan.
Hokusai immortalized it with his now-famous Ukiyo-e block print, as did the great Hiroshige whose eloquent composition testified to Kintai Bridge's longevity as one of Japan's iconic tourist attractions since the age of the Tokugawa Shoguns. For much of the past 350 years, this five-arched wooden bridge has inspired poets and artists with an achievement of aesthetic beauty and engineering ingenuity peerless in Japan.
Spanning 200 metres over a notoriously untamable stretch of the Nishiki River, Kintai Bridge is still considered a masterpiece of Japanese wood joinery on a mammoth scale, originated in its current form in 1674 and last renovated in 2004, without any modern steel screws and rebars. Its worthiness as a day-trip destination is beyond doubt, but it was the rampant commercial exploitation that took us by surprise.
Or perhaps we shouldn't be -- after all, the city of Iwakuni has become an obligatory stop for busloads of visitors on daily whirlwind tours that include Hiroshima's A-Bomb Dome and Miyajima's world-famous Torii. As we slowly made our way through town by JR trains and local buses, the prevalence of English brochures and signage was refreshing yet somewhat disturbing.
300-Year-Old Ryokan of Miharaya
Accommodations were surprisingly scarse for a tourist town of such prominence, apparently due to the overwhelming percentage of visitors arriving only for day-trips. Between the usual choices of Westernized tourist hotels and small family-owned Minshukus, we opted for the oldest Ryokan in Iwakuni, just 500m from Kintai Bridge.
Ironically this was also one of the cheapest Japanese inns in town. With roots from the early 1700s, the venerable Miharaya is now operated by the 8th generation descendant of the original proprietor who served as chef to the local feudal lords. As dated as the lobby may appear in the 21st century, the former prestige of the Ryokan was immediately apparent from an exquisite centre courtyard with a Koi fish pond and artificial landscapes.
A spacious 12-jo Tatami room, complete with an attached Western-style living room on the side, was the reward for hauling our heavy luggage up three narrow flights of stairs. Room prices were reasonable for a reason as ours featured a 10-inch CRT TV from the 1980s alongside antique ceramics in a glass case and traditional brush paintings on yellowed paper.
While Tosaki-san the proprietor was busy prepping a banquet for a large group arriving that evening, his wife showed us around the premises in broken English, a first since we departed Hiroshima Airport 12 days ago. Thousands of U.S. Marines and their families live just a few kilometres away at the Iwakuni Military Base, practically making a tenth of the city's population English-speaking.
Our favorite memory of this historic Ryokan was a marvelously designed Japanese bathtub in turn-of-20th-century opulence, simulating a natural hotspring in the wilderness without leaving town. A cold stream flowed down from the artificial mountain on the right to be joined by hot water gushing out from a bamboo-wrapped faucet in a cozy square tub that barely fit two people, which I found even more enjoyable than the spacious hotspring pool at our Ryokan in Hagi the previous night.
One crucial factor in our choice of Ryokan was the walking distance to Kintai Bridge for a quiet sunset stroll -- except it was anything but quiet with tour buses and souvenir stands occupying the gravel banks beneath the bridge! This was a height of commercialization that I had not witnessed elsewhere in Japan, and I just hope that this doesn't become the new norm.
Much more enjoyable was our morning stroll over the Kintai Bridge alongside the working townspeople, who only gained access to this vital crossing at the end of the Shogun's era. As the bridge marked the first line of defense to the Feudal Lord's hilltop castle, ordinary peasants who paid a special tax for the bridge's maintenance were prohibited from using it.
Traditional cormorant fishing is still held in the deceptively calm waters every summer, underneath these catenary-shaped arches inspired by a multi-arched bridge of the same name at the beautiful West Lake of Hangzhou. The railings and planks all go through periodic maintenance and replacement, and the city has even proposed a 200-year forestry management plan to ensure availability of the specific wood required for future rebuilds.
Beyond the bridge is the former quarter of Samurai residences, now converted into a public park scattered with 200-year-old shrines and traditional teahouses. A steep ropeway whisks visitors 200m up to a reconstructed castle overlooking its old feudal domain, which we skipped in favor of a locally famous spot for autumn foliage.
A few steps southwest of the Samurai quarter is a small park affectionately coined by the locals as Momiji-Dani, or Maple Valley, for its fiery red leaves during Koyo Season. As we arrived late in the season towards the end of November, it was the gingko that jazzed up the park with a fresh carpet of yellow.
November 24 was perhaps a week too late to catch this year's Momiji in its full glory, and by 09:15 we started walking back towards the bridge. Little did we know that we would encounter some of the most brilliant autumn foliage later that afternoon at a different Momiji-Dani -- the famous Momiji-Dani Park of Miyajima.
The ticket booth for Kintai Bridge was finally attended as we crossed back to the eastern bank. Earlier we simply inserted our entrance fee into an unattended money box towards maintenance for this elegant yet ill-fated bridge, its previous incarnation having collapsed in a typhoon and the current edition once damaged by pranksters driving a pickup truck over it.
Our favorite memories of Iwakuni turned out to be the tranquility of our early morning crossing over Kintai Bridge, as well as the ingenious 100-year-old bathtub at our antiquated Ryokan. We also visited a renowned 160-year-old restaurant which I have intently wanted to review ... but for the wrong reason.
Food Review: HIRASEI (Iwakuni)
Address: Iwakuni 1-2-3, Iwakuni-shi, Yamaguchi Prefecture
Hours: Lunch 11:30-14:00, Dinner 17:00-20:00; Closed on Wednesdays
Map: from Google Maps
Directions: This is the restaurant directly across from the bridge's eastern entrance, making it impossible to miss.
This picture of Kintai Bridge was taken from our table at Iwakuni's most prestigious restaurant, the supposedly first-rate Hirasei established in Year 1858, just before the Meiji Restoration.
What attracted us wasn't the view of course, but promises of delectable, time-honoured dishes in the Japanese custom where the vast majority of century-old restaurants can be trusted to uphold their culinary expertise honed over several generations. Surely Iwakuni is a touristy town, but that's no worse than Miyajima or Kyoto. I mean, how bad could this get?
So I ordered Hirasei's famous broiled Unagi, sourced from faraway Kagoshima according to the brochure, with understandably high expectations. In terms of broiled eels, the 270-year-old Unagi specialist of Izuei and the 120-year-old Anago specialist of Ueno would come to mind for many Japanese foodies. While this wasn't expected to replicate the level of gastronomic delight experienced at my last visit to Izuei, it should at least trump our typical family restaurant at a train station. Again, how bad could this get?
Behold the worst Unagi I had even encountered in Japan, so shocking that I still vividly remember the repulsive muddy flavor, or Dorokusa as loathed by the Japanese, coming from the excessive unburnt fat. While the recipe for the flavorsome Kabayaki glaze was undoubtedly first class, no amount of powdered Sansho pepper could mask the pungent fishiness from the stale eel. What made it even worse was that ... this was also the most expensive Unajuu I had ever ordered, at 3950 yen (CAD$46.5) a pop!
Luckily my wife ordered a less ambitious 7-course dinner centered around Iwakuni's best-known agricultural product of Renkon, or lotus roots, for a reasonable 1700 yen (CAD$20). This falls into the category of Kyodo-ryori, regional peasant specialties known for transforming cheap, locally available ingredients into celebrated recipes.
One such example is a local variant of pressed Sushi known as Iwakuni-Zushi, which was actually invented by the original ancestor of our Ryokan's proprietor. Slices of fish, lotus roots, Shiitake mushroom and paper-thin egg crepe were layered and lightly steamed on top of heavily vinegared rice in a 350-year-old recipe long predating the invention of refrigerators.
The price-quality-ratio of my wife's set dinner was the only saving grace at a meal remembered for the wrong reason, an atrocious piece of Unagi Kabayaki that insulted Hirasei's own 160-year-old reputation. At the final tally of 6800 yen (CAD$85), this was probably the only meal of our 16-day West Japan trip that did not deserve its price.
Bill for Two Persons
| Unajuu | 3950 yen |
| Janome Gozen | 1700 yen |
| Umeshu (Glass) | 500 yen |
| Kinsuzume (Glass) | 650 yen |
| TOTAL | 6800 yen (CAD$85) |
By 09:45 we checked out of our Ryokan and boarded the next bus to Iwakuni Station, followed by a 30 minute train ride to the ferry pier for our next Ryokan on the island of Miyajima. In retrospect I realize that I was among very few foreigners to stay overnight at Iwakuni, and here are a few tips for fellow independent travelers:
Practical Tips for Iwakuni
1) Stay overnight to fully enjoy Kintai Bridge in the early morning, especially for unobstructed photos. For anyone interested in that exquisite bathtub at our historic Ryokan, rooms at Miharaya start from 10000 yen per night for double occupancy as of 2017, though it can only be booked from Japanese reservation sites such as Jalan or Rakuten.
2) Don't order Unagi at Hirasei. Or better yet, try a different restaurant and leave me a message on how it goes.
3) My final and best advice is mainly for seasoned travelers making use of JR trains. Remember that JR allows you break your journey (i.e. hop on, hop off) if your ticketed journey exceeds 100 km. With a plethora of worthwhile destinations in the vicinity (Yamaguchi, Hofu, Yanai, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Kure, Takehara, Onomichi etc.) this would be the perfect stretch to take things slow and visit multiple towns with one cheap ticket! See the following post on hop-on hop-off JR trains for details.
