Japan Journal: Our Next Adventure

Friday, 4:45 pm

I’ve decided that grass doesn’t grow under my feet. Either that or I’m a glutten for
punishment. So I’m 2 hours into trying to take a Space A flight to mainland Japan (Atsugi) with 3 kids (we’re still in the terminal – been called for seats and then told it’s only temporary as the plane is not actually here yet…) Wish me luck – or at least pray for my sanity!

Friday, 5:45 pm

Just called to the desk for a “briefing”, told the plane has not arrived, not sure when or if it will arrive How can this be? We do not live in the Bermuda Triangle; planes just don’t disappear? I’ve decided we’ll try for a flight to Iwakuni tomorrow morning.

Saturday, 5:45 am

Checked in and waiting for “Roll Call” to see if we get on the flight.

Saturday, 6:45 am

We’re on! Luggage checked and plane is here (not missing in mid-air like last night’s!).

Saturday, 7:45 am

Waiting…

Saturday, 8:45 am

Waiting…

Saturday, 9:45 am

Wheels up!

Saturday, 11:00 am

Landed in Iwakuni!

Signed up to return to Okinawa then caught a shuttle to the hotel on base, then to the rental company to pick up our ride. They gave us a brand new, sparkling Toyota Voxy, which normally would not wow me except that I’ve been driving a 1996 beat up mini-van for the past 16 months so a new ride is alright! We have named it the Foxy Voxy (London has a stuffed animal called Foxy Loxy which is where the name came from).

We headed out to see the sights of Iwakuni today. There is a famous bridge here called the Kintai bridge which was originally built in 1673 with a revolutionary design built to withstand flooding.

The under side of the bridge.

It worked great until 1950 when a typhoon hit and washed the whole thing away. How sad. But the towns people rallied and rebuilt the bridge in two years and it’s as good as new now. You can walk across the bridge and then through an historical area where samurai used to live.

There was also this gorgeous, peaceful park there, Kikko park, with lots of fountains and fall foliage. To you reading this, that may be nothing much, but to us who have not seen a changing leaf in two years, it’s huge! I actually saw a beautiful Japanese maple – in Japan! This area is surrounded by beautiful mountains and the city itself is not that big so it leaves you with a nice feel. It is much more “Japanese” than Okinawa is – we see it in the housing styles, cars, and people.

After meandering through the park, we ended up at the snake “museum” – really just a building with one big glass cage with a few snakes in it. But these are white snakes (not the band from the ‘80s) which are found only in Iwakuni City and nowhere else in the world. People consider them to be messengers of a godess of good luck so they come here to pray to them.

Then we headed up the mountain in a cable car (good job Stevie wasn’t with us!)

The cable car deposited us on top of the mountain where we could then walk to Iwakuni Castle. This was a beautiful building with a stunning view of the surrounding valley and water. There are lots of trails and hikes through this beautiful area which would be great to do if we had more time.