Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwakuni
Major sites of Iwakuni:
The Kintai Bridge - five scoops across, made completely out of wood, no nails. The bridge used to be a bridge to the main gate of the castle.
The area is also famous for white snakes - there was a museum devoted to them
(the snakes, not the band, although I did find myself singing "Here I Go Again"
and "Is This Love?" to myself and wondering whether David Coverdale ever got
fat, middle aged and bald).
Iwakuni Castle - a trip up funicular after the bridge, lots of Dr. Seuss style trees along the way. There's a cave at the bottom of the hill to the castle where the samurai who lived there used to store their weapons. No weapons now from what I could see, not that I went to the bottom to be absolutely sure.
Big, Square Sushi - We had a tea in town, and the local sushi, which is
pressed into a square mold and looks nothing like traditional sushi (also lotus
in the salad and the soup). Sort of defeats the whole point of sushi, which is
to make a bite-sized morsel of food, but interesting anyway.
More Fun English Signs
Fab sign watch: YouMeTown (a department store), Touch and Feel Coke, Let's 838! (an amusement park area with pachinko machines). Found out at lunch that what we call a pincushion is a "needle mountain" and that the movie Ratatouille was called Remy's Yummy Restaurant when it was released in Japan.
