Bandai Bridge is considered as the symbol of Niigata and is one of the city’s most scenic spots, especially at night. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we walked down to the bridge from the Showa period, lit up like a Christmas tree over the Shinano River. The 1964 quake shattered Niigata, but the arch shaped, stone bridge stood strong among the rubble even as everything around it crumbled.
Honshu
Ruins of Sannai-Maruyama
We step back in time to the Jōmon period at the Sannai-Maruyama Ruins. The ruins in the southwest of Aomori is the largest ruins of a Jōmon-period village in Japan. Most of the excavated items have been reburied for preservation, but a few excavation sites and artifacts are on display along with reconstructed dwellings, giving us a sense of the daily life of ancient times.
The heavenly Adachi Gardens
The Adachi gardens feels like part of a painting. Too bad visitors cannot touch or walk among the heavenly garden. The garden is the brain-child of Adachi Zenko who created it in 1980 as a way of combining his passions for Japanese art and garden design.