Hikari, Yamaguchi

White sand stretches along the coast at Nigehama, backed by a long corridor of black pine — the kind of shoreline that appears on old postcards and still looks more or less the same. Hikari sits on the Seto Inland Sea, facing the Suo-nada, with the hills of Ishikiyama rising to the northeast and the narrow tombolo of Zohana-ga-saki curling into Murozumi Bay to the south. The sea here is calm by the nature of the inland waters, and the light tends to be flat and even.

The town carries older layers beneath its industrial present. On Ishikiyama, at three hundred and sixty-odd meters, the earthworks of a seventh-century mountain fortress still ring the summit — the Koki-san Kōgoishi, stone-lined channels built against the threat of Tang and Silla fleets after the battle of Hakusukinoe. The shrine Ishiki-jinja, whose main hall is a designated national important cultural property, stands within those ancient precincts. Down at the coast, a ferry from Murozumi Port runs out to Ushijima, a small island with a history of cattle ranching stretching back to the Heian period, now home to wood-pigeon and a grove of Koelreuteria.

Hikari is also, quietly, where Kanro candy was born — the hard caramel drops sold in convenience stores across Japan trace their origin here. That small fact sits alongside the blast furnaces and titanium works of Nippon Steel without any apparent contradiction. At Murozumi Onsen, a bath with a view across the bay is available at the Kamenoi Hotel. In late summer, fireworks go up over Nigehama during the Hikari Hanabi Taikai, and the beach fills with people from the surrounding towns, then empties again by morning.