Enoshima

After waking up at the Mercure, we headed over to Enoshima by train, getting breakfast on the way. Once we arrived at the island, we had an early lunch before visiting the island’s temples and the Sea Candle. We then went to the Enoshima Caves before leaving Enoshima around sunset. We had dinner on the way back at Yokohama Station.

Morning

After waking up at the Mercure Tokyo Haneda Airport, we headed out from 大鳥居駅 Otorii Station on the 京急空港線 Keikyu Airport Line down to 横浜駅 Yokohama Station. Once there, we switched to JR to continue down to 大船駅 Ōfuna Station.

We decided to get some breakfast at the station before continuing on. The station had a few options open in the morning. We got some baked goods from ミニワン Mini One in the アトレ atré shopping area within the station. As the name suggests, they sell smaller than usual items.

We also got onigiri from ほんのり屋 Honnori-ya, another shop in the station. This shop actually had a tiny dining room which we used to eat the four pieces that we bought.

After breakfast, we walked over to the adjacent station for the 湘南モノレール Shonan Monorail. The platform area looks a bit different than usual though!

The Shonan Monorail is a suspended monorail where the train carriage is suspended below a rail above rather than riding atop the rail. There are only a few examples of this type of transit in the world, with just 9 currently operating according to Wikipedia.

Visually the train looks more or less like a typical Japanese train and the interior is similar as well.

The movement of the train feels a bit different from a regular train, though its hard to describe.

We saw Mount Fuji on the right! It looks really tiny here due to this being an ultra-wide angle photograph.

The total time to travel the entire length of the monorail was about 15 minutes.

The southern terminus of the monorail, the 湘南江の島駅 Shōnan-Enoshima Station, has an excellent view of Mount Fuji!

Enoshima

We took a bus from the monorail station to the Enoshima bus stop. This bus stop is at the northern tip of Enoshima, right by the bridge that connects to the island. This fountain was right by the bus stop.

We walked over to the water to take a look. The vehicular 江の島大橋 Enoshima Ohashi (literally, Enoshima Big Bridge) connects the island with the mainland, or rather the main island of Honshu!

During low tide, Enoshima is actually connected to the mainland next to this bridge, meaning Enoshima is technically not a full time island!

The water near the bridge seems to go in both directions, creating a kind of mixing effect.

We crossed the street to the western side of the bridge to take a look at the view from there. Mount Fuji was visible from here as well.

The 江の島弁天橋 Enoshima Benten Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that is on the west side of the vehicular Enoshima Ohashi. The word 弁天 Benten comes up often here on Enoshima. It refers to the 弁才天 Benzaiten, a Buddhist goddess who is also part of the Shinto religion.

We walked out onto the bridge to take a look at the view to the west. The very top of the Enoshima Sea Candle can be seen here on the left.

We used our telephoto lens to get a closer look at Mount Fuji. It seemed like more clouds were gathering around its summit.

We turned around and walked to the south along the 江の島弁財天仲見世通り Enoshima Benzaiten Nakamise Street, the main tourist shopping street on the island.

We noticed this denim clothing store which also was selling denim soft serve and denim buns! We didn’t try it, though maybe we should have?

The street slopes uphill and ends at the base of these stairs which lead up to the Shinto 江島神社 Enoshima-jinja. At this point, it was 10:30am. Not quite lunch time but it was getting close. We knew there would be less options the further inland we went so decided to get something to eat here first. There were some restaurants that were open already but the ones with better ratings wouldn’t open until 11am or later, a more typical opening time. We decided to walk around a bit and have lunch before continuing on.

We decided to get a snack first from あさひ本店 Asahi Main Store. They sell an interesting snack at Enoshima, a type of large but thin seafood cracker, which is an extremely poor English description for this type of senbei. It is basically senbei batter mixed up with octopus (or shrimp), creating large thin sheets that are less than 1mm thick. It is a bit like an extremely thin and crispy pancake baked with a slice of seafood.

We noticed people ordering and eating them so we decided to buy some. We made a mistake here as the machine had a to-go option, which we went for. That seemed like the right thing to do but it really meant that it was packaged for eating later. So, we got one that came in a nice cardboard package.

We put that one away and ordered another one that was truly fresh and intended to be eaten right away! It was very good! And not particularly expensive, though that may have more to do with the current weakness of the Japanese Yen vs, the US Dollar.

We decided to have lunch at とびっちょ Tobiccho, a seafood donburi restaurant which opens at 11am. Unfortunately, fresh raw fish of the local specialty shirasu (whitebait) was not available as it was not in season, which limited our options a bit.

We ordered two different donburis. One had larger seafood pieces while the other had minced fish. They both had shirasu, though not raw. While both were good, the minced fish donburi had more flavor when mixed with the rice.

Both of the donburi came with miso soup. The 4-color rice bowl also came with a raw egg which arrived sealed, a bit unexpected!

After lunch, we continued on!

The view looking back from the torii. The shopping street is pretty much entirely uphill.

There is a large gate, the 瑞心門 Zuishinmon, beyond and above the torii.

The view looking back from the far side of the gate.

This elaborate sculpted scene was on the far side of the gate.

There are more stairs beyond the gate on the right. Up we go!

The view looking down at the gate.

And more stairs to the left!

We made it to the first of three shrines that make up the Enoshima-jinja. There was a queue of people lined up to pray.

We walked around the shrine a bit. This shrine does provide 御朱印 goshuin.

We got a nice peek through the foliage at the torii, shopping street, and the vehicular and pedestrian bridges below!

We continued walking through a small garden area. The trees have lights for the nighttime illumination event that is held here.

Continuing on, we passed by overlooks facing the eastern half of Enoshima. While the western half of the island is mountainous, the eastern half is basically at sea level and doesn’t seem to have too much of interest for us tourists.

There was a heart shaped theme here!

We reached the second shrine here.

We also came across a map of Enoshima, mostly in Japanese. It’s worth mentioning that the island does have three escalators for going up. We walked via stairs instead but they are available for a small fee.

There is a viewpoint that overlooks the sea near the sign. In the distance on the left, we could see the peninsula that extends south past Yokohama and Yokosuka. To the right, its thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean!

We’re basically atop a cliff above the sea.

Looking to the northwest, we can see some solar panels, palm trees, and the Enoshima Sea Candle!

There was a food service area near the overlook. We ended up getting an additional octopus senbei, the same brand that we got earlier before lunch.

We continued on to the Sea Candle.

Samuel Cocking Garden and the Enoshima Sea Candle

We continued on to the entrance to the Samuel Cocking Garden. The Enoshima Sea Candle is actually located within the garden. The garden was free to enter but becomes a fee area during the evening during illumination events such as the current winter illuminations.

The garden ticket booth also sells tickets for just the Enoshima Sea Candle, which we purchased.

We picked up a map of the area at the ticket booth.

The garden wasn’t particularly compelling. It was mostly filled with various elements that would be lit up in the evening. Luckily, it was free to enter as it would have been quite a disappointment to need to pay to see it during the day.

We headed through the garden to the Sea Candle.

There was some seating nearby, though we ate at a little table near the food truck.

Time to enter the Sea Candle! There is an elevator that goes up to the top.

The Sea Candle has two floors, an indoor observation deck and a outdoor platform above.

We tried to create a 360° panorama. Unfortunately, it didn’t stich together properly. But the squares above do show everything around the Sea Candle.

We switched to the telephoto lens to take a look around.

Looking to the northeast, we could see a relatively narrow beach with a high seawall behind it. At the bottom center of this photo, just above the seawall, there are a bunch of people by a railroad crossing. This crossing is shown at the opening to the Slam Dunk anime. It has become a popular photo spot. The nearby 鎌倉高校前駅 Kamakurakokomae Station looks pretty busy too.

Looking much closer, just to the north of the bridges that link Enoshima with the mainland, it looked like there were some school groups at the beach.

There were some small sailboats out to the east.

This point of land seems to be 稲村ヶ崎 Inamuragasaki, a cape that juts out into the sea at the southwestern edge of 鎌倉 Kamakura. There are quite a few windsurfers in the bay behind Inamuragasaki.

The stupa on the left and pagoda on the right are on a hill next to the Shōnan-Enoshima Station.

Looking further away, we can see 横浜 Yokohama in the background.

We saw a few トビ Tobi (Black Kites) flying around. The Sea Candle was a pretty good place to observe them from above!

It was getting cloudy to the west. Mount Fuji should be somewhere in the distance in this direction. The structure atop the hill in the foreground seems to be an observation deck and rest house in 高麗山公園 Komayama Park.

Looking down upon Enoshima, this looks like the roof of a temple or shrine building.

Enoshima Iwaya

After descending from the Sea Candle, we visited the 21 Days Souvenir(s) shop at the base of the tower.

We got a nice little magnet as well as some postcards.

We decided to head to the 江の島岩屋 Enoshima Iwaya (Caves). To get there, we needed to first backtrack a bit to exit the Samuel Cocking Garden.

It looks these tulips are ready to be planted.

There were quite a few planted tulips here!

This building is labelled as the main hall of the 江の島大師 Enoshima Daishi. We didn’t go to take a look, however, it is the only Buddhist temple on Enoshima and was built in 1993¹.

We walked along a somewhat narrow and descending path that led to the west.

There was kind of a narrow ridge that connects the main part of Enoshima with its smaller western end. There is a pretty steep drop off down to the ocean here as well as on the other side. This ridge is also a saddle as it is a local low point along the path.

We looked back to see the Sea Candle above and to the east.

There were various tourist facilities along the path, particularly restaurants.

We passed by the third Shinto shrine of Enoshima-jinja.

The path soon descended steeply via many stairs. We ended up on the western edge of Enoshima, though not quite down to sea level.

Mount Fuji should be somewhere out there to the west.

We walked out onto a viewing area atop the natural stone shoreline. Looking to the north, we could see that there was a concrete pathway below. It was getting battered by waves at the time. Definitely not somewhere we want to go right now! There was one person out there with a fishing rod though!

There is a seasonal ferry, the べんてん丸 Benten Maru, that departs from where the fisherman is standing to the far end of the Enoshima Benten Bridge.

We’re definitely not going down there!

We came across a survey marker here. We’ve never really noticed them in Japan before.

The restaurants above the cliff must have excellent views!

We continued along the path as it led to the southeast.

We walked across the curved 岩屋橋 Iwaya Bridge. It was somewhat busy but not too crowded.

Stairs lead down to a path down by the current sea level.

It looks like there is also some marked off path here to the left of the stairs.

We received a map with our tickets.

After entering, we descended down some stairs to a corridor lined with informational signs.

The signs cover a variety of topics related to these caves.

This small stone tablet, standing in a calm water filled section of the cave, is a monument to Akiko Yosano. A sign explains in English:

Stone Monument to Akiko Yosano

Wind from the sea, The shimmering candle light, A drop spread, The cave of Enoshima. -Akiko

Akiko Yosano, the poet who deeply loved Enoshima, was a person of culture in the 20th century. She accomplished a monumental amount of work in her activities that not only included poems and literature, but also education, criticism and social movement.

This poem, composed in July 1911, was included in the poem book, Seigaiha (published in January 1912). Over ninety years later, the candles are still burning and light the way for visitors within the cave.

The poem was calligraphed by Saeko Ozaki who was the leading authority of the study of Akiko. The monument was established and donated to the City of Fujisawa by Seihin Nakayama who resides in Fujisawa.

October 2002
Mayor, City of Fujisawa Katsuo Yamamoto

For the next section of the cave, a small candle is provided for light. It isn’t really necessary as the ambient light from all the artificial lighting in the cave is sufficient to be able to see.

There are some small Buddhist sculptures along the path in this part of the cave. There is a fork in the path beyond this section of the cave. We took the left fork first.

The legend here is that these caves connect to the ice caves of Mount Fuji, a distance of roughly 50 miles. Also, the stone on the left is supposed to look like Saint Nichiren, a Buddhist priest and founder of Nichiren Buddhism, lying down.

The other fork leads to a small shrine. The first shrine on Enoshima was built in these caves in 552. A sign sort of suggests this might be the location of that first shrine? This interpretation might not be correct.

We turned around to head back out of the cave. Unfortunately, my candle didn’t make it as it was accidentally extinguished. I did see at least one other person with an unlit candle so its not just me!

The route continues to the second cave. On the way there, we had this view of the ocean. There are also some benches here, the only places to sit in the caves.

There is a stamp station here. We stamped our Japanese language map. As is sometimes the case, the Japanese map differs from the English one in more than just language.

The view from above the fence. It looks like it should be possible to look into here from outside when the tide is lower and the sea a bit calmer.

The path leads outdoors on the way to the second cave.

The view looking back towards the first cave.

Much of the second cave was illuminated with lights on the ceiling. It was a bit like they were going for a glowworm effect, although glowworms are not this bright at all!

The main feature of this second cave is this dragon! It has a gimmick, if you clap your hands, it will roar! Some of the signs we saw earlier explain the legend behind this dragon. Basically, there was a dragon that terrorized the area. One day, an island appeared out of the sea along with a “heavenly maiden”. She agreed to marry the dragon if he would stop terrorizing the people. The woman is described as being Benzaiten, a goddess who is part of both Buddhist and Shinto religions.

An parallel path leads away from the dragon and back to the cave’s entrance.

We headed back out of the cave. By now, it was not long after 3pm.

After going back into and exiting the first cave, we started to backtrack on our way out of Enoshima. Looking to the west, we could see Mount Fuji with its peak obscured by clouds.

What goes down must go up. So, we went up.

We walked back through the 3rd shrine.

This seated statue is of musician 山田斗養一 Yamada Toyoichi, also known as 山田検校 Yamada Kengyo. The blue sign to the right explains, translated using Google Translate:

7. Seated statue of Toyoichi Yamada
【7th year (1757) ~ 14th year (1817)】

It was established in 1917 and rebuilt in 2004.

This is a life-size seated statue of Yamada Kengyo, who can be said to be the founder of Edo koto music.

"Enoshima Song" composed by Yamada Kengyo is famous.

The stone monument next to the statue is engraved with a poem by the Meiji period literary figure Koda Rohan, praising Yamada Kengyo's achievements as an artist.

A sign describes the scene in front of us, specifically, the very trimmed tree and the stone right in front of it. The sign reads in English:

KAMEISHI (Turtle-Shape Stone)

According to the old writing, "Kameishi is one of Kamakura's famous four stones, and is known as Zprokuishi (turtle stone)."

In Buko chronology, there is an episode about the stone

In 1806 Benshudo who worshipped Benzaiten, made a copy of the sutra Konkomyosaishookyo and dedicated the copy to Enoshima Shrine. When he was looking for a stone to use as a paperweight for the copy, he accidentally found a turtle-shaped stone. He dedicated the stone to Enoshima Kameishi is placed under the giant ginkgo tree

We stopped by Cafe Madu for a cold snack in the next group of buildings to the east of the shrine.

After we headed back out, we quickly came upon the same spot where we looked up at the Sea Candle before. It was 4:24pm and there was some color in the sky. Sunset would be in around 13 minutes or so. We decided to try a shortcut that would lead us back to the island’s northern end, where we first arrived in the morning.

The path was mostly through forest but had a few overlooks with decent views. We continued to see color in the sky as well as some nice sunset glow but nothing too dramatic. Other than the view, this path also had the bonus of not having to continue to ascend!

As we continued along the path, we came across a red bridge.

The path deposited us at the southern end of the Enoshima Benzaiten Nakamise Street, the shopping street that we walked down earlier. Looking to the south, we could see the Zuishinmon, the large gate that we walked through earlier in the day. And in the opposite direction, the shopping area.

We were basically right by the big torii seen here.

It was still pretty busy here with many people going up to see the illumination event at the garden.

This passageway, though the middle of a building, was decorated with lanterns.

We stopped at a random place for some street food, grilled scallops.

We continued walking onto the Enoshima Benten Bridge. This is the same bridge that we briefly walked onto in the morning. We took more or less the same photo in the morning as well.

The bridge offers some nice views of the Zuishinmon.

Once we reached the north side of the bridge, we looked back to see Enoshima and the Sea Candle. It was 5:05pm by now and there was still some color in the sky.

This stone lantern was decorated with a dragon sculpture.

We continued north to cross over this bridge to the west. Google Maps labels it as the 弁天橋 Bentenbashi, the same name as the pedestrian bridge we just walked on from Enoshima.

The view to the south, towards Enoshima, is unfortunately blocked by a vehicular bridge. Like most bridges in Japan, it does have sidewalks and we probably should have crossed over it for better views of the island!

Our destination, the 片瀬江ノ島駅 Katase-Enoshima Station.

This station is closer to Enoshima than the Shōnan-Enoshima Station that we arrived at in the morning. It is the southern terminus of Odakyu‘s Enoshima Line. 藤沢駅 Fujisawa Station, which is on the JR Line, is just 7 minutes away.

Evening

We took the next train to Fujisawa, changing to a JR train to return to Tokyo there. We decided to get off at Yokohama Station for dinner before continuing back to the hotel at Otorii.

We were really surprised to come across this restaurant, the ディック・ブルーナ テーブル Dick Bruna Table! Dick Bruna is the creator of Miffy, a character for children that is extremely popular in Japan. Last month, we visited Utrecht, the city in the Netherlands where Dick Bruna is from. We even saw a Miffy pedestrian crossing light!

We ended up eating at こめらく Komeraku, a お茶漬け ochazuke restaurant in Porta, the underground shopping mall connected to Yokohama Station.

The ochazuke is basically a seafood donburi intended to be soaked with hot tea or dashi. Like our seafood donburis for lunch, both we had here were very good.

We also got 3 pieces of から揚げ karaage, which were excellent.

We came across a Little Italy thing on the ground.

And, we came across an Aflac office! Who knew they were in Japan!

We got a snack from くりて庵 Kurikoan, a taiyaki shop. The taiyaki wasn’t really photographable in any meaningful way but we did capture the wrapper! It is amusing that くりて庵, when written vertically and viewed at an angle, looks like it spells out NSA!

We left the Porta at around 7:20pm, definitely a busy time with hordes of people passing through. We went to the Keikyu section of the station to return to Otorii. When taking Keikyu, it is possible to simply take a train to Haneda Airport. Alternatively, take a train that is going up to Shinagawa and change trains at Keikyu-Kamata, which has a higher frequency of trains departing to Haneda compared to Yokohama.

1. Japan-Guide.com – Enoshima
   https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3117.html ↩︎