Enoshima - All In A Day P2

If you are ever coming to Tokyo try to squeeze in a day at Enoshima. It's an island in Fujisawa a few hundred feet from the mainland with tons of things to see and do, like the sea caves, Sea Candle tower, classic narrow streets lined with shops, temples/shrines galore, turtles and much more!

Continuing from our stop at the Samukawa Shrine earlier in the day, https://hive.blog/hive-163772/@rt395/1600-year-old-samukawa-shinto-shrine-in-kanagawa-all-in-a-day-p1 we made it Enoshima, the beach actually, just in time for lunch.

Since we hadn't looked for a place to eat beforehand we just walked down the street to see what sounded good. Pizza, burgers, tacos, sweets!

This area known as Shonan. It's is a surf town so lots of fusion of Western, Hawaiian & Japanese. There was a Wahoo's Fish Tacos here 2 years ago, but it's gone now.

My wife and I have very different tastes, however sashimi and sushi are something we can always agree on. So we stopped off at Kinokuniya, a seafood place for lunch.

For $10 you can get a bowl of sashimi over rice and all you can drink, drink bar. Compare that to the crappy fast food in the US for about the same price and it's no wonder Japanese are still slim and healthy.

I ordered the maguro and negi toro bowl, while my wife ordered the chirasushi bowl.

It was the right place to eat at. Not only was the maguro delicious, but when we were finished we felt better than when we came in. Not bloated and lethargic like you might feel after ramen, curry or fast food.

Kinokuniya is located on the main street, Subana street, at 1 Chome-13-16 Katasekaigan, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 251-0035, Japan. I would definitely recommend them if you are in town.

From there we headed to the bridge that connects the mainland to Enoshima. Fortunately or unfortunately it was windy with a bit of sporadic rain and pleasantly cool. Actually we were fortunate because as soon as we crossed the bridge the rain stopped for the rest of the day, but it kept the crowds away so very few tourists were on the island.

There are three ways onto the island, walking, bus/car or ferry. The ferry takes you to the back of the island, but it was closed due to rough seas. I recommend walking over the bridge anyway for the views and excitement as you get closer to your destination.

The building on the left is a gift shop & restaurant. The building in the center is also a restaurant, while the building on the far right is a hotel with a restaurant and hot springs, onsen.

Just past these buildings the road narrows to a pedestrian walkway lined with all kinds of shops and eateries.

My wife got excited to try the giant octopus rice cracker(tako sembei) that is made while you wait (3minutes). It actually tasted pretty good!

At the end of the street you can either continue straight, up several steps to the large Hetsumiya shrine or swerve left up lots of stairs on the path that traverses the island.

We chose the latter. However, we took a shortcut that I recommend!

Just before you start your climb up the flights of stairs there is a building(shown in the photo above) that sells tickets to some of the attractions, Iwaya sea caves, Sea Candle tower, etc. They also sell escalator tickets! I recommend buying the combination ticket, You can get 1 ticket for the 3 escalators, Sea Candle & Iwaya caves and save about 50% than if you bought them all individually. The escalators are worth it considering how many steps you have to climb up, especially if its a hot summer day.

Up the escalator we go!

The first escalator will take you into a large shrine complex just above the one I mentioned earlier.

A COVID modified purification pool. Usually you would use the water in the basin to cleanse. All of the shrines do this now.

This interesting ring that promises something like good luck if you walk through it several times.

In the top corner there is a diagram showing you how to walk through it.

On the path out of the complex is a shrine to the Japanese Goddess Benzaiten.

Across from the Benzaiten shrine there is an opening in the trees that offers a cool picture opportunity of the street you came in on.

Continuing on you exit the shrine grounds, meet up with the main path to the next escalator.

Just past the shrine I noticed a turtle sitting on the wall of a small pool.

At first I wasn't sure if it was real or just some decoration. Then, I saw the others...

This guy looked like the boss. He had his head & feet up and was throughly enjoying his rest. He also happened to be larger than all the others.

Last time I was in Enoshima I didn't notice this pool or the turtles, but it seems this pool is their home. It's right next the path so keep a look out for them when you visit.

When we made it to the top of the hill we made our way to the Sea Candle which is situated in the Samuel Cocking Gardens. There is a fee to get into the gardens as well as a fee to go into the Sea Candle. That is why I mentioned getting the all inclusive ticket.

Sam was a British merchant who was very influential in the area bringing soap, bicycles and the electric light bulb to Japan. He also built a 7,000 sqft greenhouse at this point on Enoshima for tropical plants. It was destroyed in the 1928 Kanto quake and forgotten about until 2002 when the old brick foundations & basement were discovered.

That's it for part 2 of this series. In part 3 I'll take you up the Sea Candle, across my favorite part of the island with dilapidated hotels and to another complex of shrines including a special dragon shrine. In part 4 we'll get to the Iwaya caves and have some sweets at a cafe with a gorgeous view!