Tokyo October 2006
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Enoshima - Tokyo October 2006

Enoshima

Sunday 1st October 2006

A lovely day out in the rain, to have a walk around the island, and visit the spa on Enoshima.

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14:08:36 This is Chie hiding under my faithful National Trust umbrella, on the bridge over to Enoshima.

14:09:27 There's Enoshima over the other side of the bridge. Doesn't really look all that evocative here!

14:11:56 Me with Enoshima behind, again not looking all that evocative, and some sort of monolith type thing.

14:12:03 Same sort of thing again, slightly different angle and umbrella configuration.

14:13:01 Off to the left side of the bridge there were all sorts of little yachts bobbing about in the water.

14:14:14 Getting closer to the island now...

14:15:56 Trying to edit out the rather unattractive road bridge here.

14:42:57 On the island now, here is the gateway to the main little street of shops.

14:43:21 ...it sort of winds up a hill a bit.

14:46:25 At the end is a shrine gateway...

14:47:14 ...there's the shrine...

14:50:59 ...and bizarrely one proceeds up the hill from here on by escalator.

14:52:16 Some places have cable cars...

14:52:24 ...some places have funicular railways...

14:52:31 ...but Enoshima has a series of escalators.

14:53:17 At the top of the first escalator, a statueof some kind of dragon like creature, which people were busy throwing money at, and missing apparently.

14:55:08 A look back down to the main street and the bridge which leads to Enoshima.

14:55:56 Lots of those little plaques you often see by shrines in Japan.

14:59:10 Another escalator!

14:59:33 ...and another shrine at the top of escalator number 2.

15:01:00 ...I guess that must make this the third and final escalator.

15:07:36 So here on the top, more assorted religious buildings - I think this is more of a Buddhist temple than a shinto shrine.

15:07:48 Here's another one of those chaps who clearly spent a little too long out in the sun.

15:14:32 I think this bit of coastline demonstrates how the island is somehow split in two, geologically speaking. I didn't totally understand that.

15:14:52 A boat.

15:15:12 Not sure if you can make them out, but there were absolutely loads of spiders hanging from the trees above the paths we were walking along. A little unnverving.

15:17:12 One of the charming little pedestrianised streets on top of the island.

15:20:35 Another shrine.

15:22:28 Lots of cats here on Enoshima. Sorry for the poor composition - I was trying to get both of them in shot, but cats will be cats, and they wouldn't stay still.

15:22:31 A cat.

15:22:36 Both cats.

15:22:39 The black one having a good scratch.

15:22:52 On the ceiling of this shrine building was a turtle. Apparently it looked at you no matter where you stood (like that old Laughing Cavalier painting).

15:23:55 A sort of dragon themed shrine building.

15:26:28 I like the way these shops and restaurants clung to the side of the cliff, and you could see the sea over their roofs as you walked down the steps that ran between them.

15:27:20 More or less back down at sea level now.

15:27:29 So nice to be by the sea!

15:27:42 A bit of a shame about the weather...

15:29:11 You can see how some of the restaurants and cafes up top hang out over the edge of the cliff - lovely.

15:29:18 ...and again here.

15:29:27 Chie looking out to sea.

15:29:36 ...as you may have gathered by now, I was really snap happy today!

15:29:55 Me in a bit of a catalogue pose, by the sea.

15:29:59 ...same again - nice composition there Chie!

15:31:18 I liked this walkway that let you take a promenade along by the sea.

15:31:57 Chie up on the walkway, taken by me from the rocks down below.

15:32:40 So nice being by the sea.

15:33:46 ...even on a grey day like today.

15:35:42 At the far end of the island was a small cave network - recently me and Chie seem to be really into caves, so we were keen to give this a go.

15:37:33 Every now and again there were little openings from which you could see out to the sea - very nice.

15:37:47 A bit of a close-up on the view from the cave opening...

15:37:54 ...and more so.

15:40:57 ...and again, with a bit of zoom.

15:42:01 Again the cave system opened up here into the open air. I rather liked this cliff here.

15:42:21 ...especially with the little cave opening half way up.

15:42:32 In England this would almost have certainly been called "Smuggler's Cave", or similar.

15:44:11 Once more I am reminded how my new camera doesn't do so well in dim lighting. Trust me though, we're in a cave.

15:44:37 Can just about see Chie crouching a bit here.

15:45:10 ...there was some UV lighting in this part, and some luminiscent paint on some of the little rocks by the side of the path.

15:45:20 Close up on those rocks - a bit nostalgic of one of the Radstock parties!

15:45:38 Not sure if you can see this, but it's a statue of a dragon.

15:46:19 Clearly the flash is going to help a bit here! I think these tunnels were not designed with Westerners in mind.

15:52:25 More tunnels...

15:52:34 ....lined with lots of little Buddhist statues.

15:52:49 Close up on some of those statues.

15:53:53 Even Chie had to crouch a bit.

18:28:45 ....much later on, after a relaxing hour or two in Enoshima Spa, here's a picture in the bar on the top floor of the pa building, a bottle of Enoshima beer.

18:29:01 Close up on the bottle.

18:52:51 Chie joined me at the bar a bit later, and had some ice cream.

19:25:22 Outside the spa building, I thought these lit up fountains were quite interesting at the time, but the resulting picture is slightly less than enthralling.

19:26:04 Same place again.

19:27:10 Apparently this is a genuine space craft, used as part of one of the Apollo missions. No idea why it was on Enoshima, but it seemed to be really underplayed for such an important historical artefact, just left out here in the rain like this.

19:30:00 Heading back over the bridge to the mainland now.

19:30:12 Without the flash you can see the lights of the spa building a little better.

19:37:59 Near the station, a slightly other worldly picture of another bridge.

19:47:04 On the train on the way back home - I picked up some nori kara jagariko - very nice indeed!