Enoshima, Kanagawa, Nov.22, 2025
Riding Enoden line from Hase, Lunch at a local restaurant and Hiking Enoshima
On the middle day of this holiday weekend, we went to Kamakura getting on a train. We got out of the west exit of JR. Kamakura station. We had matcha Ice cream corns at a shop near the exit. The small square in front of the shop was crowed with holiday makers. We started walking the road along the city hall toward Hase Temple. On the way, we turned to left into a small road through a quite residential neighborhood. Cars and bikes were passing us in a narrow road. I heard the sound of jet engines coming from the hill . Within a few minutes, I saw a Boeing 737 jet coming out from the other side of the mountain nearby and flying low above us toward west, which I later learned is a C40A, a military version of Boeing 737, transport aircraft of the US Navy heading to Atsugi Naval air-station. I’ve been to Kamakura and visited the Great Buddah many times. But we’ve never visited Hase Temple before though it is just around the corner. We run into a larger road which reaches to the beach. There were a lot of people walking on the side road. I think they are on the way to Enoden Hase station after visiting Kotokuin temple, famous for Great Buddha. This time, we would go to Hase temple skipping the Daibutsu sama, the Buddha. The temple, the 4th temple of the Bando Pilgrimage circuit, is known for the ten meter high standing statue of the Eleven-headed Bodhisattva of Compassion. I was simply blown away by the shining gold statue in the hall. We stopped by a music box shop near the temple, which displays large selection. I met a music box of Porco Rosso doll, which I have somewhere in the closet. We were supposed to walk around the area. However, we decided to go to Enoshima after we left Hase Temple. We headed to Hase Station.
It is noon. we felt a bit hungry. But we wanted to have lunch at Enoshima. The train came into the station at 12:37 with passengers full of the cars. I anticipated the cars would be crowded as many international tourists from Asia who are fans of popular anime series “Slum Dunk”. There were a lot of international visitors. But it was not that crowded. I was just watching the outside on the train car. Many of the passengers on the car got off at Enoshima. When we entered the exit, there are a lot of souvenir shops and restaurants on both side of the street to the beach side. In a couple of minutes we found a local restaurant on our left side. The large picture of their today’s lunch caught our eyes. ” Deep fried locally caught fish and Sashimi set menu”. We decided to have lunch at the restaurant “Chubei”, quite classic male name from Samurai era. We chosen a table outside and ordered that lunch sets and two jugs of Kirin beer. The set of deep fried fish and sashimi comes with a dish of boiled whitebait and grated radish, a miso soup, pickled vegetable and a bowl of rice. The deep-fried fish was Horse mackerel. The large fish are nicely fried. Sashimi was fresh. Shirasu, or whitebait is a specialty of this area of Shonan. We would boil them and eat over rice with grated horse radish and soy sauce. They spoil quickly. They would boil them as soon as whitebait were caught. Only fresh shirasu can be served. We had happy lunch time. We started to walk towards Enoshima.
It was some forty years ago when I visited this place on a field trip of my high. It was raining if I remember correctly. I did not remember anything now.
