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 less crowded train from JR.Ishikawa-cho station in the morning. We got out of the west exit of JR. Kamakura station. We found a Matcha Ice cream shop outside the exit. My partner bought a matcha corn and I a hojicha roasted green tea corn. We ate them sitting on the long chair outside the shop under warm sunshine. The small square in front of the shop was crowed with holiday makers. There were many international visitors. I knew the number of foreign people coming to Japan has increased because of cheap yen. I think we see more people here than we did a year ago. I also knew many of those living in tourist destinations are complaining about trouble with those international visitors who do not understand our culture. Anyway, I think that is good they see and learn about us. That is the start for mutual understanding. After the short break at the ice cream shop, we started walking the road along the city hall toward Hase-dera, Buddhism temple. On the way, we turned to left into a small road through a quiet 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 look jet coming out from the other side of the mountain nearby and flying low above us toward west, which I later learned may be is a C40A, a military version of Boeing 737, transport aircraft of the US Navy heading to Atsugi Naval air-station. However, later I realized the plane had four engines after looking at the picture I took. I am now wondering what it was. I’ve been to Kamakura and visited the Great Buddah many times. But we’ve never visited Hase Temple before though it is located very close. 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 theDaibutsu, 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 selections of music boxes. I found a music box of Porco Rosso doll, which I have somewhere in my closet. We were supposed to walk around the area afterwards . However, we decided to go to Enoshima after we left Hase Temple. So 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 as I thought. But it was not that crowded. I was just watching the outside on the train car till it reached Enoshima. 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 named “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 Shirasu whitebait and grated radish, a miso soup, pickled vegetable and a bowl of rice. The deep-fried fish was Aji 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. Then, we started to walk towards Enoshima.
The island enshrines three goddesses: Tagitsuhime-no-mikoto, Ichikisimahime-no mikoto and Tagirihime-no-mikoto. They are the three goddesses created as a result of the trial by oath (ukei) between Amaterasu and Susanoo. They are three daughters of Amaterasu, Sun goddess. Ichikishimahime, the youngest daughter, is regarded as Sarasvati, an Indian goddess of Water, who is worshipped as Benzaiten, one of the seven happy gods in Japan.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 do not remember most of my last visit but I do still remember there were souvenir shops and restaurants on both sides of the approach to the shrine. Before the first shrine stands Zuishin-mon gate designed like Dragon palace under water in connection with the local legend of Ichikishimahime and the five headed dragon. The white gate reminds me of Coral leaves. It looks like a castle in the folktale of “Urashima Taro and the palace of dragon” where the five headed dragon is living. Legend has it that Gozuryu, the five headed dragon, lives in a lake in Kamakura, suffered people in the neighborhoods by causing floods and typhoons. One day, A celestial maiden descends and an island was born. That is Enoshima. The dragon fall into love and proposed her. However, his proposal was turned down first. Then he decided to reform his past misdeeds and won her love finally.I did not remember anything about the last visit now. Anyway, I’ve come back here as an old guy in my 60’s. Maybe we did stop at the first shrine and did not go further. This time, we walked on and visited all three main shrines in the island. Anyway, I’ve come back here as an old guy in his 60’s. This time, we walked on and visited some other shrines in the island.
We visited Hetsunomiya, shirine of Tagitsuhime, the younger sister; Nakatsunomiya, shrine of Tagirihimenomi, the eldest daughter; and Okutsumiya, shrine ofIchikishimahime, the second daughter in this order. In the mid of Edo period when they enjoyed peaceful lives, people would form a group of pilgrimage with their neighbors and visit shrines and temples in nearby places like Ise, Mie; Zenkoji, Nagano; Narita, Chiba; and Oyama/Enoshima. Enoshima was depicted by Ukiyoe artists like Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro. You can see Enoshima and people at that time through those arts now.
Picuter of a turtle looking in eight directions is depicted on the ceiling of Haiden hall of Okutsu-Miya. We saw some were pointing a camera at the ceiling. I did not know what was there then. Later I found an article about the picture drawn on the ceiling. We went down the long steep crowded stairs to the rocky beach after visiting Okutsunomiya shrine. The sea of Sagami-nada spread out before our eyes. The Sun began to dip. It got cool. We spent good time. We decided to return the way we had come climbing up that same steep stairs.