The Island of Enoshima in Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture

Tokyo Day 3 Notes

around 8:00 AM
- go to Shinjuku Sta., exit to Odakyu Line
- purchase Enoshima-Kamakura One-Day Free Pass (¥1,470 + ¥600 for upgrade to Limited Express “Romance Car”)
08:53 AM
- board the Odakyu Line Limited Express “Romance Car” for Katase-Enoshima
around 10:00 AM
- arrival at Katase-Enoshima
- cross the causeway to the island
- go to Enoshima Shrine
- climb up to Samuel Cocking Garden and Sea Candle Observatory (entrance: ¥500)
around 12:00 PM
- climb back down; have lunch
- walk back to mainland
- board Enoden (electric monorail) to Enoshima Sta.
- board train at Enoshima Sta. to Kamakura
around 2:00 PM
- visit Hase-dera (temple; entrance: ¥300)
- visit Kōtoku-in (temple; entrance: ¥200 + ¥20 to get inside the body of the Great Buddha)
around 4:30pm
- walk to Hase Sta.
- from Hase Sta., take Enoden to Fujisawa Sta.
- from Fujisawa Sta., take Odakyu Line Limited Express to Shinjuku Sta.
- from Shinjuku Sta., take JR Yamanote Line to Harajuku Sta. (¥140)
around 6:00 PM
- explore Harajuku, buy clothes
- walk to Shibuya
- watch the pedestrians at Shibuya Crossing and look for the Hachiko statue
before midnight: go back to hostel

For the third day of our Tokyo trip, we ventured to Kanagawa Prefecture for Enoshima and Kamakura, which are both popular day trips for tourists and locals alike.

Enoshima is an island in the city of Fujisawa and is connected to the mainland by bridge. To get there, you’d have to take the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku Station. The One-Day Free Pass to Enoshima and Kamakura includes the round trip train ride and discounts in the two areas. We added a few hundred yen to our ticket to be able to upgrade our ride to the “Romance Car,” which has comfortable seats, just right for napping after the Amazing Race Tokyo the day before. (By the way, I always see the name “Romance Car” with quotation marks. For good reason, I guess?)

Katase-Enoshima train station with the Odakyu Limited Express

We crossed to causeway to the island:

It’s a climb up the Enoshima Shrine which connects Enoshima’s main attractions and temples. There is one pathway flanked by souvenir and snack stalls, and this torii welcomes you.

This cat by the admissions sleepily welcomes you too.

Ema, wooden plaques on which you could write your wishes. Found in Shinto shrines.

A map showing the places where you could go in the Enoshima Shrine.

It’s actually a steep climb up and there are several “levels” where tourists stop to explore and take photos, but no worries — there are escalators to take you up.

Viewpoint. There's a helpful tall table on which to place my camera and set the timer. :) — Viewpoint on one of those levels. There’s a helpful tall table on which to place my camera and set the timer here. 🙂

Omijuki – fortune telling paper strips. None in English, though. 😦

At the top of the course, we got to the Samuel Cocking Gardens. This is a restoration of sorts of a greenhouse built by British merchant Samuel Cocking during the Meiji Era. We were very lucky that the flowers were all abloom when we got there!

Another neko! This one didn't look too impressed. — Another neko! This one didn’t look too impressed.

Awesome guy entertaining us on the side with balloons

The Enoshima Lighthouse is also called the Sea Candle, as you can see below:

You can supposedly see Mt. Fuji from the top, but it was overcast when we got there and could only just see Fuji-san’s shadow. However, we were able to see the Izu peninsula and Yokohama.

We went back down and treated ourselves to lunch before heading out to our next location: Kamakura. In the Philippines, we’d call this meal dulong omelette:

And I washed it all down with the very first bottle of Evian I’ve ever purchased in my entire life. I bought it from — where else? — a vending machine. 🙂

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