ENOSHIMA.

April 22nd, 2018

A sunny day in a little island.

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The past few days in Tokyo have been feeling like summer, with clear skies and high temperatures.

That resulted in the perfect time to explore Enoshima island, near Kamakura – just about 1 hour and a half train ride from Shibuya. 

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Felix and I met up with Emma, Arik and Joey at 10am by the Hachiko statue. We hopped on the train and once we arrived, we were greeted by this building wishing us a nice day.

Then there is a long bridge you can walk on to make you way to the island.

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My friends had all been there before, so I did my research to make sure I knew something about the island as well.

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What I’ve gathered is that there is a legend around it: the goddess of love, Benzaiten, created it after battling a sea dragon. In doing so, two theories formed:

  1. She managed to imprison the creature deep into the caves of this island (you can actually visit Iwaya Caves);
  2. She agreed to marry the dragon in order to tame him.

When I asked about this to my friends – after seeing some dragon statues and caves – they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about!

Regardless, I thought it was pretty cool how this place had its own legend.

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Lots of people come here because of the views of Mount Fuji: we didn’t get a clear sight, but even like this it looked so striking.

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The island was already very packed yesterday, but in summer time it’s said to be extremely busy, especially its beaches (Shonan beach in particular). We could already see a lot of windsurfers, and I can see why: it’s really windy.

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You can walk down a path that brings you to some rocks you can climb and walk around on, during low tide.

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Because of the sun heating up the rocks, we were able to walk on them pretty easily…

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even though some bits were more dangerous than others!

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If you get too close to the edges, chances are you would get splashed by water.

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After spending the morning hiking, we went back into the main area and stopped by for some food.

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It was such a warm day that in order to feel cool again, I ate some shaved ice (or as I like to call it, some ‘snow’).

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Then we made our way to the Shrine: there are 3 of them, all dedicated to the Benzaiten goddess.

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Here my friends thought me lots of new things: for example, these up here are bad fortunes.

You pick a fortune from a basket, in exchange for 100 yen, and if you get a bad one you tie it on these strings, as they will be burned later.

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I was curious to see what I would get, as finally I had someone that could translate my fortune for me, and it turns out I got ‘Big Luck’ – which apparently it’s really rare to get, as none of my friends ever got one!

This made me really happy, so I folded it back and I’m keeping it in my wallet.

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Another thing I was thought is how to wash your money for more money: there is this specific pond (not sure what the name is) where you can grab a basket, put in some money to dip into water, and then you throw it into a wooden box in the middle of the pond. If you make it, it will bring you more money.

It took me 5 tries but I was able to do it!

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As I said, this island has the theme of love, so in multiple spots you can do couple related things: one of which is ringing the love bell, in this stunning setting.

They even provide a stand where to put your camera to take your photo – they really think of everything!

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As you could probably see from the previous photo, you will find tons of lockets and pink ema attached to the railing surrounding this area.

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No matter where you are walking in the island, if you look up, you should be able to spot this tall building, called the Sea Candle.

We didn’t go up, but I figured I would at least show a photo of it.

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We walked over 20’000 steps, but the brief stops to grab some local sweets provided us with just the right amount of energy back, and the wind blowing in such a hot day made the heat bare-able.

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I honestly had an amazing time exploring this place, I would highly recommend it!
❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )

Marzia

80 thoughts on “ENOSHIMA.”

  2. jordynnekniese

    Looks like such a beautiful island! The legend sounds really cool- it has similar themes to the book I’m currently reading: Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhasi. I hope you enjoy the rest of the trip and are able to check out some vegan/vegetarian restaurants (on your last two posts I shared a big list of veg friendly restaurants in Japan). Enjoy the warm weather! ⛩🏮☀️🍃

    Liked by 2 people

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  4. kittyp0p

    It’s very fun seeing you both enjoying your trip so much and the pics/vlogs are amazing! It’s been very windy here, whether the days are colder or warmer- it seems to always be windy haha hope the rest of your stay in Japan is just as lovely as Enoshima (: the love bell is super sweet btw

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  7. barelysara

    Every time you post something new about your trip I get more and more excited to visit one day. This island looks gorgeous and I’m glad you had such an amazing time and the weather was nice enough for you to enjoy your stay.

    One of the things, I believe, is most valuable in a trip is to learn about the culture and I am really happy that you have that curiosity and respect for the Japanese culture.

    I hope you have a good weekend and as always, thanks for sharing!
    Love, Sara💜

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  8. cupofkinsey

    Ahhh! I have to see some part of Japan at some time in my life. I’m curious, do you think it’s somewhere you could make a home? Not asking you if you’re gonna move there, I was just thinking that I probably couldn’t live there. I mean, I’ve never been there but I worry that I wouldn’t be able to handle such a shift in culture from the American way of life and I think I would feel like a sore thumb and outsider amongst everyone else.

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  12. Elina

    Omg Felix shaved 😮 thats so cool!!! But anyway love your videos and blog posts and everything else i also ordered the berett or how you write it and I ordered the pink skirt from the amore clothingline and i looove it sooo much thank you for making me smile every day you and Felix both make me smile 🙂 tank you for that💕💕💕hope you enjoy the rest of your trip! I’m looking forward to see the rest of it💕

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  16. Polina Koretkovskaya

    I just realised how much I’ve missed your blog. It’s so nice to read your thoughts and stories again.

    I hope you are having a great time during your last weeks there.

    And please, tell Felix he doesn’t have to hide what’s left of his beard in every picture – we all love you both no matter what you do with your appearance.

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  17. Ermira

    What a beautiful way to spend the day !
    Hope that fortune brings you the best of luck.
    I am curious to learn more about the legend of this island and I’m gonna google and read about that now.
    Did you manage to do all the things you planned and visit the places you had in mind ?
    Enjoy the rest of the trip !
    A big virtual hug 💛

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  21. lamantblog

    God, it looks so beautiful. Hopefully, I’ll be able to see it for myself one day, so I’m definitely bookmarking everything you write about Japan and your trips. I hope you had a great weekend and that everything is well 💗

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  23. Isaac21

    I’m enjoying so much your travel to Japan: videos, pictures and your blog entries!!!

    It’s really nice to see how much happy you look there 😄😄

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  24. Maria

    Your trip to Japan looks amazing! I hope you are enjoying every second of it! Which I’m pretty sure that you are 🙂

    And your beautiful mermaid hair looks so gorgeous!! I can only hope that I was brave enough to do the same thing for my hair haha!

    ❤

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  26. pocketadventurer

    Lovely photos!! I love your blog it is such a breath of fresh air – I’m doing my finals for university at the moment and it is so nice to escape!

    Also lol at Felix covering his face – he’s totally shaved his beard off hasn’t he?

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  29. ericarobbin

    Beautiful post, thanks for sharing! I like how you put some historical information in it. Amazing view of Mt. Fuji, it really puts it into perspective into how huge it is. And Felix shaved, wow I can’t believe it, looks nice. Between that and the Zucc Cut he must feel like a totally different person, especially since he was committed to that beard for so long. I hope you guys have a lovely day! 🙂

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  32. Geneviève

    Hi Marzia :)! Kamakura is such a lovely place to visit. I didn’t know about the island. Next time, I will visit Japan, this island is on my list! If you have I highly recommend you to visit Nikko. It’s a city North of Tokyo if I’m not mistaken, and it only takes 1 to 1h30 from Tokyo to Nikko (if I remember correctly). There is a lot of things to visit and nature over there is beautiful :)!

    Hope you have fun and enjoy the rest of your trip 😀 !! ( lucky you haha)

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  36. annamio

    Your trip looks awesome and it’s great that you also tell us about the traditions and cultural background of the places you visit!
    But if you don’t mind, I’d offer some correction regarding grammar and stuff (I’m not trying to bash you or anything, I’m not a native speaker either, just figured it could be helpful):
    “Thought” means an idea or the act of thinking in past tense (as you correctly used it later in your post) while the word you were looking for was “taught” meaning teaching.
    The verb “bare” means to reveal or to uncover something, while “bear” used as a verb means to endure. So if the heat wasn’t too bad to tolerate, it means it was “bearable”.

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  43. Tom

    Really cool place Marzia, Mount Fuji looks very atmospheric. Hope you had a lovely holiday. A month, wow I wish I could do that sometimes, anyway take care.

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