Day Trip to Enoshima Island
Today we visited Enoshima island, which is a small scenic island not far from Yokosuka. Soon after crossing over a small bridge to get onto the island, there is a large red "torii" that marks the beginning of the shrine complex. Hetsumo-miya shrine, the central shrine, was built in 1206. There is also an octagonal structure which houses a statue of nude goddess Hakula-Benzai-Ten.


As you walk around the island, there are many souvenir shops and restaurants. The top part of the island can be reached by outdoor escalator, but we walked up many, many steps. We visited a Tropical Garden and an observation tower at the top of the island, which provides a panoramic view of the coastline and even Mt. Fuji--can you see the tip in this photo?

There are some of the nicest beaches in the area on the island. So much so they are dubbed the "Miami Beach of the East."

On the southern side of the island, there are natural sea caves with two main caverns, one that is 152 meters in length and the other that is 112 meters. It is said to be the place where the belief in the goddess Benten originated. Because the caves are dark, they provided us with candles to hold to see our way through the cavern. They pointed to our heads when they gave them to us, and at first I thought they were trying to tell us to put them on our heads! (I don't know! It didn't seem that odd since in front of shrines Japanese people are often clapping and bowing in a certain sequence...) Anyway, it wasn't until we were all the way in the cave that we realized they had tried to tell us the candles were so we wouldn't hit our heads...not to walk around with balanced on our heads!