Author: Captain Nerd

Enoshima and checking off a bucket list item (pt. 1)

Well, if nothing else, on this trip I finally got to check off an item on my bucket list that has been bugging me on every trip I’ve made here. Until I went to Enoshima earlier, I had not actually gotten a really good picture of Mount Fuji, I had always had fog, or clouds, or haze, or lack of sunlight to prevent me from seeing the mountain clearly.

So, feeling somewhat hopeful, but not expecting a lot, I set off in the morning to go to the town of Ofuna, in order to catch the “top-end” of the Shonan Monorail, a suspended monorail train line that was built in 1970, running about 4 miles from Ofuna Station to Enoshima Station. It’s pretty neat, for nearly all of the line the train cars hang from overhead rails, all but one of the stations is also high in the air. It can be a bit unnerving to watch the train travel, especially from inside watching as a station in the air comes into view, with people on the platform, or when leaving the station, watching the platform fall away beneath you!

The Monorail ends at the seaside town of Enoshima, which is on the Shonan Coast, along the Pacific Ocean. It’s been a getaway spot for tourists in Japan for centuries, and shares a lot in common with other beach towns around the world. The town of Enoshima is the hub of an older train line, the Enoshima Densha, which everyone calls the “Enoden”. The train line runs from Kamakura in the east to Fujisawa in the west, and it’s been running since the early 1900’s. The train cars are still in use, many of them, and they are definitely unique.

Without a doubt, seeing amazing things is the real reason to go to a tourist town, and coming out of the Monorail station at Enoshima I was happily surprised that I got to finally see Mount Fuji! I have been waiting almost 18 years to see it, and at last, there it was! There was a photo observation deck at the top of the station and I managed to get plenty of good photos! If I don’t manage to see much more of Japan (more on that in another post) at least I could check that off my bucket list!

The Enoshima Enoden station is just down the hill from the Monorail station, so on my way to the island I walked past it, hoping to see if the little sparrows were still there from when I last saw them, and they were! Two of the guard rails have 4 little steel sparrows on them, and the locals dress them in hand-knitted warm clothes!

Speaking of birds, the birds in the Shonan Beach area including Enoshima are fierce! There are wild hawks, kites and other predators that have decided it’s easier to attack the big humans and take their food, than it is to hunt! All over the island and beach area are signs saying “be careful” and “don’t carry food in your hand and eat outdoors”, they really will swoop down and grab food out of your hand! I’ve seen hawks in flocks circling overhead at the restaurant section near the bridge to the mainland, just waiting for their chance! I think the hawks also catch and eat their competitors, or at least chase them away, I didn’t see many pigeons or seagulls around Enoshima.

I was lucky enough to go during a work week, and didn’t have to fight the crowds. Also, the island of Enoshima is loaded with shrines to various gods and dragons are a big part of the history. As expected there were many places where cherry blossoms and other flowers were blooming.

At the top of the island there were the ruins of a huge garden planted and owned by an Englishman named Samuel Cocking, who built it during the Meiji era. The garden itself is still there, carefully maintained, but there are only foundations left of the original buildings.

It’s kind of neat that the city of Fujisawa, which basically runs the town on Enoshima, made a point to become “sister cities” with other towns around the world, including Miami Beach, Florida and Windsor Ontario Canada.

The biggest attraction other than the shrines is the “Sea Candle”, a large observation tower at the peak of the island. Unfortunately for you all, I wasn’t brave enough to go up in it to take photos, I still have a problem with heights, but it’s presence is unavoidable, and apparently at night on special occasions they light up the tower.

The main attraction for the Shonan area surrounding the island is the Shonan Beach, which stretches on both sides of the bridge leading to Enoshima. The water often becomes excited enough that the waves draw surfers, and many people like to enjoy wind surfing as well. The beaches are beautiful and clean, and very popular during the main season.

Well, that’s all I’m going to show for now, I’ll post a part 2 sometime in the next few days! Here are a few more flowers from this first part!

Yoyogi Park, Gardens next to Meiji Jingu

After finishing up wandering around the grounds of the Meiji Jingu Shrine, and as the sun was heading down the sky, I figured it was about time to check out Yoyogi Park, literally right next to the shrine. The entrance to Yoyogi is a large plaza, with abstract art embedded in the stones of the plaza. I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be, but they are interesting.

Yoyogi Park has a large garden area, with plenty of paths to wander through them. There is also a large pond with fountains that are lit with various colors in the evening, but these were being renovated when I was there, and they won’t be done until after I leave. I was disappointed and looking forward to seeing them! But, the flower gardens didn’t disappoint, they were amazingly varied and almost all in bloom. Apparently they won an award as well!

As I walked on the paths I ended up towards the back of the park, where I found all of the cherry trees, which were in still full bloom. There were of course a whole lot of people there, also enjoying the blossoms and having fun in groups of families, school classes and office staffs. There were quite a few foreign tourists as well, but thankfully it wasn’t crowded, and we all could enjoy the beauty.

So, it was the end of a long day, not as long as others, but I got back to my apartment nicely tired. I didn’t do anything special the next day since it was raining, but the Tuesday the 9th was forecast to be nice, so I determined to go somewhere that I had a chance to see Mount Fuji!

Meiji Jingu Shrine, dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and his wife

So, I haven’t posted as often and as much as I should have, so now while I’m recovering from my “ouchie”, I’ll pass along some of the things I did a couple of weeks ago.

Back on April 7 I decided to head down to the Harajuku area, which is close to the Meiji Jingu Shrine, dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and his wife the Empress. The Emperor was restored to the throne in 1868 when the last of the Shoguns was overthrown, and he was the driving force behind modernization of Japan to 19th Century Western standards, in industry, technology, science and politics. The movie “The Last Samurai” was set in the early Meiji Era, heavily fictionized of course, but many aspects were based on actual historical events, like the last of the samurai who wanted to maintain the traditions of the feudal era, some of which conflicted with the Emperor’s modernization effort. Emperor Meiji is revered to this day for laying the groundwork for the modern Japan.

The entrance to the shrine is a very large torii gate, since the shrine was basically a place to worship the spirits of the late Emperor and Empress. It’s really nice, going in there’s a long path through the trees, which looks like a small forest, you can hardly tell that you’re in the heart of the biggest city on Earth. There are a couple of interesting things, there’s a huge collection of sake barrels, each wrapped in straw and marked with the brewer’s names and family crests. There’s also a huge rack of barrels of burgundy from France, which are being aged and consecrated on the shrine grounds.

To get to the actual shrine, you pass under a really huge torii gate, one of the largest, and it’s amazing that it’s made of wood from 1500 year-old trees.

The main shrine grounds are very neat, and inside there are a few sacred camphor trees. One pair of trees is tied together, and represents a married couple, supposedly to help bless the couple. There’s also a tree around which prayer tablets can be hung, and selling blank tablets and good fortunes are how the shrine can make money to keep the shrine going, as well as to feed and house the shrine staff.

Moving out from the shrine proper, I followed various paths around the rest of the grounds, where I saw various lawn areas and a huge flower garden. Unfortunately not all the various kinds of flowers were blooming, yet, although they may be by the time I leave. I may go back here, if I get the chance. There were a couple of cherry trees still in bloom, and other bushes I couldn’t identify.

As the sun was getting ready to set, the skies cleared up and I took more pictures on my way back to the entrance. The lanterns were being lit, as some parts of the grounds were getting dark. From here, though, I left the grounds and made my way literally next door, to the entrance of Yoyogi Park, which is where I got to see a lot more flowers, including a lot more cherry blossoms.

But that will wait for the next post!

Monzennakacho blossoms (in daytime, for a change!)

After I left the Koishikawa Botanical Garden I decided to just go back to my apartment in Monzennakacho, since walking around and up and down hills basically wore me out. I managed to walk almost 6 miles though!

On my way I decided to stop by the canal downtown, where I have previously gotten pictures at night, illuminated by the lanterns, but I figured there might be something happening with the advertized festival. I wasn’t disappointed, although there wasn’t much going on, I did get to see a few neat things, including the blossoms at almost full bloom, in the daytime!

Even though there wasn’t much at the street level, there were lots of people walking on the paths along the river, and plenty of tourist boats cruising up and down. Some of them were heading out into the Sumida River through the flood gates to join other sightseeing boats, to continue cruising up towards the blossoms in the Sumida Park.

Monzennakacho area of the Koto City portion of Tokyo has a long history of supporting the shipping of goods from Tokyo Bay, which the Sumida flows into, and into Tokyo proper, and as a result, there are lots of canals and modified rivers in this area. There is also a long history of reclaiming land from the Bay, going back to the Shogunate days, when Tokyo was called “Edo”. There are still things in Monzennakacho that remain from those days, or are reflected in modern things styled like the old things. One thing that was a huge problem in the early days was fire, since almost all buildings were made from wood, bamboo, and paper. Fire control was a big part of cities, and fire towers were built in fire station regions, to watch for unexpected smoke rising above roofs, or flames spreading. There were symbols for each fire control region, and even now those symbols are fixed to the tops of streetlights, so people can recognize what fire station’s region they’re in. These all survived the firebombing of Tokyo, or were rebuilt afterwards.

Since boats were so important to Monzennakacho, the town maintains things to remind people of that, some of the tourist boats still follow the same design as the boats used to transport goods and people through town, propelled by one man on a rudder, and on this bridge, they made concrete flower planters in the same shape!

I guess these little touches of history, along with the ease of getting around in the area, makes Monzennakacho the place I always liked to stay when I came to Japan! Oh, and here are a few more blossoms!

Koishikawa Botanical Garden, a much larger and nicer blossom site

Well, April 5 turned out to be even nicer than the 4th, and during the evening of the 4th, once I got back to my apartment I decided to look for some other site to scout for cherry blossoms. I got lucky and browsed around, until I saw an article on the Koishikawa Botanical Garden, which was recommended as a very nice place to see cherry blossoms, as well as lots of other springtime flowers, away from most of the foreign tourists.

That’s not to say it was empty, there were lots of locals, families enjoying picnics and kids playing and all enjoying the beautiful weather.

The grounds of the park are huge, and there are lots of places with steep climbs, lots of paths deep in the trees, and it was a bit tricky to climb in some places. But, getting to see all the different types of flowers was worth the cost in energy!

There are historical aspects to the park, as well, as it was one of the first established medical schools in Japan. In honor of the original purpose there is a section where they still grow all the medicinal herbs that were used during the Shogunate, and parts of the original hospital are still there.

So, it was enjoyable, walking around and seeing all the beatiful trees and flowers, but I dreaded the return to the station, because even though it was a long hill to walk down to the park, walking back up after all the walking I did in the park with its own hills, was, well, not so much fun! I made it though, and on my way back to the apartment I stopped to see if the local Monzennakacho festival was going on, and it was! But that’s for another post, meanwhile, more blossoms!

First blossom day, part 2: Shinjuku Chuo Park

So, after leaving Sumida Park, I took the train to Shinjuku, about 30 minutes away. I put “Shinjuku Park” in the train schedule app, which gave me directions to what I thought was the main cherry blossom park in Shinjuku. When I got there, I was a bit underwhelmed by the park. It turns out there was a good reason for that, I had put in the wrong destination, I should have put in Shinjuku Gyoen Botanical Park, which is much larger and more impressive! (I’ll go there some other time, but it won’t be quite the same!) In the words of Jack Reacher, “Details matter!”

So, I didn’t see quite as much at the park as I wanted, but I did get some nice shots of things in the park near sunset. The park is basically in the middle of official buildings, like the Tokyo Municipal Government building, a very impressive building that has free observation decks (which I hope to get to while I’m here).

Tokyo also has some unique architecture, like this building, nicknamed the “Cocoon Building”.

So, after I entered the park, I noticed that there were some trees around the central lawn, and some people taking advantage of the day to get some late-afternoon “hanami” in. There weren’t that many people, but there were some families and some school kids there, and the setting sun did make for some interesting shots.

There was also a local shrine, which had some nice trees on their grounds.

All in all, it was a nice wrap-up of a very nice day, one of the first on my trip so far! 

The next day, Saturday the 5th, I went to a much larger and nicer park,
the Koishikawa Botanical Garden, but that’s for another post, soon!

My first blossom day, part 1: Sumida Park

Well, Friday the 4th finally cleared up, weather-wise, and I got to go where I failed to get to on Thursday, which is just as well, given how much nicer the wather was on Friday! I’m breaking this day’s report in two parts, because I got so many great shots of blossoms in Sumida Park and Shinjuku Park, that I don’t want to make a boringly large single post!

I’ll start with Sumida Park, at the beginning of the day. I made it up to Oshiage, which is a part of town at the foot of the Tokyo Sky Tree Tower, which is so huge that pictures can’t do it justice! It’s over 640 meters tall which works out to just over 2080 feet! I didn’t go up to the observation decks on this day, that will be for another day, today was for cherry blossoms!

After a short quarter-mile walk towards the river, I reached Sumida Park, which basically has two spaces, a small plaza-like park, where lots of people were enjoying their “hanami”, a couple of shrines, and a long narrow walkway park on both sides of the Sumida River, each side stretching for about a kilometer, 0.6 miles.

I ended up walking the whole way on both sides, as well as a short time in the plaza part. The walkway is where there were all kinds of booths, selling different kinds of food and drinks, and I got to see the tourboats cruising the river, full of tourists looking at the blossoms on both sides.

The cherry trees weren’t the only things blooming, of course, there were flower beds all along the river, with all kinds of flowers all blooming at once. It was also kind of neat interacting with the birds, I’ve noticed that the birds are practically tame, they will let you come within a couple of feet of them, and they don’t usually fly away, they kind of walk away, looking at you, as if to say “what, no food? What good are you? I’m outta here!”

So, I ended up going over one of the bridges to Asakusa, to catch a train to Shinjuku Park, another well-known park with lots of cherry trees. But that’s for the next post!

Finally! Fuji!

Just a quick post, I checked another item off my bucket list! For almost 18 years, 6 trips, many delays and much bad weather, I have been trying to see Mount Fuji, and finally got to see it, snow-capped and amazing, along with cherry blossoms!

I have been checking the weather for the Shizuoka area, around Mount Fuji, and the weather for Wednesday said there was a 1% chance of cloud cover, so I made my plans to leave early Wednesday morning. The plan was to get to Enoshima, to the south of Tokyo with a famous view of Fuji from the east, get there with the morning sun shining full on, and hopefully finally see the mountain. And I made it! I rode trains to Ofuna, got on the Shonan Monorail, and when I got to Enoshima station there was an observation deck with a view towards Fuji, and there it was! It was kind of hazy, and a bit hard to see, but it was unmistakable!

Now, I can finally get on with the rest of the trip, at peace!