Enoshima Island

           This weekend we decided to get out and do some more kid-friendly trips for Benjamin. It seems like he has been pretty bored without any school, or kids he can play with besides when we're at the playground. We really wanted to go hiking in the mountains for the day, but I knew that wouldn't be fun for Ben, nor would he be able to do the hike without being carried. So fun day trips that included the nearest zoo and aquarium are what we did.
          On Saturday we took the train about 30 minutes Southeast to Enoshima. Typically we stop at a mini mart on the way to the train to grab a coffee and on the go breakfast to eat somewhere. We grabbed some portable lattes, a juice box, some rice balls (small triangular shaped rice with various flavors, like seaweed or fried rice...etc) and a small cream filled chiffon cake....i know chiffon cake in the morning?... but Marcus has it bad for these things, I usually just have a bit of his. We ate the rice balls as they are small and quick to eat while waiting at the train station, but as it's customary to not eat or drink on the train we saved the rest of  breakfast for our destination. When we arrived at the Katase-Enoshima train station we walked out and found our way towards our destination, the Aquarium. After about a five minute walk, we found the aquarium alongside the beach. We found a spot to sit along the shore and have our coffee and cake while watching the surfers do their excercises.

Views from where we sat. Enoshima Island is in the background.

So many surfers, and absolutely no waves.

        As I was taking these pictures and messing with the new camera, which I'm still really trying to figure out, Marcus opened his cake and took a bite. I noticed it had a pink filling and asked him what flavor it was. As he was trying to figure it out, he went to take another bite. I was looking at the camera when I heard a series of swooping noises, then I saw a mass of brown fly out in front of us...fast. Then I heard him yell out something like "What the F*&% just happened!?"  I don't know if that was the exact, but I'm sure it included an explicitive word of sorts. I immediately realized that a large bird of prey (actually called a Black kite ) we had previously been admiring atop a light pole had just taken half of the cake out of his hand...with his or her beak. Camera in hand, I instantly decided to start snapping photos as the bird looped back around to scope us out again. As I'm still clumsy with my camera, I was so lucky to get this shot.

You can actually see cream filling on it's beak!

       As I was assessing what had happened I just heard Marcus dramatically saying over and over, "I felt it's talon ON my finger!"  I couldn't do anything but burst out laughing. We were so caught off guard  by "the attack", so we just laughed for a good while. Mostly I was laughing at Marcus's reaction and his decision that it was "THE COOLEST thing that has ever happened to me!"... It was crazy and hilarious. He decided to throw the rest of his breakfast away and we quickly wrapped up our idea of sitting on the beachside for a bit and decided to head straight to the Aquarium. As we rounded the corner of the building, I saw this:

It's really too bad we're functionally illiterate, but I'm pretty sure that I now know approximately what this sign says..we just learned the hard way.

Japan lesson of the day: When eating at the sea side, keep your eyes on the skies!  There are no seagulls here, as we learned when we saw them in the zoo (which was weird). Sure back in the states, seagulls are kind of annoying; they pester you by hanging around hoping you'll drop a piece of food or kindly todd them a scrap. But seagulls are pretty much innocent bystanders, they don't have the proverbial kahones (or guts if you like) of a raptor. Raptors are designed to kill, they will use their amazing vision to swoop in and take the food right out of your hand. I saw this happen to a little kid back in Kamakura, but didn't really think too much of it. Now I know...now I know.

Overall the Aquarium was pretty great. We saw a ton of sea creatures we had never seen before, like this guy:

**Dork rant warning** I just had a few issues with the Aquarium, the signs inside were all in Japanese, except for the latin names of the species, which is understandable but just a bit frustrating for geeks like me who prefer to learn something about what I'm looking at. I suppose I could've looked up every species I was curious about online by their scientific name, but I  don't have that kind of time. My other beef, was the small size of the cetacean tanks. The beak-nosed dolphins barely had enough space to turn around, and for two dolpins was just terrible. I'm still hoping there was another section of tank that was hidden from vistors or something. Also the show tank held 5 Bottlenose dolphins (which are massive animals averaging at 2.5 meters long and around 500 lbs. ), and an even larger False Killer whale. Flat-out there was just not enough space for these incredibly beautiful and intelligent animals.** End rant.

mmm... how about a crunchy snack from the gift shop?

    After the Aquarium we headed over towards the popular Enoshima Island. Just a short walk over a few bridges you can arrive at the main street through the Island, or you can hop a small ferry that takes you to the back of the Island for just 400 yen, which is what we did.

After a 10 minute ride, you arrive at the ferry "dock".

You arrive to an area of rocky shore full of people picniking, fishing, and exploring sea life in the cracks.

     After we explored this area, we headed up the stairs...there were a LOT of stairs...to the main part of the Island. As you go up there are restaurants, gift shops, shrines, caves and all sorts of fun things to explore. We just walked through everything pretty quickly, just stopped for a few snacks and to buys a few souvenirs. Here are a few of the pictures we took along the way:

Iwaya Caves

Snakc time...grilled octopus and corn... the corn was pre-frozen, nuff said.

no idea who this god is...but I wouldn't mess with him.

Going down the stairs...towards front of Island.

View of the harbor side from the top of the Island.

Petting turtles at the pond. Animals seem to be so tame everywhere you go in Japan, except the birds.

While sitting on a bench resting and having an ice cream cone, the kites strted to circle us again...there was a sign that looked like it said they like ice cream cones. Apparently these birds have acquired quite the taste for sweets...

      

err...I do not like seeing captive primates like this...he was a gorgeous monkey though, very healthy.

To wash your hands before prayer, or entering temple.

An artist, making a sketch from a bridge.

So fresh...

        
       Overall, we had a great time. This was a really fun day trip. There were a ton of people as it was the start of Golden Week, a week when all Japanese are off and take trips to visit family or vacation. It's not really a recommended time to go sightseeing, as we learned the next day at the Zoo, but it's all about the experience. It's nice to have fun places like this so close to home!