Enoshima Island

Three weeks ago, the weather a balmy 20 degrees, we made the most of our long weekend with a day trip to Enoshima (江の島). Sitting in Sagami Bay, the island has a 4km circumference and is joined to land by a 600 meter-long bridge. Less than an hour away by train, stepping out of the station into the dazzling sunshine shimmering off the ocean was like stepping out into paradise. A marathon was taking place that day, and the pier was crammed with people.

It is said that Benzaiten (goddess of music and entertainment) caused the island to rise from the bottom of the sea in sixth century. The goddess is enshrined on Enoshima, which is dedicated to her in its entirety. On entry to the island, you are faced with a narrow slope, flanked on either side by shops selling snacks and bits of tourist tat. At the top of the street, down a sharp turn to the left, we found a little ceramics shop selling beautiful chinaware and gifts. In baskets outside, they had small items for as little as 100 Yen apiece, such as dishes painted with animated coy carp, and chopstick rests in a variety of designs.

We bought an all-inclusive ticket for the island for 1,000 Yen, which gave us entry to all the tourist spots as well as free use of the escalators. For a small island, it was quite steep around the middle and the escalators were very useful in getting from one level to the next. The first level boasted a very pretty little shrine, where people were lining up to pay their respects. A dainty, picturesque pond greeted us as we got off the escalator, and we watched people fill the little pond-side baskets with coins which they then washed in the clear water. People were taking coins and trying to throw them into a box at the foot of a carved dragon – the flings that failed glinting in the water.

The next level up gave us wonderful views across the bay, and we spent ages trying to take the perfect photograph of magnificent eagles that were slowly circling in the treetops overhead. At the top of the island, our ticket gave us entry to the Samuel Cocking Park. The British merchant (who arrived in Sagami Bay by accident when a terrible typhoon almost shipwrecked him there) bought the land in 1880, and developed an extensive botanical garden (10,000 square meters) and greenhouse –the biggest in Japan at the time. After Samuel Cocking died in 1914, the botanical garden went to ruin, and the greenhouse was destroyed in the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. In 2002, during reconstruction work on Enoshima, the brick foundation and other parts were discovered. In April 2003, a restored greenhouse was opened as part of the new garden, and the garden now has over 500,000 visitors per year.

Within the Samuel Cocking Park is the Enoshima Tower. Known as the ‘Enoshima Sea Candle’, it was built in 2003 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Enoshima Electric Railway. With a height of 40 meters, the observation tower is 119.6m above sea level and offers panoramic views both out to sea and of Sagami bay. On a clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji in the distance.

Also included with our ticket was entrance to the Iwaya caves. These ancient caves on the west side of the island are well-known. The first record of the Iwaya in a historical document was in 552 AD. In the time of Emperor Kinmei, a shrine was built in the caves and they became a popular place for worship for hundreds of years. However, in 1971 there was an accident caused by falling rocks which resulted in the caves being closed for more than 20 years. The caves were known as a scary, forbidden place, and while adventurous youngsters would scramble to the mouth of the caves, none were brave enough to enter. In 1993 the caves were repaired and are now one of the most visited parts of the island. Sightseers are given candles to guide them in the gloomy grottos, making the whole place feel very atmospheric with candle light glinting off the pools of water. Legend has it that, within the cave, there is a secret passageway that links all the way to Mt. Fuji. There is also a legend about a heavenly maiden and a dragon with five heads. The dragon is said to have tormented the villagers, who wished for someone to stop the beast’s evildoing. One day there was a fierce earthquake, and when it stopped, a heavenly maiden appeared. The dragon was so taken with her that he asked for her hand in marriage, but the maiden was not impressed with the dragon’s evil deeds. So, in order to gain his desired bride, the dragon ceased his wickedness to marry her.

On our way back down the hill we stopped off at the ‘Shonan Burger’ joint, where you can get a burger stuffed with Shirasu – dried baby anchovies. The burger patty is called satsuma-age – it’s made of fish that is pressed into a chewy fishcake, with the consistency of tofu. While it wasn’t the most delicious of snacks, it was certainly a local experience, and probably healthier than a burger from KFC!

That concludes our trip to Enoshima Island. What a lovely surprise that day was – not least of all for the marvellous weather. Particularly with living in a big city, what I like best on the weekend is finding a place where I really feel as if I’m apart from my daily routines, and if that can be done on a sun-kissed island, all the better.

Imperial Palace Garden and the Yasukuni Shrine

Kon'nichiwa from me with more belated blogs. Just a short one here – two little visits, each with not much to say about them. A few weeks ago we went to Higashi Gyoen – the East garden of the Imperial Palace. From the Otemachi subway station we went through the Ote-mon gate into the garden – entrance free. Parks and gardens in Japan are, on the whole, nothing to write home about. From my experience so far, at least. One of the first parks we went to, much to my disappointment, didn’t have any benches at all. This one, however, was fairly nice – there was green space where people were sitting and having picnics, surrounded by flowers in bloom. The mosaic-clad Imperial Music Hall was probably the prettiest thing we saw there. But apart from that… not much. So yeah, nothing too impressive but it was relaxing to sit in the sunshine for a bit and enjoy the relative quiet in the middle of the city.

On leaving the garden, we went to the nearby Yasukuni Shrine. The road leading up to the majestic archway was a long, straight line that was flanked with car-boot stalls. I believe this is something that happens every Saturday – people come to flog their bits and bobs along this road. It was funny to see all these people, some of whom were just selling bits of old junk, on this impressive walkway to the temple. The torri (shrine archway) is of a vibrant red steel, and said to be the tallest in Japan. The shrine was founded in 1869 to worship the supporters of the emperor who were killed prior to the Meiji Restoration. These days the Yasukini-jinja includes the worship of all who died in the wars that followed. It’s said that the parting words of the kamikaze pilots were “see you at Yasukini.”

The shrine was pretty, and despite having eight million Japanese visitors a year, it wasn’t too busy when we visited. Around the back of the Yushukan (military museum) that stands next to the shrine was a lovely little garden, as well as a display of kiku flowers. It was a pleasant little outing, though I now look back on the shrine in a less impressive light in the knowledge that it was also visited by the ‘oh-so-talented’ Justin Bieber, which caused much controversy at the time.

So that was our day trip in the Imperial Palace area. It being a long weekend we’ve just had a little weekend trip out of the city, plenty more to write about, so hopefully I’ll be catching up on my blogs tomorrow! Until then, sayonara.

Kiku Matsuri – Japanese Chrysanthemum Flower Festival

Ohayō Gozaimasu from me in chilly Tokyo – the temperature has dropped about 10 degrees in the last few weeks, and it won’t be long before my coat and scarf are accompanied by gloves and wooly hat!

Just a short post about the Kiku Matsuri (the Japanese Chrysanthemum Flower Festival). All over the place we were seeing stalls of these amazing flowers and wondered what they were in aid of. We first saw them at a temple near the Imperial Palace gardens, then again outside a local government building. There were some halfway up the hill on Enoshima island, and this weekend we saw more at temples in the Kamakura area. After this floral abundance, I did some research into the flowers, spurred on by the vast knowledge of the old man I met at one of the stalls.

The kiku was brought to Japan from China, and over hundreds of years it has been improved upon and developed by dedicated gardeners. The flower became very popular, particularly with the Japanese royal family who incorporated the chrysanthemum into their family crest. You can see this ‘mon’ decorating the doors of temples all over the city, and it always reminds me of the Chinese film Curse of the Golden Flower where the Empress embroiders a golden chrysanthemum onto thousands of scarves as gifts for the soldiers who, with her son, lead a rebellion against her evil husband. (It’s an excellent film - if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it!)

The Kiku Matsuri usually happens around mid-November, though we’ve been seeing examples of local competitions for weeks. There are many different varieties of the Kiku, and for the competition, each type must be grown in a certain way and to a strict specification. The most popular type of Kiku we saw was the atsumono type, which has a single flower at the end of each stem. This is produced by ‘disbudding’ and removing all other flower buds as it grows, so that on stem may produce only one flower. In the competition, the atsumono type is presented as a trio, with each flower at exactly the same height as its companions. At the base, it looked as if the three stems had sprung from one origin, but on reflection I concluded that the three stems had probably grown separately and later been bound together for a more appealing base. The head of the flower is large, spanning up to 20cm across. The three flowers are said to act as a balance to each other, and according the Chinese belief, each has a different meaning - heaven, earth, and human. All the elements are important and must be equal, which is why the kiku is grown so the flowers are all of the same height. At the display near my local government building, I met a volunteer who was watching over the flowers who told me much information about them. I can’t quite remember the exact height, but I think he said that for the atsumono kiku, entries must be between 100 and 120 cm tall.

He was such a lovely gentleman, speaking excellent English and being very knowledgeable on his subject. At 71 years old, he told me that he now devotes much of his time to growing the beautiful flowers – but it’s no walk in the park. He claimed that “Raising a beautiful kiku is more difficult than raising my children! When your child is hungry, they ask for food. Or when they are thirsty, they ask for water. But with a kiku, they cannot tell you what they want, so you have to guess, and know what they will need!” He showed us the winning entry of that kiku matsuri – a stunning atsumono variety, its petals thick and dense, a perfect snowy white.

My favourite variety is the kudamono kiku, which is known in the west as the ‘spider chrysanthemum’. The petals of this type are long and thin, with shorter petals and the top that increase in length as they get nearer the stem, fanning out like a lions mane. Smaller than the atsumono variety, they span 15cm across the head. I particularly liked the multi-coloured ones, with colours bleeding into each other from the centre outwards. (Photo below)

The cascading style kiku were also stunning, particularly the kengaizukuri, meaning ‘overhanging cliff form’. According to a helpful article I found: In this case a single plant is trained onto a flat, slightly arching bamboo lattice structure varying in size, but typically two meter long, pointed at one end and swelling to a meter across at the centre. The entire lattice is positioned so that it dips on the pointed end, creating the cascading effect. I also saw many examples of the bonsai forms, which were very cute and had obviously had a lot of hard work put into them.

While my knowledge of flowers is pretty limited, I found the kiku a wonderful research subject and, of course, a visual joy. As we are slap bang in the middle of November, I’m looking forward to seeing more of the lovely Japanese chrysanthemums on my travels around Tokyo. If you want to learn more about the Kiku きく, visit this website that explains pretty much everything you could want to know about them: http://botanyboy.org/a-japanese-chyrsanthemum-flower-festival-kiku-matsuri/
Sayonara for now!