Sunset, Sea and Spa

Last Wednesday was the Vernal Equinox, otherwise known as 'day off school', so I decided to head off to the end of one of the train lines that runs near to the flat. For the princely sum of about 3 quid I got to travel in comfort all the way to the mainland side of the bridge to Enoshima, a small island to the South-West of Tokyo, near Kamakura.

Photos are here. The island was mainly sold to an English merchant in the 19th Century when Emperor Meiji was on his drive to promote state Shinto in favour of Buddhism. Nothing remains of his house, although there's an excavation of the 'interesting under-floor heating system', as well as a garden with various areas dedicated to twinning with such glorious locations as Kunming and Miami (well, Fujisawa is apparently the 'Miami Beach of the East').

The particularly Japanese crowning glory of the island is the observation tower / lighthouse. It towers (obviously) over everything else, and while the view from the top is certainly pretty spectacular, I can't help being rather worried by my seemingly Japanese acceptance of this particular piece of scenery-destruction.

The brand new spa on the island was surprisingly cheap and luxurious, and boasted the nicest public bath facilities I've been in since I got here, as well as two floors of in- and outdoor pools with great views over the sea. And even a light show, which was much better than it sounds.

All in all, not a bad Wednesday afternoon. Downsides: Thursday felt like Monday, and a two-day week isn't really enough to build up any desire to punish self with kanji. Next week is Spring Holiday (finally - I've gone from 24 to 44 weeks of term), I promise to do something interesting...