I think it’s safe to say that the worst of winter is gone and spring is breaking through in Japan. To celebrate this Yumi and I decided to hit up Enoshima. I haven’t been there since August during the Enoshima Hanabi.

The contrast between the two visits is huge. Day vs. Night. Being more proficient in the language vs. Not so much. Lots of photos vs. Mostly video. Not a huge amount of people vs. Half of Japan.

Hawks

Most beaches and beach towns have a Seagull problem. There are so many overfed from human trash they are everywhere. This was the first beach-town without a seagull problem I’ve seen. Instead of had more of a hawk problem.

While eating lunch – inside – and looking at the beach marveling at the beauty we saw somebody outside, holding a french fry. When suddenly a hawk dove down, scaring the people in the process to drop and get away from said french fry, so it could eat it. Pretty smart hawk if you ask me.

Bears While walking along a part of the beach before crossing over the Enoshima itself I could have sworn I saw bears. Three of them. Running around and some guy taking photos of them. Needless to say we had to go investigate these free running bears on the beach.

Upon closer inspection though they were but super-dogs who merely look like bears. As we walked closer the photographer and his bear-dogs were walking away. He was trying to get photos of them side by side. However from the angle of my photo, it looked like there was only one bear-dog. Curses!

Birds

We made it past the previous challenges of not getting attacked by hawks or eaten by bear-dogs. Upon arriving on the island we saw our next challenge: successfully complete the obstacle course up to the top of the island. The challenges though were in the form of mild stair usage and Japanese Culture knowledge.

For some reason, some old men – especially when in pairs – like to talk with foreigners a bit. Not that I mind, but it is kind of fun. When we were washing our hands one of the old men that was there said to me, “Excuse me, 日本文化” (Japanese Culture). I replied and “Indeed it is” then hurried off to what I thought was the top of the island. Upon arriving he talked to use again offer to take our photo. That was kind of him.

We walked a bit further and saw our first plum blossom of the year. They typically bloom a bit before the Sakura blossom, so this was a pleasant surprise. What made it even more pleasant was that I was able to get off a good shot even though (a different) old man was taking photos of it.

We reached the top of the mountain at a sort of lookout point. Looking over the ocean we saw this hawk. Flying like they do. Yumi sees the bird and says “Look, it’s not even flapping its wings”, to which I reply, “It doesn’t have to because the wing is strong enough it can glide”. Literally as soon as I finish saying that the couple next to us says the same exact thing, though in Japanese. Comedic timing just doesn’t get much better than that.