Last day - best time for a relax!

So this morning it was grizzly and grey - yuck!  Our plan was to go to Enoshima which is near Kamakura and famous for its seaside resort.  Our initial plan was to have a day out on the beach there, but the weather put paid to that, so after some more research we discovered there was an onsen there and an aquarium, so we carried on with our plans and hopped on the train to Ofuna carrying swimming costumes and umbrellas.


From Ofuna we got the Shonan Monorail to Enoshima.  This was the first monorail in the country and not only that a hanging monorail, the only one in the country.  How cool was that?  Tom thought it was pretty good.

We got to Enoshima just in time for lunch and popped into a local Chinese restaurant.  A Japanese version of a Chinese restaurant is something very very very different to a British Chinese restaurant.  In fact I can't think of one thing that looked familiar to home.  I had a big bowl of noodles in soup with bits and bobs on and Matt fried rice.  Tom had a bit of both and of course we had to have some gyoza!

Hanging monorail

And again

Feeling fortified we headed towards the road and pedestrian bridge that links Enoshima island to the mainland.  Now if it had a been a nice day we would have walked around the island, taken in the gardens, shrines etc and ended up on the observatory at the top.  However, it wasn't so we headed for the onsen.

This was even posher than the other two.  It was mainly mixed bathing meaning that for once we had to wear swimsuits (very strange!).  Now an onsen is supposed to be a relaxing place, and this place advertises itself in English to attract tourists, but I got hugely stressed out to start with.  First of all Tom went to the toilet, did some big number 2's.  Could I find the flush?  Not a chance!  I tried putting my hand in front of things, I pressed a big red button (always a risk that that could be an emergency button!), nothing.  I looked for knobs, I looked on the bidet button panel, but I couldn't find anything resembling a flush!  I couldn't leave it as it was.  In the end I had to find a well meaning person, drag them into the loo, do manic flushing waving symbols for them to understand my problem.  I chose the right lady, she laughed and then showed me a hidden button on the top of the bidet panel. The most unobvious flush I've ever seen.  So that was the first emergency.

Enoshima - must be lovely on a nice day!

Then the next question - do we wash ourselves before going to the pool?  Do we take our towels and robes to the poolside with us or leave them in the locker room?  No signs in English and I couldn't find any showers - very strange for an onsen.  We got dressed in our swim suits, grappled with the lockers (trying to work out how to close and lock them with a wristband).  We then got the elevator down to the poolside, taking our robes and towels with us.  There was a notice to take a shower before entering.  Great, so then we had to go back in the elevators to the locker room to get Tom's ear plugs, then back down again.  OK.  Now, how do I turn the showers on?  There was no obvious button, dial etc.  I tried walking in front of the them - nope!  Then I saw a big button with lots of notices in Japanese round it.  Once again: is it the emergency button or the button for the shower?  I got my courage together and pressed it.  Hurray water came out of the showers.  We were now ready to go to the poolside.  By this time of course Matt was wondering where on earth we were, not quite understanding the predicaments we were getting ourselves into!

And relax.  There were quite a few pools, some with bubbles, some without.  Some outside overlooking the sea, one even had a gym in it (underwater cycling, weightlifting etc).  I then noticed something saying 'To the Cave', so we got in an elevator which took us further down to a faux cave system full of more pools, bubbles sauna etc.  All good fun.  Tom enjoyed them too.

Matt had noticed that there was a segregated onsen upstairs, so we both decided to try that out.  Tom went with me.  We discovered the onsen proper - ie with showers, shampoo etc etc.  So we both had hair and body washes and then soaked in the onsen pool, before getting out to meet Matt back downstairs in the mixed bathing.  Meant putting a cold wet swimming suit back on - not much fun.  We had a couple more soaks and then put on our robes and had an alcohol free beer each (Tom had a calpiss) before another soak.  By now it was getting late so we headed back to the changing rooms, got dry and dressed.

Cheers!

We then headed back to Hamamatsu-Cho on the same trains, and headed to the chicken restaurant we went to last week for more very lovely food.  Then I brought a very tired Tom home whilst Matt went on the hunt for tomorrow's breakfast.  Then, final packing (will it all fit?), Miki came up with a lovely dessert to say thanks (mainly for putting up with the evil woman downstairs) and goodbye.  Baseball on the telly (as usual) and then bed.  It will be a mega long day tomorrow.