Enoshima (江の島), Kamakura (鎌倉) and Yokohama (横浜) attempt II

So, yesterday my feet saw a hill. And had to walk down it backwards. Today, my feet are seeking a restraining order. And while I was hoping the general mood would get better over the course of the day, it didn't. But that's okay, because they forecast even more rain today than yesterday. So, good day to kick back and relax, right? Why am I at the train station, looking at the intercity destinations?

After getting sufficiently bored with traditional loud rail, I got off somewhere with something a little more rare: a suspended monorail. Specifically, the Shonan Monorail (湘南モノレール). Fun fact, the German word for this type of train is 'Schwebebahn', literally translating to 'Levitating Train'. Which if you imagine the 'Magnet' in front of that word, it makes this train from 1970 seem pretty fancy. But this one actually rides on rubber tires hidden within the upper rail, which is then suspended one floor up. Presumably the ground floor was already spoken for. Even back in 1970.

Arriving in Enoshima I discovered three things. (1) there's very little shade that's not already spoken for; (2) while the temperature is lower than some previous days, it is still definitely too hot to be standing in the sun; and (3) this place is a tourist trap.

From the station, you kind of get funneled down a walkway with all kinds of tourist shops, but that wasn't actually so bad yet. You then arrive at a long concrete bridge with zero shade that you can cross to Enoshima Island (though there is the possibility for ¥400 to take a ferry that wasn't running today). And at the other end: well I never actually found out. I just saw the river of tourists and turned around.

One cute thing though: because Enoshima is an island that's out towards the ocean, you have waves coming around both sides of the island. Those waves seem to curve around the island, and then meet at a surprisingly consistent point, producing lots of white water splashing at a seemingly arbitrary point.

With little else keeping me here, I jumped onto yet another train. This one is far more traditional, though like the suspension train, this one is also pretty space constrained, and therefore only has one track most of the time.

And given how contrained they were with space, they also kind of just built the rail wherever there was space. Including, apparently, directly by the beach.

And tight between the buildings.

Arriving in Kamakura, I was again lost in terms of what I should be heading for. So I, again, simply latched onto what I seemed to see what other people were going for. From a distance, it looked like it might be a cute little garden with some bonsai trees. On arrival, I found yet another tourist trap. A river of tourist and tourist shops as far as the eye could see. So ... I may have decided that Kamakura also wasn't for me ...

Having somewhat failed at Yokohama yesterday, I had another attempt. And this time it actually was on the way back. Having done a little bit more research (most of it on the train home yesterday when I wanted to know what I could have done with more time), I figured out what station I actually want to arrive at, and what train takes me there.

And it paid of. The Ferris wheel as well as the Landmark Tower were both welcome sights. Though the Gonodola ride was new. And with the temperature finally having cooled off with the setting sun, it made a nice place to relax for a few hours. To the beautiful Japanese urban sounds of cars, trains, and people screaming their head off on the roller coaster.

I got back to Shinjuku around 23:00 and discoverd that it had rained while I was on the train. Good timing. But just because we were starting to border on midnight, didn't mean that I was done with my plans for the day. I went back to the hotel, grabbed my headphones (and left my camera), and headed for the music floor of Taito station.

Imagine walking into an arcade at near midnight to find that almost all the stations are still in use. 'Almost' was good enough for me though. Plugged in the headphones, and let myself get lost in the music for around half an hour. Using noise cancelling headphones makes it sooo much easier to play, given that all machines are usually cranked to 11 and you can't hear your neighbour screaming at you, nevermind the beat of whatever song you're trying to play to. Though where the noise cancelling fails a bit is when one of the other stations has a bit more of a subwoofer and you can feel it through your entire body without actually being able to hear it. A bit disconcerting.

P.S.: My feet show no forgiveness. Walking down the four flight of stairs from the music floor had me wincing at every step. I'm hoping that negotiations will be more friendly again in the morning.