5 December 2009

After my Japanese class I went to meet my companions for another overnight trip away. It was my fourth this year: Nick is very good to me as few mothers would get that many opportunities for a complete break. This was supposed to be under the auspices of a TMG event, but as I had only had one respondent, Kit, when I sent out the message I had thought I would have to call it off. However, Kit asked if she could invite some mums from her son's school and so in the end there were five of us. There was me plus one other Brit, a Canadian, a Japanese, and Kit is American, so a good mix of nationalities.

There was a bit of confusion about which train we should take (my fault as I had researched it all and made an itinerary, but got confused by all the lines from Shinagawa that run to Ofuna), but eventually we piled onto one and before long were at Ofuna, where we stopped off for a quick lunch before taking the suspended Shonan monorail for the short second leg to Enoshima, our destination. As we travelled the forecasted rain began, and by the time we disembarked we needed to deploy umbrellas. We quickly walked across the long bridge onto the island, with our windward legs drenched by horizontal rain. Dumping our bags at the ryokan we then went to explore the souvenir shops along the island's only street. Some of the tat was acceptable though most very poor and overpriced. We carried on up the steps to look around the shrines that dot the hillside

then realised that if we wanted to see the caves over at the other side of the island we had better leg it as they were due to close soon. Luckily we just made it for last admission time and wandered around there for half an hour, having a good look at the stone-carved gods and enjoying the special festive display at the end of the second cave.

Now it was getting dark, so we went straight back to the sanctuary of the ryokan to strip off our wet clothes and settle in for the evening in our yukata. Dinner was served in our room on the low table; there was far too much for us to finish, and it was of a decent quality too. We all baulked at the creature in a shell except Carol, the Canadian, who gamely tried a nibble of the bitter and grotesque thing. Having tried something similar last year, I felt that I had earned my stripes and could be excused.

After our meal we trooped off to try the communal cave bath, which would have been better if there had been a ledge to sit on and maybe something to look at other than an empty fish tank! Our futons had been put out while we were bathing but we sat up for a couple of hours chatting, and drinking and snacking. It was too hot in the room for me, and when I poked my head out of the window to freshen up and see what the weather was doing now, I did see some stars twinkling through light cloud, but was also entranced by the beam from the lighthouse, which looked almost solid in the moist air as it swept round, cutting a swathe through the deep-blue night. The accompanying sound of gentle waves was very relaxing too. One by one we snuggled under our quilts and dropped off to sleep, despite the rock-hard pillows we had been given.