Enoshima - the Dragon Peninsula

Enoshima is located between Hakone and Tokyo, about an hour and a half away from Hakone. The area is known for its beaches and will host the 2020 Olympic Games for surfers and sailors.

I actually thought that I could walk around relatively alone because of the rain. But I was wrong: it is currently the O-Bon week. Many companies are closed and many Japanese people naturally take vacation during this time. At least I don't have to look at the map, just follow the crowd :)

The peninsula is very beautiful. There is delicious food - specialties include mini sardines (~2cm, they just taste salty) and pressed octopuses, shrimps or mussels in a kind of edible paper. And then there are the caves: According to legend, there was a five-headed dragon here that terrorized the surrounding villages. Suddenly, a celestial woman appears, and the dragon falls in love with her. He proposes to her, and she agrees only if he leaves the villages in peace. Which, of course, he does :) It is believed that the woman was the local guardian deity Benten, to whom the shrine on Enoshima was dedicated. As far as I can remember, she disappeared into the sky after making the deal with the dragon :D However, the dragon apparently still left the villages in peace, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to walk around there ;) In one cave, there is a dragon figure. You make a wish and then clap your hands twice. If it lights up twice behind the dragon, your wish will be fulfilled (You just have to clap loud enough. Works every time :D)