July 2 - I first visited Enoshima 36 years ago as a young high school student with my Japanese host family. One warm summer day after a nice boat ride, we enjoyed landing on the island to eat lunch and visit the temples and shrines. At the time to a sixteen year-old boy, Enoshima seemed like an extremely exotic place. I can still recall vividly the shouts of the shopkeepers on the small street leading up to the shrine, the smell of roasting sea snails and the strange appearance of whitebait rice. I had never imagined that humans would eat such tiny fish!

Recently Ann and I returned to Enoshima for a day of sightseeing. We enjoyed watching a young boy who was not much younger than I had been on my first Enoshima visit playing in the surf. Many windsurfers were crossing back and forth at great speed in the gusting winds. As we crossed the long causeway to the island, we saw a couple holding hands and we smiled at each other because they were clearly in love. We stopped for a long break on a terrace that overlooked the ocean and listened to the sound of the waves. Nearby an artist was painting that bucolic scene. Later when we stopped for some frozen yogurt, we enjoyed watching a grandmother sharing her treat with her grandson.

On my first visit to Enoshima I had focused on the many differences between Enoshima and my hometown of San Diego. This time, however, my wife and I enjoyed observing many similarities. The young people enjoying water sports, the artist painting a beautiful seascape, the lovers walking hand in hand, and the doting grandmother all would have fit in very well at the seashore of my hometown in the United States. We commented on how our similarities can help us build bridges so that we can understand and appreciate our differences.

Until next time,

Jim