Enoshima Aquarium and Beach

Today was an unmitigated success. It's hard to toe that line between enjoying all the new experiences that Japan has to offer and being overly ambitious with our plans with three kids in tow. Last night we made a plan: go to Enoshima, a city on the coast with an aquarium and a beach and just sort of see what it was like. It was an exploratory mission, mainly.

It began with a train ride, which Ivy loves without reservation. I also love the trains here. They are efficient, timely, and clean and you can get basically anywhere. It's a lovely system. I'm getting the hang of trains here, but I am so grateful that Luke speaks Japanese. It's so useful. And pretty attractive, too. ;)

It's been pretty rainy and overcast, so we didn't plan on a full fledged beach day. Just a nice walk at the beach where our sweet, obedient daughters merely dipped their toes in and then scurried back to the sand where they played without getting dirty.

So that's totally what happened. 

Yeah, Ivy totally did not play at the beach in her undies for hours. 

And June definitely didn't sport her soggy diaper, filled with sand. 

Yes. We are far too classy for such indignities. 

In reality, we realized that our plan just wasn't going to happen. Over four years of parenthood and we still make rookie mistakes all the time. But even with our lack of foresight, the girls had the best time. I found a shell that contained a real live hermit crab and Ivy cared for it tenderly for the duration of our visit. 

After they were all beached out, we got them dressed in whatever spare clothes we had in our backpack. So they looked a little mismatched and outlandish. In other words, they fit right in in this wonderful country. 

We all shared a fresh mango boba shake and some overpriced, under-portioned street food. 

We all loved the Enoshima Aquarium. We ended up getting season passes. 

Totally creepy.

There were so many beautiful things to see. I especially loved all the different species of jellyfish. 

And because I am awful, I took pictures of all the descriptions and their weirdly poetic translations. I'm guessing the tone of the original one was more lighthearted. Maybe?

These little guys are already strange enough without the commentary, thank you very much!

Delicious, amazing Hokkaido ice cream. It's like eating whipping cream with the creamy texture of frozen yogurt.

A super gross "fantasy drink" that I ordered because it looked so fun.

And delicious strawberry pan. 

NOT PICTURED: The leathery old man on the beach wearing a sumo-style "bathing suit." You can all thank me for that. 

All in all, so much fun. 10/10. Would recommend.