Shonan Monorail SMR05:Nishi-Kamakura & SMR04:Shonan-Fukasawa

The Shonan Monorail links Ofuna in the north of Kamakura to the little island of Enoshima. It opened in 1970 & was the first monorail of its kind in Japan. It’s a pretty fun way to cruise on down to Enoshima, and the stations along its route are the final components of my final daft list from Japan – for the forseeable future, at any rate.

Local Sights

Most of the sights around this way are the old City Hills and Sea staples – parks.

There’s a vast park, Hiromachi Ryokuchi (Hiromachi Green Space), to the south east of Nishi-Kamakura that you can wander through in the general direction of the ocean, ending up at previously mentioned Kamakura Koko-mae station.

Halfway between the two stations, you can find Myoutoike Park, which has a couple of ponds and some beautiful greenery – it’s a lot smaller than Hiromachi though. The entrance at one end of the park fittingly titled Yamaguchi – Mountain Entrance – is at the top of a very steep slope, upon which you can see beautiful cherry blossoms if you time your visit correctly.

Closer to Nishi-Kamakura, you can find the oldest shrine in Kamakura, Ryukomyo Shrine – although it’s not as exciting as you might expect.

Shonan-Fukasawa is also home to the Shonan Monorail HQ – you can see the garage from the roadside. They also occasionally open their doors and offer tours.

All About SMR05 Nishi Kamakura Station

Once upon a time, Nishi-Kamakura was as far as the monorail ran, although it only served as the terminus for about a year before the rest of the line was constructed.

Long before that though, there was a dragon who terrorised the locals. Perhaps you remember his tale from the visit to Enoshima? He eventually gave up his dragon ways of misbehaving when he fell for a particular maiden – who ended up getting enshrined on the island itself, several times over.

The dragon himself is enshrined at Ryukumyo shrine, just round the corner from Nishi-Kamakura station.

It’s a fairly normal looking shrine, located on a slightly elevated piece of ground amidst some homes in a very suburban setting. You’d never guess from looking that this shrine is the oldest in Kamakura (in terms of date of establishment, rather than actual physical building age, that is) – it’s been around here in one form or another since 538.

There’s also not a whole lot to let the casual passerby know that this is the home to a dragon god either, but that’s what makes these kinds of things all the more interesting, is it not?

You can carry on past this shrine and downhill towards the aforementioned Hiromachi Ryokuchi park, should you feel so inclined. It’s a lovely park, much bigger than you’d expect and hidden away in a part of Kamakura that I imagine a great many of the locals don’t even know about.

All About SMR04 Shonan Fukasawa

Shonan Fukasawa is perhaps even more uneventful than Nishi-Kamakura – there’s next to nothing outside the station itself; in fact, the most obvious point of interest is a vast tract of wasteland right next to the station. I believe it becomes a barbecue spot in the summer, but I can’t confirm that.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Shonan Fukasawa is that the headquarters of the Shonan Monorail are just down the road a bit. Sometimes they open up and the general public can get a tour, but even without that option, you can get a pretty good glimpse into the maintenance facilities just from the road beside the place.

If you fancy a longish wander into the suburbs of Kamakura, you can make your way to Myotoike Park from Shonan Fukasawa – you could even walk all the way to Nishi-Kamakura should you be so inclined.

Myotoike Park is home to a couple of ponds, a lot of wildlife and some very quiet little trails that snake through a pretty small area. There’s not really a whole lot to be seen up here, but it is very peaceful.

If you come at the right time of year and make your way to the right entrance of the park, you’ll be treated by a whole road lined with cherry blossoms. Or so I am informed – my timing wasn’t good enough to see it for myself.