Crossing Enoshima Benten Bridge to Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay, 80 km south of Tokyo, I was stopped in my tracks by a pair of mustard-eyed dragons slithering down gray granite lanterns. A man dismounted his bicycle and asked if I needed help. No, only his story, I replied.
Nobu Ogawa (b. 1940) had retired to the shore community in Kanagawa Prefecture where he grew up. He told me how, when he was a boy, he and his mates would wade to Enoshima and return over the then wooden bridge, which only levied an outbound toll.
He recalled the inns that jostled on the island before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics brought change. Then, off the island's south shore, the sea was reclaimed for a yacht harbor, expanding its circumference to 5 km from 4, and this Olympic venue was joined to the mainland by a new vehicular bridge.