Slanted: Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden for the Yokosuka City Museum 天神島臨海自然教育園

 

Keep on walking the road where the former imperial villa stands. It will end up at Sajima Marina, the port for pleasure boats established in 1965 with a hotel. Before reaching there, first we meet with the North Entrance for the Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden with the Admin Office. You can enter from here, or walk a few minutes more passing a Shintoism Shrine, which is a typical arrangement of pre-1945 Japanese high society. Soon on our right we are welcomed by South Entrance of the Garden with the visitor centre and parking spaces. To this point we are walking along a fenced forest. This is a curious forest of Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden. As it has a peculiar feature, we cannot enter inside the forest without permission. So, please enjoy it while you‘re walking to the Garden Gate. Oh, one important notice. The toilets are available in the buildings at North and South Gates, but no facility inside the garden itself. If you need it, please complete the necessary thing before venturing into the Garden.

The North Entrance for the Garden.
A cute house for admin purpose would be
 the remnant of Imperial summer cottage.

Shintoism shrine

The forest.
As this is the part along the road to the Marina,
comparatively speaking the area is relatively
well secluded from the direct sea winds and splashes.

The area of Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden is designated Natural Treasure of Yokosuka City and strictly protected as a nature reserve. We cannot beach-comb or take a petit crab home for souvenir. Instead, the visitor centre of the Garden has a good museum. It is small, but explains quite well the ecosystem of the Garden and the folkloric feature of the community around Sajima Fishing Port. According to the exhibitions, the sea in the Biological Garden has more than 100 species of sea slugs. The number species in the family of shellfish is also phenomenal. There are also baby sea creatures. Many of them found refuge in the nooks of rocky beach where the strong current of Pacific Ocean is moderated by the undersea geology. Many fishes of tropical area which reach this far north stay here during summer and even hatch eggs. The adults or babies of tropical species cannot survive cold water of winter and die. Come next spring, the new tropical creatures come ... the exhibition says marine biologists doubt if the number of such fishes are increasing in the Garden. They watch. It‘s the frontline to observe Global Warming.

The Visitor Centre at the South Gate

Many aquariums for creatures of the Garden
welcome us at the entrance.

The models of sea slugs living in the Garden.
They are so beautiful.
According to the exhibition,
they were once shell fishes but changed their mind
 and threw away the cumbersome shell.
In order to protect their body without shells,
they armed themselves with poison. Whoops.

They have colouring pictures of living things in the Garden,
 free of charge, for us to take as souvenirs.

Yesteryear’s artefacts of old fishing village

Outside, there is a how-to notice to enjoy the Garden.

Outside the Visitor Centre, there begins the strolling path of the Garden. Having said that, the path of the Garden is only one, circling the curious forest. On our right if we come from the Visitor Centre, there is a fence and a forest. On our left is rocky shore of Miura Peninsula. Provided watching your kids well and behaving carefully, you can venture into the places of tidal pools and complicated seashores around rocks. The geology of the Garden is also interesting as the strata created 5 or more million years ago below sea could be observed first hand. We can find volcanic ashes of probably gigantic eruption piled up in the bottom of the sea and pushed up by tectonic movement. Tiny fishes, crabs, barnacles ... all in the pool and quickly tried to make a distance from human shadows ... Hey, I don‘t harm you. I just only watch how you live there ... The crannies between volcanic strata are filled with conglomerates and fragments of shells. Beautiful unbroken shells of cowry can be found here and there. The living versions must live under sea here. Please do not take them home. Return the cowry to the beach. This is a protected area.

Outside the Visitor Centre.
The beginning for the strolling path
 and over there is an opening to the shore.

Many families enjoyed autumn sea.

I tried to photo the baby fishes ...

This vertical stratum tells us
the humongous power of tectonic movement.

Here, the volcanic conglomerates were
locked in the pile of ashes
 then received gigantic pressure
 to be a part of a rock ... 5 million years ago?

The place is actually an island connected to the Miura Peninsula only with the Tenjin Bridge. To the west of the Garden there is a tiny reef, Kasa-jima, which is prohibited to visit unless you have an official permit for scientific research. The intention of private life for the imperial family 80 years ago protected the area as a nature reserve. The forest in the middle of the island must have been a part of their intention. I guess when Prince and Princess were here, the Marina was not there. So, the forest was a bit larger and natural rocky shore surrounded entire island where the forest situated at the center and an imperial villa at the entrance. The vegetation of the forest was those strong ones which do not care much strong salty winds and water from sandy soil. Near the Visitor Centre, there is a patch in the forest where crinum lilies grow wild. Actually, this is the northern-most spot for them to live naturally in Japanese archipelago. Curiously, all the plants in the forest are slanted to the north as if they are parry sea winds. The person who‘s taking care of the place told me this summer the inside was affected by a long outbreak of tussock moths. Their caterpillars ate leaves bare for many camelias and large trees inside. Lots of withered trees over the fence, she said. Yeah, Miura Peninsula is warm, but too long summer, good for the moth, would be due to the global warming ...

Kasa-jima over there

The path for the Garden runs like this.

The patch for crinum lilies

Ampelopsis glandulosa var. heterophylla

Japanese cheesewood,
a typical coast plant for Kanagawa Prefecture.
They thrive on such a rocky and sandy soil ...

The plants inside the fence are growing
to the direction of the “mainland,”
away from the sea, it seems to me.

Lilium maculatum,
another typical coast plant for Kanagawa.
They still had flowers in late October.

Looking the forest from the seashore.
They are not tall trees, certainly.

Peeking in the forest. Hmmmmmmm …

Looks wild enough.

Moths-infested inside.

Many suggestions have been observed in the Botanical Garden for climate change. It would be a sign how fragile the ecosystem of the Garden. We should be attentive for this place to survive as a playing ground for tiny sea creatures. I imagine the vibrant sea life was one of the things the imperial couple loved ... I‘ve been there in a weekend of October and found many families enjoying sea creatures. I guess if it had been in the mid-summer, the place would be congested and the visitors sometimes have to wait for a parking space. If you go there during winter, the crowd should be smaller. For a sunny day without wind, the Garden is a therapeutic place. Please try, and experience imperial sitting in the winter sun. It is refreshing, I tell you.

Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden 天神島臨海自然教育園

3-7-3 Sashima, Yokosuka, 240-0103
〒240-0103　 神奈川県横須賀市佐島3丁目7-3

Phone: 046-856-0717
Fax: 046-856-0717

Open

9：00 - 17：00 (April-September),  9：00 - 16：30 (October-March)

Closed

Every Monday (or if Monday is National Holiday, Tuesday) and December 29 -January 3

Admission Free

You can send an enquiry to m-bes@city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp