We are in Japan visiting Nick and Sachiyo and the two of them took us on an overnight excursion to a ryoken. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese Inn where visitors come to rejuvenate in the mineral hot springs that most ryokans offer. Our particular ryokan had an individual onsen for each room located on our deck so we could go and soak in the mineral hot springs whenever we wanted.
Usually, a ryokan will have a community hot spring for guests, one for women and one for men which this one did plus the individual ones, too. The rooms are the traditional type of rooms with tatami mats and sliding doors.
When you first arrive, you immediately are supplied a Japanese robe to wear during your stay. The men all wear the same robes but the women get to pick out which one to wear from on array of beautiful choices.
Even our little granddaughter got her own robe to wear.
We all immediately went for a shower and a soak in the onsen when we first arrived because we were hot and sweaty from our day of traveling. It was a two hour drive normally, but we made a few stops along the way. One stop was at beautiful lake Ashi which was our first stop after we entered the mountains. It was an elevation of about 2,200 feet and on clear days you can see Mt. Fuji.
This spot has many hotels and resorts so lots of tourists come here when visiting Japan. It was a beautiful spot.
We also stopped at a fishing village called Hayakawa (just before we started heading into the mountains) that has a big fish market.
We ate lunch at one of the many restaurants that serve the fish that is fresh from the market.
Nick and Sachiyo ordered four different dishes for us that all contained horse mackerel, the fish that is popular in this area.
Here is a piece of horse mackerel breaded with panko. Horse mackerel is a lot smaller than regular mackerel and we loved it.
Once again, like our sushi dinner, this was a very refreshing meal, not too filling and we felt so satisfied after eating it.
We had room for dessert so Nick and Sachiyo took us down the street to a place they spotted that had shaved ice. This isn't shaved ice like how we know it. It's more like shaved fruit with ice.
It was like eating a piece of fruit only it melted in your mouth with the ice. We got strawberry and honeydew melon. They gave you some sweetened condensed milk to pour over if you wanted which we did. It was a perfect dessert. We continued on our journey until we arrived in Hakone where the ryokan was located.
Ryokans are also know for serving traditional Japanese food along with all their other luxuries. After we showered and soaked in our onsen, Bruce and Nick ordered a beer to relax before dinner. Even the beer glasses were Japanese style - tiny!
The service here was exceptional. They came immediately when you needed anything and they also set up your meals for you and layed down your bedding, traditional Japanese style, of course.
Here is what our dinner looked like:
This was just the first course.
This course had a lot of the traditional Japanese appetizer-type items and fish dishes like sashimi
edamame
takenoko (bambo root) and other vegetables
udon noodles
and lobster.
We toasted with our plum wine before we started eating - Cheers to our first ryokan experience.
The servers returned for our second course, cleaned up the first course and layed out everything for the second course that was the meat portion of our meal.
We were able to cook our own beef just how we liked it done.
We also had tempera of vegetables of sweet potato and asparagus.
Our granddaughter loved that we were all at her level with so many interesting objects to explore.
And they did not forget her first birthday that was a few days before.
For dessert, we also had some vanilla ice cream and green tea sauce to pour over it.
For breakfast, we started all over again. The servers put away the bedding on the floor and set up for our breakfast, another traditional Japanese meal.
There is still a lot of fish for breakfast in this traditional Japanese meal including the horse mackerel again and clams in broth.
We also were offered nori
a delicacy that is a fish egg sack, one of Nick's favorites
shirasu which is very common here; the little white fish with black eyes
tofu
and peach in gelatin.
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As you can see, this is far from an American breakfast. But we ate most of it trying to immerse into this Japanese culture that has become our son's life and now our new grandchild's life. Nick loves all of it and he loves sharing it with us and educating us to this culture. Once again, little Hana loved being at our level and was totally occupied at breakfast, too.  The life of luxury is definitely at a ryokan in Japan. We definitely would recommend it for any visitor to Japan.  |
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