Where to start?
The ryokan was a great experience. It was actually a combination of a ryokan with a restaurant that specialises in Kyoto cuisine - which means Tofu as far as I can tell.
We arrived at the ryokan after a shortish taxi ride, although the driver needed to call the dispatcher to ask how to find the place. This does not happen very often, as they normally have satellite navigation systems. And this despite us providing him with a printed map showing the place clearly. Well I thought it was clear, as the map was all in Japanese.
On arrival, we were shown straight into a bar/lounge area where we were served green tea made the traditional way. This was accompanied by three small sweet balls of goo. Not sure what they were; certainly not familiar to western tastes. The tea was made by rapidly whisking tea powder with a small amount of water until the result is bubbly. Much stronger than either of us are accustomed to.
While drinking the tea and eating the goo balls, we were asked what time we wanted to have dinner and breakfast. Dinner is served in the individual rooms, but breakfast is in a shared breakfast room. For breakfast we had to choose either brown or white rice. All of this in a combination of Japanese and English - more Japanese than English.
Also during this time I took the opportunity to warn Sonia that I was not going to be protecting her food-wise - she had to experience this herself!
Then we were shown to the room.
The room was eight tatami mats in size, with a low black lacquer table in the middle and two cane/bamboo seats with cushions. The seats are basically there to support your back, so you are effectively sitting on the floor. For those of you who are older and have therefore forgotten, cross-legged sitting on the floor is not easy.
Off to one side is a small table with two comfortable chairs for sitting, and to the side of that (tucked away in the back) is a toilet. On the opposite wall is a scroll, which when surrounded by the plain furnishings looks really nice. We actually bought a scroll in the same style when we went to Kawagoe. Our scroll has a picture of Mt Fuji.
Because of the time we arrived, there was no time for a bath/shower before dinner. Instead, we sat down for Shabu-shabu. The menu was somewhere over 8 courses long, with the main course being the shabu-shabu. I'll review the two menus in detail later on once I have convinced someone to help translate them for me (I kept the menus, which are beautifully printed). Suffice it to say that there were multiple unusual flavours, starting with the appetiser. This was small pieces of grilled horse. The remainder of the meal included two more courses of horse (a horse is a horse of course, of course), includind horse sashimi.
After dinner, we were warned that they would be "bed-making", so we took the opportunity to quickly change into our yukata, then down to the communal baths. I had briefed Sonia on the etiquette of Japanese bathing (as I understand it to be), so we were both fairly uncertain about the whole thing. In the end there was no-one in the men's or women's baths.
By the time we got back to the room, the table had been pushed to one side and the beds were made. These are foam mats about 1 inch thick, with a futon mattress on top - 1-2 inches. If you fell off, you might not notice... Then a thick duvet on top. The pillow was half beads and half normal. Needless to say, your head goes on the normal side. This may not sound very promising for a good night's sleep, but it is actually quite comfortable. Unfortunately we don't have any photos of the beds - sorry.
In the next episode, I'll relate our breakfast and the first day (rainy) of wandering around Kyoto.
No comments:
Post a Comment