Update part 3: The Ryokan!

When we last left off, My parents and I had just gotten t our ryokan (Japanese style inn) in Kyoto. Well, the entrance was pretty great. It is an old establishment, part inn, part temple. We walked through a few ornate gates with beautiful gardens surrounding before even getting to the doorway. Where there was a bowing host to greet us by name (I think the foreigner look gave us away though :-P). He led us to a sitting area where we put down our bags and collapsed after the long stressful bus ride. We were greeted by a female hostess in a kimono, and served real frothy green tea and Japanese sweets.

We then followed a (I think different, can’t remember now) hostess down a maze of hallways and doorways. We passed a large banquet hall with low tables and padded cushions on the floor. At one point, we walked outside for about 20 feet, under an overhang, that had a beautiful view of the courtyard garden. Then we turned a few corners and passed by the public hot baths and toilets. The hallways were broken up every once in a while by adorable little sitting niches and paintings. All this time, our lovely guide was explaining the parts of the ryokan to me as well as a little history of the place. I did my best to translate for my parents, who were busy ducking every few meters.

Finally, we arrived at our room, which had my name hanging outside the door. It opened up to a beautiful room lined with tatami mats and decorated with a low table and pictures on the wall. Down went the bags again, and we sat at he table. But we barely had time to park our butts when our friend came back and offered to move us. Apparently they got an eyeful of our large American statures and decided a larger room would be a good idea. So we took about 10 steps down the hall and went into a considerably larger tatami room.

The hostess popped in about every hour or so to fix our chairs, give us sweets, ask us when we wanted dinner, etc. She was a very nice older lady, and I really got some practice as translator. My parents and I were pretty wiped out at this point, so we decided to just relax the first night in our wonderful accommodations. The dinner was an amazing feast with a few different courses brought straight to our room by our hostess and served on a special western style table and chairs brought in just for our benefit. It was a wonderful spread with lots of fish (of which my mom and I ate my dad’s share), pickles, and many other things. One of the Japanese ways of life is to finish all that’s on your plate, which my parents had a bit of trouble with. Everything was delicious though, I’ll post a pic or two of it.

After dinner, we went for a short walk outside to feel like we actually saw the city that day, though it was rainy and cold so we shortly returned. Then I soaked in the hot baths for a bit. Someone came to our room to take away the table and set out our bedding, futons. For those who don’t know, futons are basically thick mattresses that you sleep on the floor with. They’re extremely soft and comfortable. We fell right to sleep.

The next morning, we woke early for breakfast, for which they brought the table and chairs back. The hostess had a (fun?) time explaining some of the food to me, which I did my best to translate. Nothing like waking up to fish, rice, dried seaweed, soup, and some kind of egg pudding. I think it was in the morning that we took a walk around the gardens and took pictures of the beautiful flowering trees and walked cautiously on the carefully placed walking stones amidst the moss. After breakfast, we asked the hostess if she’d take a picture with us, to which she refused, but brought in another younger worker there who posed nervously but in good humor with us. As we headed out, we bought all-day train passes and received omiyage, souvenirs, from the greeter’s desk, and were bowed out. I’m so glad we went to that ryokan, it was certainly great experiencing the luxury of old Japan.


Our room, at least part of it.



The garden.



part 1 of dinner



breakfast.


futons!