It was another traditional Japanese inn, so it had the house slippers, alternate bathroom slippers, tatami mat rooms with beds on the floor etc. Here's Juni ready to party it up in her house slippers.
Here's Jeremy's and my room:
After we got our bags put away we all met in the main dining room for a wonderful banquet.
The meal consisted of some appetizers of bean curd paste and fish.
The main course was 3 bubbling pots of broth to which we added all sorts of splendid ingredients. Once the ingredients were cooked, we dished up little bowls from the pots. We also had a bottomless rice cooker of the most delicious sticky rice.
Assembling the pot
During our meal, Juniper sweetly treated us to a round of violent hugging.
Amy got a good dose of love from all of her kids:
After dinner it was new hotel, new robes. We got ready for our absolutely wonderful onsen experience.
The onsens are separated by gender. We had the women's to ourselves and we enjoyed the piping hot water nestled amongst the trees, with a light, cool, misty rain falling on our faces. I didn't take pictures of the onsens that night, but the next morning when they were closed for cleaning I went and snapped some shots.
This was the view when we looked up from the onsen.
After we were all warm and relaxed we got snuggly in our PJs and gathered in Alex and Amy's big room to hang out until we got too sleepy.
After a beautiful night's sleep we woke up and gathered in a different dining room for breakfast. There was salmon, fresh tofu, miso soup, sticky rice and nori. The miso was fresh from the place that made it just across the street. So delicious. This is an amazing breakthrough for me to say that, because I have NEVER liked miso. In fact, I have been known to spit miso out immediately upon tasting it--a revulsion reflex. Japanese miso is different, period. I love it.
Here's our family in front of this beloved inn, on Jeremy's and my last morning in Japan.
After breakfast we went on a walk through that scenic town.
I wanted to find the temple in the town before catching the bus back to Kyoto station. On my walk up to find it I came across this little shrine of Buddhas by a rice paddy. The bibs on the Buddhas are a sign of respect.
Unbeknownst to me, while I was taking this photo our bus pulled up to the station. When I got back down there Jeremy was frantically trying to stall the driver and a few people were out searching for me. I sprinted and jumped on the bus, taking a seat as it immediately pulled away. Phew!! That was a close one. As we pulled away I looked out the window to wave goodbye, only to see Juniper, mouth open wide, fully wailing and crying about our departure like sheer tragedy had struck. I think it would have been much better if we'd had a chance to give her a nice goodbye and tell her when we'd see her next. It broke my heart and I started to cry too.
Jeremy and I spent the next 3 hours travelling back to Narita airport. We got off the bus at Kyoto station and then took a shinkansen up north. We made it to the airport in perfect time and were even able to have a meal and browse the duty free shops before we got on our plane. I ate one of my favorite Japanese foods, which is rice seasoned with sweet rice vinegar, and covered by a thin layer of fried bean curd.
One last Eng-rish t-shirt as a final goodbye from Japan:
After another long flight, again with a Nosh bar, movies, and very little sleep, we touched down in the good ole USA on the 4th of July. How appropriate is that?
1 comment:
Perfect description Liz. I have to add the both Evan and Juniper continued to mourn your departure for another hour-- so belived are you to your niece and nephew. We all missed having you there after you left.
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