Ryokan - Japanese Style Inn

After our heartfelt goodbyes and thanks to our host families, we headed toward a short stay at a Ryokan (pronounced Yo-Kon) or Japanese style inn. The one we stayed at was in Shibata City (same place as my homestay) and was quite large. All of the guest rooms have tatami floors (straw mats) so no shoes once we were in our rooms. Futons are put out by the Ryokan staff for guests to sleep on as well as a soba (buckwheat) filled pillow. My sleep at the ryokan was about the same as at my homestay! Ryokans generally have public baths just as our wonderful hotel at Tainai did.

The highlight of our ryokan stay was the delicious feast of Japanese food we all shared together in a special banquet room. The feast was for all five of the senses and included foods of various colors, various tastes (salty, sweet, bitter, sour), various colors (green, red, black, white) and food preparations (fried, grilled, baked, boiled, raw). I tried everything but there was no way I could eat everything - there was just too much. The most unusual thing I tried, in my opinion, was squid with ink! What I liked best was the vegetable tempura, especially the pumpkin. Coming in second was the chyrsanthamum salad which I had had at several other places.

This evening was the end of our stay in the Niigata prefecture. The next day was to be our bullet train trip back to Tokyo to finalize our JFMF trip. Until then...sayonara.

10/31/2007 : view on map : permalink : add a comment