In Kyoto now after a one-night detour to Ito, an onsen town that just had a little earthquake last week. Onsens are the traditional Japanese hot springs, and because of all the volcanoes they are everywhere. I wanted to have the full "ryokan" experience of staying in a traditional hotel, where you sleep on futons atop tatami mats and an attendant makes your bed ready for you at night, serves you tea, etc. I also wanted to go to a town more likely to be frequented by Japanese tourists than foreigners, which made it a little hard to pick a hotel, but spending a lot of time on the TripAdvisor Japan forums and posting questions led me to pick out Ito and our hotel, which was called Yokikan.
Ito is a little town about an hour and a half away from Tokyo. The train ride there was beautiful - Tokyo seemed to stretch on forever, followed by Yokohama, another big city right next to it, and then we saw Mt. Fuji on our right and on our left was the ocean, which was a very deep shade of blue. We had the ocean on our left the entire train trip. At the train station, a taxi took us the five minute drive to the "ryokan" - the traditional Japanese hotel. The town itself was reminiscent of a little French mountain town, Nour commented, except that the buildings all have those sort of hatched, Chinese-style gable roofs. The ryokan was up the side of a hill and it was very peaceful and extremely quiet-- surrounded by outcroppings of rocks and lots of foliage. So the town was both mountainous and a beach town at the same time. We waited for our room to be ready while Sofia slept - it was naptime - and then they took us up to a big room with a tatami mat floor, a low table and low chairs with cushions. They got a futon out for Sofia to sleep on, and she continued with her nap so we decided to try the baths. There were hardly any other guests in the ryokan; because of the earthquake last week (which our guide in Tokyo had told us about), many people had canceled. This was good because we had the baths to ourselves, and although I was planning to try the baths regardless of the presence of other people, the fact that you wear no clothes while bathing with others seemed just the slightest bit awkward.
The hotel had two baths in the lobby and one bath that was open-air on the roof top. The two baths in the lobby were same sex-- one was smaller than the other, so they
open the bigger one to men after 8:30 pm at night and to women the rest of the time, so we took turns having a bath while the other watched Sofia - you shower & soap up first before rinsing off and then getting in the water. The water is extremely hot, and only about two feet deep - you just sit there until you can't take it anymore and then leave. Our room had kimonos for us to wear (called yukata), plus a slightly heavier robe and slippers, and at an onsen, you're supposed to just walk around the hotel the entire time in your kimonos.
Once Sofia woke up, we went to explore the center of town, which was about a ten minute walk away. There was a walking district with no cars allowed, but it got dark early and there really were not many people around at all. We got sidetracked in a department store that had a wealth of "bento boxes"- those little lunch boxes I've been obsessed with. I loaded up on those, as well as on gifts, while Sofia played in yet another store playground.
Then we looked for a place to eat dinner. We finally ended up getting teriyaki chicken burgers at a fast food place. We walked home in the dark - it gets dark very early here - and then we all went to use the "mixed bath" on the roof - the open air bath set into rocks on the side of a hill with a waterfall and tropical foliage. We had Sofia in there for no more than 5 minutes, since it was so hot, but she loved it, and it was salt water but only had a shower outside, so I took her down to the other bath to wash her off in the shower and let her splash in the other one for a few minutes. She went right to sleep that night and we actually got to see a fireworks display from our window, as it was the Emperor's Birthday here. Oh, and there was a vending machine with $3 Asahi beers, so we enjoyed those, too.
This morning we had the breakfast included, which was a traditional one, like no other I've ever had. Our attendant took away the futons and set up the breakfast, which consisted of lots of little platters involving various fishlike dishes. Tofu in little cast iron pots. Miso soup, which I like. A cold, soft boiled egg in a cold bowl of what tasted like soy sauce soup. Various pickles. A few pieces of raw fish, sushi style, which were fine. Grilled fish, which was also pretty tasty and salty. Hot rice. Green tea, no sugar. Various condiments that we had no idea what to do with. All in all, it was obviously haute cuisine, Japanese style, though probably the full pleasure of it was lost on us - I think breakfast is the hardest meal to forego your own culture's food for.
The owner of the hotel (who got an MBA from UC Berkeley and was extremely nice) drove us to the train station just in time for our local train to the city of Atami, 30 minutes away. We had a tight connection there with the "shinkansen" - the bullet train that would take us to Kyoto in only 2 hours (probably a 4 hour drive by car). Basically we had 5 minutes between when the local train arrived to find the bullet train platform and get on. But the local train was delayed at one of the stops by another train coming through the mountain, so we literally arrived at 10:41 and had to get to the platform by 10:43 for the bullet train. Turns out bullet trains were completely in a different place, so we ran - me with Sofia in my arms and Noureddine with his blue suitcase, two backpacks, and a stroller. (Did I mention they have this amazing service where youc an send your large luggage on to your next hotel? Costs $15 and we sent our giant green suitcase to Kyoto, where it was waiting for us today). We just made it - people were boarding when we got onto the platform - and we had to walk back 6 cars to our reserved seats.
The bullet train was exciting! nobody talks, just like on the subways. We passed Mt. Fuji up close - it is huge and covered with snow and almost looks like a moon formation or something, it is so impressive.
We passed lots of little towns, urbanized places, industrial cities. We finally got a cup of very good coffee (I was already getting a headache) from the girl who goes down the aisle with a food cart. Lots of people on the train are eating little packaged bento boxes, like this girl, full of sushi and rice and pickles and other delights.
Once in Kyoto, we marveled at the postmodern beauty of the train station, which is this massive glass and steel structure with an 11 story shopping mall full of expensive stores. We walked the ten minutes to our hotel - Kyoto already feels much more relaxed than Tokyo, and it was pretty quiet after we left the hustle and bustle of the train station.
Our hotel here is the Matsubaya Ryokan - it is in the style of the traditional hotels, with futons on the floor, but the big difference is that there are no meals included and nobody to put your bedding down at night, so you do it yourself. It is clean, the room is big enough, with a tiny, tiny bathroom.
We spent the afternoon exploring the Kyoto station's gigantic 11 story department store, letting Sofia play for awhile in the children's play area on the children's floor. She mastered this plastic slide they had and was so proud of herself and so cute as she came down the slide over and over again, laughing. Again, shocking prices - $15 for a small Snoopy? - but we just looked.
There was a sign for Cafe Du Monde - same font as the place in New Orleans - and it said it had beignets. But it didn't, just Japanese food. I asked about the beignets and they pointed at the Mr. Donut next door but said they had no beignets. We went to one of the excellent bakeries in the train station and got several different pastries to bring back to the hotel to eat later, etc. And then we came back to the hotel and did laundry, which was a huge relief. We all have clean clothes now. And are set for a few days in Kyoto.
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