Today I stayed at a Ryokan which is an old traditional Japanese house. I was waited on hand and foot by my personal hostess. These places are very traditional and basic with a simple table in the middle of the room, a small Japanese garden and at night a fouton is made up for your nights sleep.

It was a really relaxing day to dress in traditional clothing, soak in an overly hot bath drinking ice cold beer, read by the Japanese garden, listen to traditional music and eat the best prepared meal I have ever seen. It was a Keisaki meal made up of about 9 dishes of soups, fish, meat, more soup, more fish (the tiger fish with plumb and roasted rice was my fave!!), sake...It was spread over a couple of hours, each course brought to your room by one of the staff. I must admit I think some of the ingredients and flavours were a little lost on me...One of the soup dishes had a small slice of mushroom which the hostess made a really big deal about saying it was a very special ingredient and extremely expensive...It seemed to me to be a not so tasty, small piece of mushroom...I am such a philistine!!

Basically spent the bulk of the day relaxing and savoiuring the peaceful surroundings of the Ryokan (and making sure I got my moneys worth!!). Was well worth experiencing.