Japanese food

Published on: Apr 9, 2008

The verdict is in: I LOVE Japanese food, and it seems to suit my body, as I lost five pounds on this trip. There are all kinds of fattening things I could have eaten, but since most things served to us were fish, vegetables and rice, I stuck with these basics and enjoyed all of it. Though Jesse is a vegan, he went off his diet a bit to accommodate the food that came with our rooms at the ryokan.

Here's a photo of Jesse at the table with our first evening meal in Hakone. Notice the number and variety of dishes. Obviously there is an art to serving Japanese food, as each small portion had its own distinctive serving dish.

A view of the complete meal and all the dishes. Rice, green tea and miso soup are served at every meal.

For this meal, we were served pheasant....yep, I said pheasant. There were two forms of it. This first dish was arranged with slices of halfway-cooked pheasant arranged like a flower.

Later we were provided with a small grill and more pheasant, along with onions and peppers to cook on the grill. Here's a closer look at some other dishes. This next one is a small salad.

Then we have another vegetable in a kind of soup:

A selection of fish, which are often raw, but quite tasty:

And finally the dessert, which is usually fruit or something made from fruit, like sorbet or ice cream.

Next is a photo of the breakfast meal, with fish as the main entry, along with miso soup, rice, and various vegetables. 

This is just to give you and idea of the style of food that is often served in Japan. Sushi, one of the most well-known Japanese dishes, was something I ate nearly every day. I could easily find it in grocery stores, even in 7-11 stores, for much cheaper than in the U.S. I could get 8 pieces of sushi for 400 yen, about $4. It might cost three times as much in the U.S.

Another thing that we often ate while traveling were rice "sandwiches." I'm not sure what they're really called, but they were about a cup of rice, formed into a triangle and then wrapped in nori, or sea weed. At the center of the rice there was usually some kind of fish or chicken. Really tasty, nourishing and inexpensive.

There were many local food specialties that we didn't eat, though some of them looked pretty yummy. One place was known for a certain kind of eel, and I wish I had tried it.

In Kyoto, the ryokans we stayed in also had great food. The first one had its own restaurant attached to the inn, and the second one served us breakfast in a separate room with other guests. In both places the food was excellent. It didn't take me any time to get used to the idea of eating fish (salmon or mackeral) and vegetables (often raw or pickled, and served in an artistic, often beautiful fashion.)

Next I'll talk about Japanese baths.

Hakone ryokan: Japanese Inn

Published on: Apr 5, 2008

I have a lot of interesting photos for this place, so I will be creating several entries to cover different aspects of our experience here. This was an expensive, elegant ryokan in Hakone, a famous resort area south of Tokyo known for its hot springs. We were blown away by everything in this ryokan...the room, the food and the baths, as you will soon see.

 Wikipedia offers this definition of the ryokan:

 "A ryokan is a type of traditional Japanese inn dating from the Edo Period (1603-1868), when they served travelers along Japan's highways. They typically feature tatami-matted rooms, communal baths, and other public areas where visitors may wear yukata (robes) and talk with the owner.  Ryokan are difficult to find in Tokyo and other large cities because many are expensive compared to hotels, and Japanese people increasingly use hotels for urban tourism (a notable exception to this is Kyoto, a city people visit for its ryokan). Nonetheless, some major cities do have reasonably priced ryokan, with some as little as $40 a night. However, ryokan are more typically located in scenic areas—in the mountains or by the sea—and can charge upwards of $400 per night."

The ryokan in Hakone was nestled in the hills above the town, and we were greeted at the entrance by an eager young man as we arrived by bus from the train station.

Ryokan entrance

As most people know, in Japan it is the custom to remove one's shoes before going into a home or inn, as well as when entering some temples and restaurants. When you remove your shoes, you are given slippers to wear, but the slippers are only for certain areas. When you are enter a room with a tatami mat, you must also remove your slippers, and walk in your stocking feet or barefoot. I love this image of a family's shoes laid out in the lobby of the ryokan. Notice they are facing out, towards the door. It is improper and bad luck to face them the other way.

Shoes, all in a row.

Our room was quite elegant. Here is a view of the main room, showing the private zen garden we had.

This is another view of the main room, along one wall. I'm just guessing at this, but it seemed to be an area that women might use to put on makeup, as there was a mirror behind the fabric, and a table for cosmetic items. Oh, and it was wildly pink...

Next is a view of the lounge room we had, with a sofa and table, a refrigerator, and a lovely view of the hills above us and the flowering plum trees below.

And here is Jesse, dressed in the clothing they provided for us to use when going to the baths. He has on a light cotton yukata, and a heavier haori robe, to keep warm in.

While we were at the baths, a woman came to clear the dishes from our meal (more on that next!), move the table, and lay out our bedding, which were soft futons with elegant comforters. During the day, the bedding is stored in closets. There are no separate bedrooms, which allows better use of the available space.

A futon bed.

In the next entry, I'll be talking about the food and the baths at this ryokan.

en route to Hakone: Gora, Lake Ashi

 Published on: Mar 28, 2008 

One of the fun things about this part of the trip was all the different modes of transportation that we used on our journey to and around Hakone.

 First we took several kinds of trains. I had bought a Japan Rail Pass before leaving home that would allow cheaper train travel, but only on certain trains and buses operated by Japan Railway. This was the first day I was able to use my railpass on the JR line. On the first train through Tokyo, it was rush hour, and we were squeezed in like sardines for a good part of the 40-minute ride, which involved several transfers.

 Once on the JR line outside Tokyo, train travel was much more pleasant, with chatter and the happy faces of people traveling instead of commuting to work. An elderly Japanese woman sat across from us, obviously eager to practice her English skills.

After the JR line, we arrived in Hakone and took a bus to our inn, dropped off our luggage, and headed back to town. Next, we boarded a mountain trolley that operates in the same way that many Swiss trains do, with switchbacks every so often as we climbed higher. Here's a postcard photo of what the route might look like in the summer, when the hydrangeas are in bloom.

There were several delightful aspects of this ride. One, I spied an Italian family in our car, the only time I encountered Italians in Japan. I was hoping to get a chance to speak to them, as they looked rather harried and I wondered if they were having difficulties finding their way around. It's hard enough at times to find information in English, but if you don't know Japanese or English, getting around can be quite a problem. But Jesse and I got off at the transfer terminal halfway up the mountain, and I never saw them again. We also met an 89-year-old man who was traveling with the daughter of one of his employees, and they also attempted to speak to us in English.

Jesse started speaking Japanese with them, and the conversation got more lively, though I didn't understand a word! By the end of the ride, a connection had been made, and Jesse and the man exchanged their addresses and phone numbers in Tokyo, with the hope of a future meeting. I was very proud of Jesse's ability to converse with the people that we met, and the connections made possible by that ability. This is the picture the woman took of me and Jesse.

We stopped at the town of Gora and found our way to a small park to eat lunch.

There was a fountain, several greenhouses and a teahouse in the park. The next part of our journey involved riding on a Ropeway, a ski-lift like cable car traversing an inactive volcano.

Ropeway

Here's the view as we rode across the volcano.  (Notice the steam rising from vents in the volcano).

Arriving at Lake Ashi.

From here, we boarded a ferry disguised as a pirate boat and cruised across Lake Ashi back to Hakone, where we took another bus ride to reach the ryokan, or inn where we were staying for the night. I'll be devoting the next entry to our experiences at the ryokan.

What a way to travel!

Cruising across Lake Ashi.