|
 |
Shin, our lab's Japan liaison and tour guide.
|
|
 |
The inside door was about 4' high. Shoguns must have been real short.
|
|
 |
Kinny
|
|
 |
The riokan was surrounded by natural springs, and each room had it's own bamboo spiggot
|
|
 |
Me, in my native garb
|
|
|
 |
The rainspouts here were all copper renditions of the surrounding bamboo
|
|
|
 |
The street was two-way, but could only fit one lane. So to pass, every car and bus just went onto the sidewalk
|
|
 |
The river across from the riokan
|
|
 |
The front of the riokan
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The front of the Shintu temple. The papers are all badluck fortunes, hung up to blow the luck away. (I got the best fortune given.)
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The temple
|
|
 |
Our dinner. The name of the meal translates to "pocket food," small meals snuck into the pockets of the Shogun's kimono so he can look less poor than he is.
|
|
 |
Egg poured into a whitefish soup
|
|
|
 |
On the right is a pumpkin fishball, on the left, more fish
|
|
 |
Yet still more fish
|
|
 |
Desert -- like an incredibly sweet honeydew. When I asked our server what it was, she replied (through translation) "expensive."
|
|
 |
My bed
|
|
 |
The riokan was mostly traditional, but they did allow for a few technological necessities. The seat is also heated, of course.
|
|
 |
A pre-dawn walk up the hillside to the natural hotsprings
|
|
 |
Views from the top
|
|
|
|
 |
This crab crawled across my toe. Here's my sandle, after I jumped out of it.
|
|
|
|
 |
A rainspout
|
|
 |
Breakfast
|
|
 |
The gang, back in our real native garb
|
|
