Going local : our Ryokan Experience

Today we climbed the Fushimi Inari shrine and shifted to our new Ryokan. 

Fox statue and Tori gate
at the Fushimi Inari shrine

The Fushimi Inari shrine is reputed to be one of the top rated attractions in Kyoto.  It is a shrine to Inari, the Japanese god of rice and of business  - in other words, built to honour the gods of good fortune.  Its characteristic is the tori gate, that classic symbol of Japan depicted as red in most guidebooks but turned out to be vermillion/ bright orange in reality.  The shrine has thousands of tori gates creating a corridor up the mountain, to the main shrine right at the top.  It's apparently a 2-3 hour trek to the top of the mountain.  We climbed up until we reached this little pond with some mini-shrines along side.  After that, we looked at the endless stairs going up we asked someone how much further and discovered that we were still not even one quarter of the way up.  So obviously we went down again and spent some time in the little souvenir shops near the entrance of the shrine.  I bought some nice little purses for family members.

We had a quick lunch subsequently in our favourite place, JR station.  At the conveyor belt sushi restaurant.  That was when I realised the incredible variety of sushi available in Japan.  Shellfish which I've never head of before.  A wide range of fish.  Uni (sea urchin), crab miso, crab roe, etc etc.  It was a pleasure also watching the sushi chefs at work.  Quick and deft, they prepared the sushi and put the little plates on the conveyor belt, with a little sign in front indicating what the topping was. We must have had around 15 plates between the two of us - substantial for the two of us but not much compared to some of the other patrons around the counter.

Our room in Yachiyo Garden Ryokan

After lunch,  we checked in at our new hotel - the Yachiyo Garden Ryokan.  Ryokans are traditional Japanese inns and I liked the comfortable, homey feel of the place.  We had booked a 12.5 tatami mat room, which was surprising spacious especially compared to our previous hotel room.  Of course, this was partly because the futons had not been put out for the night as yet.  A low table, with two seats alongside was in the middle of the room instead.  A simple alcove was in one corner of the room, with a scroll and a flower arrangement (ikebana) within.  The room has its own bathroom, and a little entry area where our slippers are kept.  Non-traditional items however included the television in one corner of the room.  

We took a short walk around the ryokan, to the Kyoto Handicraft Centre but thanks to all the purchases at

Doggies like hanami too!

the Fushimi Inari shrine, I only bought some food items for the office.  We found a little park serendipitously along the way back with a beautiful weeping cherry tree in bloom right in the centre. We spent some happy minutes taking photos, alongside a few others. One lady was taking photos of her two dogs under the blooms.  We took photos of them, too.

We got back to the ryokan in time for dinner.  We had ordered a traditional kaiseki meal and faced the eternal question - what to wear, what to wear, what to wear.  There was a simple cotton yukata and a sort of shorter robe (rather like a vest) over the yukata - a yukata jacket.  Since I was not too sure whether I would be able to sit decorously on the floor for an entire meal in the yukata, I opted to wear the jacket over my blouse and jeans.  At least from the waist up, I was very Japanese :-) 

At 7.30pm (our appointed dinner hour) there was a knock on the door - our hostess, here to escort us to dinner.  Whilst in most ryokan dinner is served in the room, here we go down to the dining area, which overlooks a serene Japanese garden, complete with cherry tree (no longer in bloom), pond, koi and moss covered stones.  Our hostess brought us some warm sake and some Japanese tea, then brought us our dishes, course by course.

A kaiseki meal is essentially the chef's degustation menu for the day.  Our ryokan is famed for its restaurant, which specialised in "washoku", the traditional Kyoto style of cooking and which in itself is on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (what a mouthful).  From my online research, I had earlier learnt that the typical kaiseki meal would typically comprise the following courses:

Our Kaiseki dinner

- appetiser selection

- sashimi (tuna, squid)

- nimono or simmered dish (we had octopus, very tender and yummy) 

- agemono or deep fried dish (tempura with green tea salt)

- yakimono or grilled dish (fish with pickled radish - the acidity of the radish went well with the richness of the grilled fish)

- sunomono or vinegared dish (baby squid with seaweed - I really enjoyed this too) 

- fish soup with rice and pickles (shokuji)

- fresh fruit with orange jelly 

Overall, a most enjoyable meal.  

We went back to our room and found out that our beds had been laid out.  Surprisingly comfortable, considering that we were on the floor.  It was a good night's sleep.

Photos of my Kyoto trip are here.