Where's the Beef?

Trip Start Mar 15, 2009

Trip End Mar 27, 2009

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Where I stayed

Kikokuso Ryokan

(Kyoto hotels)

Flag of Japan Kyoto, Kinki, Japan
Saturday, March 21, 2009

Today, it was a light day of traveling. The first half of the day, we headed to to another temple, the Eikando Zenrin-Ji Temple where you take a path lined with cherry blossom trees called the "Philosophers Walk." When in full bloom, it's like walking through arches and arches of beautiful pink/white cherry blossoms. Unfortunately for us, the bloom is in the beginning stages. So we were only greeted with mostly bare trees and a few bloomed cherry blossoms. But the temple was extraordinary as expected and I can only imagine how much more beautiful it would be if the time was right.
As I mentioned in the earlier entry, today was the day we were going to stay at a traditional Japanese style hotel called a Ryokan complete with a full course Japanese meal. When we arrived there, we greeted by a little old sweet lady. Let's call her "Mama San". She took our bags in and showed us around her place. It was a place where she lived, had guests stay, and also offered lunch and dinner for patrons

1st part of the course

. It is a sight to see with an outside garden complete with koi fish and waterfall. As she showed us our room and dining place, she explained the rules such as removing your shoes always when you get to a certain part of the house and using different slippers for different parts of the room. But with a Ryokan, there are no chairs for you to sit on, or beds to sleep on. You are expected to eat and sleep on special mats. Because of my past of wrestling bears, my rickety knees are not as forgiving as it was before. I tried to sit still as much as possible but it seemed more like I had ants in my pants trying to find that comfort position. At some point, I wanted to just lay on my back and have Mama San just drop the the fish in my mouth for dinner like a dog. But I stuck with it, at least until it was time for dinner. Having a traditional Japanese dinner is a true experience. It was a full course meal with small dishes coming in one at a time. With small little salads and seafood, this big boy was waiting for the main course, maybe a big giant fish! As dish after dish went out, the anticipation for the main course was building. Enough with eating grass, time to bring big daddy the meat! When the bowl of rice came with some small side dish of different little veggies, I thought the next one was it. So I finished the grass, I mean vegetables and saved my rice for the meat. As I waited for the main dish to come next, I heard her Mama San's little steps. And there it was, a bowl of fresh FRUIT! Nooooooo! Was this some sick joke or do I have to go out in the middle of the night and slaughter a cow right now. As I ate up my fruit, I waited again for Mama San to come through the door with one more dish. But there would be no more dish for this hungry American man! But in all seriousness, it was still truly a great experience because you definitely get an idea how traditional Japanese people eat, live, and sleep.