This past weekend, Ayako and I enjoyed our honeymoon / first wedding anniversary. Ayako recently told me that she felt our trip to Canada last year for Barbara's wedding was our honeymoon, while it was a trip back home for me. We looked at going overseas during our August holiday, but with it being high season and rising fuel surcharges, we decided that splurging on a nice ryokan (Japanees-style hotel) would be nice. When we arrived, there was a list on the wall of the hotel of who would stay there that night (our name is the on the left):
Our name was also written outside of our room:
This is a view from our room looking out to a bay near Hamana Lake. Actually, the hotel is in a resort area called Kanzanji that is only a 5-minute drive from our house.
After arriving, we had tea in our room and then went down to the hot spring baths. After a bath, we came upstairs and dinner was getting prepared for us in our room:
When guests arrive, they are given a yukata that fits them and you wear this during your stay in the hotel. Here I am wearing the yukata:
Here is Ayako with our room assistant, Nakamura-san:
And here is Ayako and I sitting at our table before dinner:
Our dinner consisted of ten courses. Our dinner also included a local specialty. The most popular local specialty here is eel, which is quite common to find. The other local specialty, which isn't so common since it's a bit expensive, is Chinese soft-shelled turtle. We had the turtle, a first for both of us. There was turtle in a number of the courses including the appatizers below:
Our aperitif was Japanese sake with turtle blood (interesting taste):
Our appatizers came in a box that opened up and had three levels inside:
Here are two close-ups of the appatizers:
I especially liked this baked mini crab that you could just pop in your mouth like a cracker...although it was a bit crunchier:
Our next course included sashimi:
including a carrot carved into the shape of a crab on top:
There were other smaller courses before we had our main course. Nakamura-san would come into our room every so often with the next course. The main course was turtle nabe (soupy stew):
You can see the shell of the turtle here with some mushrooms added already:
And here is the nabe when all the ingredients are put in and is ready to be heated up:
Here was another small course:
And another smaller course, strips of squid and somen (thin wheat noodles):
Near the end of the meal, we were slowing down in how fast we ate, and so Nakamura-san was nice to give us time to digest before bringing in the last courses including dessert. In the end, it took us three and a half hours to finish dinner. When we were finished, we rested a bit since we were both stuffed, and then went downstairs for another bath. Our first bath had been in the regular hot spring baths with men and women separated. This time though, we had reserved a private bath that we could use for 45 minutes:
It was called the moon bath, since we had a nice view of the lake, and the moon if it had been out:
Here's Ayako enjoying the bath:
When we returned to our room, our plates and table had been cleared away and our futons were out for us to go to bed (sorry, no photo). In the morning, we got up early and went down to the regular baths (it's common to bathe three times while staying at a ryokan). When we returned, our futons had been put away and breakfast was waiting for us:
Luckily breakfast was smaller than the previous night's meal. We had some time to relax after breakfast before saying thank you and goodbye to Nakamura-san and checking out. It was a wonderful way to spend our first-year wedding anniversary.
On Sunday, we went to a bookstore for a couple hours to enjoy their air conditioning. At night, Heather joined us as we bicycled from our home to Kanzanji area to enjoy some fireworks. It was nice to only have to bicycle 20 minutes to get there, and much faster at going home since there is always a traffic jam. Anyways, here a couple photos of the fireworks:
And here are some videos of the fireworks for you to enjoy:
This happened about 3 in the afternoon. We checked about more information, and found out that the boats would return to town at night and the bamboo tree (on a cart) would be taken to the local shrine as seen on the lantern ("Hosoe shrine"):
Groups of young men chanting came down the street pulling the bamboo carts:
When they got closer, we could see 2 drummers sitting on the carts as well, and they spun them around while the chanting continued:
They would then have to carry the cart up to the shrine with the drummers still on top:
They rushed past us still carrying the drummers:
They could finally get the cart to the shrine (with the drummers still horizontal if you can see them):
When they got to the shrine, they could finally put the cart upright again:
Finally, all of the bamboo carts and drummers arrived at the temple and the drumming and flute playing and chanting continued:
I even took a video this time with my camera, so you can enjoy the feeling at the festival:
Here's her trying to find the watermelon:
And then smashing it:
Here's me having a go:
Here's Sam starting a bit early:
Getting ready for the smash:
And giving it a good whack:
Our name was also written outside of our room:
This is a view from our room looking out to a bay near Hamana Lake. Actually, the hotel is in a resort area called Kanzanji that is only a 5-minute drive from our house.
After arriving, we had tea in our room and then went down to the hot spring baths. After a bath, we came upstairs and dinner was getting prepared for us in our room:
When guests arrive, they are given a yukata that fits them and you wear this during your stay in the hotel. Here I am wearing the yukata:
Here is Ayako with our room assistant, Nakamura-san:
And here is Ayako and I sitting at our table before dinner:
Our dinner consisted of ten courses. Our dinner also included a local specialty. The most popular local specialty here is eel, which is quite common to find. The other local specialty, which isn't so common since it's a bit expensive, is Chinese soft-shelled turtle. We had the turtle, a first for both of us. There was turtle in a number of the courses including the appatizers below:
Our aperitif was Japanese sake with turtle blood (interesting taste):
Our appatizers came in a box that opened up and had three levels inside:
Here are two close-ups of the appatizers:
I especially liked this baked mini crab that you could just pop in your mouth like a cracker...although it was a bit crunchier:
Our next course included sashimi:
including a carrot carved into the shape of a crab on top:
There were other smaller courses before we had our main course. Nakamura-san would come into our room every so often with the next course. The main course was turtle nabe (soupy stew):
You can see the shell of the turtle here with some mushrooms added already:
And here is the nabe when all the ingredients are put in and is ready to be heated up:
Here was another small course:
And another smaller course, strips of squid and somen (thin wheat noodles):
Near the end of the meal, we were slowing down in how fast we ate, and so Nakamura-san was nice to give us time to digest before bringing in the last courses including dessert. In the end, it took us three and a half hours to finish dinner. When we were finished, we rested a bit since we were both stuffed, and then went downstairs for another bath. Our first bath had been in the regular hot spring baths with men and women separated. This time though, we had reserved a private bath that we could use for 45 minutes:
It was called the moon bath, since we had a nice view of the lake, and the moon if it had been out:
Here's Ayako enjoying the bath:
When we returned to our room, our plates and table had been cleared away and our futons were out for us to go to bed (sorry, no photo). In the morning, we got up early and went down to the regular baths (it's common to bathe three times while staying at a ryokan). When we returned, our futons had been put away and breakfast was waiting for us:
Luckily breakfast was smaller than the previous night's meal. We had some time to relax after breakfast before saying thank you and goodbye to Nakamura-san and checking out. It was a wonderful way to spend our first-year wedding anniversary.
Many people dress up in yukatas for the fireworks (as you can see in previous years' posts). So we also took pictures posing in our yukatas in front of the large red gate in the water (a torii):
We tried some trick-photography as well:
And finally the fireworks started. Here was my fine view behind Sam and Christine:
Don't worry, I got some shots without their heads as well. Can you see the cat (or Doraemon) in this next one?
Overall, a good show as usual, although not quite as good as last year since there was no breeze and thus the smoke from the fireworks lingered and blocked some of the view of the following fireworks...oh well.
