Christmas in April

Friday, April 24th--We got home from Atami, and within an hour, we were back at the metro station leaving for another trip.  This time, we had the entire family along.  We were headed to Hakone on an express train.
We left our home in Laramie on December 29th, just after Christmas.  As a family we all voted to forego the regular Christmas presents--that we would then just have to put into storage--and instead ask Santa to help us afford an experience in Japan that we otherwise wouldn't have the funds to do.  We thought for sure that the kids would vote to go to Tokyo Disneyland, but that didn't interest them.  They wanted to do something more "Japanese".  So, this trip to Hakone is our Christmas from Santa Claus!
It took us about an hour and a half to get to Hakone from Tokyo on the express train.  Once we arrived at the station, we caught a bus that took us to our hotel.  To us, the mountainous resort town of Hakone looked much like the resort town of Park City, Utah.  There was one big difference between Park City and Hakone, though--hot springs!

One of the Awesome Ladies at Work gave us a hotel coupon that we used to stay at this hotel complete with a traditional Japanese dinner and a buffet breakfast.  We checked in and got settled--boys in one room and girls in the other room.  Then, it was time for dinner in the hotel's restaurant.

Just outside of the restaurant, there was a display for the upcoming Japanese holiday Children's Day (sometimes called Boys' Day, since Girls' Day is on March 3rd) on May 5th.  Remember that for Girls' Day, there are displays of hina dolls representing the Emperor and Empress on red tiers.  For Boys' Day, it is common to display samurai armor and carp flags.  Families will display samurai armor or just a traditional Japanese military helmet in their homes, one for each son.  These are to symbolize the desire for their sons to be strong and healthy.  We have seen a few small samurai helmets in shop windows, but this is the first armor display on tiers that we have seen.

We were seated at our table and sat on the floor on cushions.  There was a hole in the floor for our feet, however, and it kind of felt like we were cheating.  This was the children's first experience having a traditional Japanese dinner!  The entire dinner was 10 courses.  We started out by washing our hands and face with warm, wet washcloths that they brought out to us.  We also got some oolong tea.

Audra and Nathan had a kid's meal instead of the traditional meal that we all enjoyed....

....it consisted of orange slices, ramen noodles, rice, fries, egg, and a dumpling that looked like gyoza.  They had bites of our food as well, so they were pretty happy!

It's a good thing that everyone else is pretty adept at chopsticks, because this was the coolest meal in Japan for them up to this point--and eating authentically made it more fun!

This was the first couple of courses.  Beautifully arranged portions on mix-matched dishes that somehow all work together.  The portions are small, which is typical of a traditional meal.  There were some flowers--like dandelions--that were for decoration, but also were edible.  That was kind of fun for the kids.

Next course.....

....just like in Atami, there was another sakura potato bloom!

The ladies that served us were wearing kimonos, though they were plain in color and pattern.  It still added to the experience, though.  They were really sweet with the kids.

This dish was in the hot pot.   They brought one pot out for each person and lit the candle underneath.  After a few minutes,  they came around and cracked an egg on top of the ingredients in each one before putting on the lid and telling us to leave it alone to cook.  Once the egg was cooked, we were welcome to eat it.  It looked like cabbage, bamboo shoots, green onion, and noodles.  It was really tasty and most of us ate it quickly.  Tayla, who is a slow eater, was the last one to begin to eat her's.  She took a bite of the "noodle", thought it tasted funny, and gave it a closer inspection.  She was surprised to realize that what we all thought were noodles were actually little, whole fish--heads, eyeballs, bones, tails and all!  Oh, dear! 

Tayla didn't want to finish it, so she gave it to Christopher, who happily polished it off for her.

Logan eating his hot pot.

One of our favorite courses was the tempera basket.  I grew up making tempera, and have made it quite a bit since we came here because it's a family favorite, I already know what I'm doing, and I can make it authentically using the vegetables that the Japanese commonly use.  (The Japanese say that Americans use the wrong veggies for tempera!)  The common veggies that the Japanese use for tempera are green beans, eggplant, Japanese sweet potato, and a green-colored pumpkin with the skin still intact.  (The green pumpkin is our family's favorite!)  Mostly, though, they use veggies that are in season.  This tempera was unlike any that we have every eaten previously!  They had some kind of root that we had never seen before, eggplant, some kind of leaf that tasted like kale, and--would you believe--a sakura leaf! 

We got a kick out of the fact that they took a cherry tree leaf and turned it into tempera! 

Kirstina loved this meal--noodles, rice, seaweed, and everything else that she just loves to eat!  She's our "Japanese baby"!

This was a dish that looked like a thick soup and had a great flavor....there was just one problem.  There were WHOLE tiny shrimp all through the soup.  Their beady, black eyes were looking up at us as they laid on our spoon.  Ew.  Chris got a lot more soup than his one bowl, since some of us just couldn't eat the shrimp or pick them out of the thick soup.

Dessert was a flan type pudding that everyone said was heavenly.  I gave mine to Nathan and Ray gave his to Audra since the kid's meals didn't come with a dessert. 

Eating a 10-course traditional Japanese meal was super fun for these American kids!!  In spite of the eyeballs, guts and brains, everything was yummy and we all enjoyed trying out different food and eating out of pretty little dishes.
After dinner, we went up to our rooms and got into our "kimono robes" that were provided.

There is an onsen in this hotel, and Raymond said he would take any boys that wanted to go experience a traditional onsen.  Christopher and Logan went with Ray and really enjoyed it.  They felt a little weird at first, but once they realized that no one was paying attention to them, they thought the onsen was really fun.

Caitlin was hesitant, but got the courage to try it--for the experience.  She didn't want to have any regrets.  Audra happily went with her, and thought it was great!  She was splashing around and loving it, but she didn't like how hot the water was.  She kept complaining about how hot it was--Caitlin said that the temperature for the water read 43 degrees Celsius.  That's 109 degrees F.  Caitlin was very uncomfortable, but was glad that she did it--ONCE.  Never again.  This was the outside onsen at the hotel......

     

....and this was what the inside looked like.  Pretty and serene.

Nathan and Tayla were not interested in trying out the public onsen AT. ALL.  Instead, Tayla got into the bathtub in the girls' hotel room and Nathan got into the tub in the boys' room.  Because the purpose of the bathtubs in Japan are for soaking, they are REALLY deep!  It was so deep that Tayla couldn't fill it up all the way or else the water would be over her head.  As for Nathan, he had a ball doing cannonballs into the deep bathtub!  He got to splash to his heart's content because the tub is in a tiled room with a door and a drain on the floor for showering.  He thought that being able to do cannonballs in a bathtub was the best thing ever!

Being Treated Like the Emperor and Empress

 

Thursday, April 23rd--Long ago, in the quiet Japanese village of Atami, a farmer was working in his field and accidentally fell into this crater.  Unfortunately, he was scalded to death due to the extreme temperature of the hot spring below it.

Atami literally means 'hot sea'.  It rises out of the ocean in a slow curve that suddenly climbs into the steep hills that overlook the town.  Long ago these hills formed one side of a volcano with the other side being submerged in the sea. The town is built in the remnants of the crater.
The geology of Atami is pretty interesting, and with seven main hot springs in the city, it has become a resort town where one can enjoy a relaxing onsen.  Raymond and I spent the night at a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn very similar to America's bed and breakfast inns) that was just across the street from the crater where that farmer so long ago met his tragic fate. The Awesome Ladies at Work helped us with all the accommodations and travel arrangements!  Couldn't have done it without them!

This trip is to celebrate Ray's 40th birthday, as well as the completion of his last semester of law school EVER, his last law finals EVER--of law school being over and done with!  I wanted to take him somewhere where he would be spoiled and treated like a king!  The kids were great to let us get away and Caitlin and Tayla tended the kids for us.  The last time that just the two of us were able to get away for a night was 10 years ago!
The cheapest way for us to travel from Tokyo to Atami was to take the shinkansen--the bullet train. 

The inside of these trains look like an airplane.  These trains are currently the fastest in Japan and it took us about 45 minutes to get to Atami.  Normally, it takes about 2 hours.

 It is always fun to see the landscape of Japan outside of Tokyo.  The mountains here are different than in America and are very beautiful.  We also passed several small towns and fields.

Just outside of the Atami train station, there was a public foot bath using water from a hot spring!

We walked to our ryokan, which was called the Furuya Ryokan.  Founded in 1806, Furuya Ryokan is the oldest traditional Japanese ryokan in Atami.  There is also an onsen here.

Upon entering, we met a butler-type gentleman who bowed and gave us slippers.  He took our shoes into the next room and set them on a shelf.  Every time we left or came, this gentleman was at the door ready to help us with either shoes or slippers.
I loved this grandfather clock in the lobby.  It was beautiful!

 While Ray was checking us in, I noticed this photograph.  It looked to me like the Emperor and Empress when they were younger.  I asked Raymond to ask about the photograph, and we were told that it was indeed the Emperor and Empress when they came to stay at this very same ryokan 30 years ago.  Awesome!  I wanted Raymond to be treated like a king--and here we are staying at a ryokan that Japan's Emperor and Empress enjoyed!  Perfect.

We were led to our room, which was traditional in every way!  It was one large room that could be divided into three rooms.  We took our slippers off at the genkan because there were tatami mats on the floor.  The lady who showed us where our room was brought in some tea and a treat for us.  She was wearing a kimono and was very sweet.

The Japanese garden outside our patio.

While there is a public onsen at this ryokan, we also have a beautiful and very private outdoor onsen attached to our room.  There was a sign warning us to be careful of the temperature because it is not regulated in any way.  This hot spring water is simply pumped from the ground and piped to the tub.  The temperature varies according to how hot the earth wants to make it.  The warning sign stated that it can sometimes get up to 75 degrees celsius!  That's 167 degrees F!

The toilet room had special shoes to be worn only in this room to help with cleanliness. 

Here is the shower area.  See how the shower head is OUTSIDE of the tub?  This is a traditional Japanese bathroom.  To shower, you stand in the middle of the room or sit on the brown stool in the bottom right of the picture.  You use the shower attachment to get wet and fill the bucket that's on top of the stool with water.  There is a drain on the floor, don't worry.  Then, you shut the water off, soap down--using the water in the bucket as needed, and then turn the shower back on to rinse.  It is considered extremely rude to clean yourself in the bathtub.  Tubs are for soaking only, and one should only get in after one is clean.  Therefore, if you want to take a relaxing bath, you need to shower outside of the tub first.

After we explored our room and got settled, we decided to go get some lunch.  The sweet tea lady told us where a close restaurant was near the beach, but she warned us to not eat too much because we would be served a large dinner.

We ate and then walked along the Atami beach for a while before heading back to the ryokan.

It was time to try out the public onsen.  We figured if we went in earlier in the afternoon/evening, most of the guests wouldn't have already checked in and there wouldn't be as many people there. 

An onsen is traditionally a public bathing house, using water from a hot spring.  We had robes in our room that looked much like kimonos that we put on before walking down the hall to the onsen.  Before the Meiji Restoration, onsens were mixed gender baths.  I really appreciate Emperor Meiji and many of the changes that he made during his rule.  I said good-bye to Raymond as he entered the male onsen and I went through the doors to the female onsen.

Upon entering, there were baskets where you put your towel and--gasp--robe before walking through another set of doors into the onsen room.  I wasn't prepared for that.  I planned on wearing my robe and slipping it off as I entered the water, keeping my modesty as much as I could.  The two Japanese ladies that were dressing were having nothing of it.  Being too helpful, they took EVERYTHING I had and put in in a basket before showing me to another set of doors which led to the showering area.  They were very forceful in gesturing to me and speaking in Japanese that I needed to wash before entering the bath.  I knew the expectations, but also know that most Japanese get annoyed with gaijins (foriegners) who come to onsens because we don't always clean ourselves properly before getting into the bath which is very distasteful.

Luckily, I was the only one in the showering/onsen area.  Whew!  I quickly but thoroughly washed at the shower--notice in the picture the stool, bucket, and tolietries there for you to use.  There was an inside onsen and an outside onsen.  I decided to go outside, it looked deeper and therefore would make me feel more covered up.....

........Besides, it was simply gorgeous.  Wow, what a beautiful, relaxing bath!  It took me a minute to get in because, holy moly, the water was HOT.  Once I could, I sat down and got into a ball.  This was such a conflict--to be in such beautiful and relaxing surroundings, yet be so uncomfortable because you are completely naked in a public place.
Because of the volcanic nature of Japan, there are thousands of hot springs that are used for bathing all over the country.  The water from these hot springs will contain different minerals which are believed to help with medical issues.  Japanese people will enjoy a good soak in a proper onsen to heal aches, pains and diseases such as arthritis, chronic skin diseases, diabetes, constipation and so on.
Raymond was in the next room, and he and I conversed by yelling at each other through the wall.  He was the only one in the male onsen as well. 
We stayed in the public onsen for about 20 minutes, at which point we both got out because we were both sweating and getting nauseous from the extreme heat of the water.  Luckily, no one came in the whole time we were in the public onsen.  We went back to our room and got dressed for dinner. 

At this ryokan, dinner is served in your private room--and what a dinner it was!!  THIS DINNER WAS SO FUN!!!  We sat down on the cushions on the floor of our room and were served by a lovely woman wearing a beautiful kimono.  Our dinner was several courses--25 courses in all--all beautifully arranged.  Our server would bring in a couple of courses at a time, leave, and return to gather the dishes and bring in more food. 

It is polite in Japan to wash your hands and face with a warm washcloth before eating.  See the washcloth on the tray to Ray's right? 

Everything is so artfully arranged on such beautiful dishes, you almost don't want to touch any of it! You just want to sit and look at it.

This was real wasabi--I've only ever bought wasabi in a tube.  It was neat to see the actual root and grind it fresh on this dish.

Another course--look at the fish!  Fresh tuna sashimi, with a fish face looking at you!  The same was done with the shrimp.  Love the white flower dish!

I find it interesting that the dishes do not coordinate or match in any way.  So different from America.

This soup looked a little scary, but it was really tasty.

Another course, with the hot pot going on the left.  Time to do yakiniku--cook your own meat and vegetables!  I love this yellow soup dish, too!

Not much soup, but they took the time to cut a potato into a sakura blossom shape and dye it pink!  Wow!

Raymond cooking his meat and veggies on the hot pot.

Another course.  I wanted to buy these dishes....so pretty.  See the little thing my chopsticks are resting on?  That is a chopstick holder and is used by the Japanese as an appropriate place to put your chopsticks when you aren't using them.  It is kind of gross to just lay them on the table after they've been in your mouth and it is considered rude to rest your chopsticks in your food, especially rice!  Rice is sacred to the Japanese, because it is considered the foundation of all life.  If you leave your chopsticks in a bowl of rice, it is like you are stabbing the rice, and therefore stabbing life. 

These were the last courses.....in this picture you can see a paper that gave us an itemized list of what we were eating for each course.  We ate some of the strangest things, such as jellyfish and sea cucumber to name a few.  Everything was incredibly good!  Each dish was a work of art in both look and taste!  I loved the touch of flowers or leaves to the dishes to make them more ornamental.  This is so typical of the Japanese--everything must be in order and be aesthetically beautiful!

This was dessert: a strawberry, some kiwi, and sakura mousse.  Holy cow, the mousse was simply amazing!  It made our eyes roll back in our head, it was so good!

It was such a disappointment when dinner was over, because it was so fun to see each dish and read on the paper what each food item was.  Dinner was a wonderful treat!  I was stuffed, but Ray was still a little hungry. 

We decided to go back down to the beach and walk along it again in the moonlight.  Such a lovely setting!  We stopped at a convenience store and picked up some treats and a soda to share back at our room. 

We enjoyed relaxing in the safety of our private onsen the rest of the evening before a gentleman came to our room and moved the table and cushions to the side of the room and made our futon beds on the floor.  Futons are so comfy to sleep on! 

In the morning, we again took turns soaking in the private onsen while enjoying the crisp morning air.  The water was so hot that in order to be able to stand it, we had to have some cold water running in the bath the whole time.  The tub overflowed, but it didn't matter because it was outside. 
A gentleman came and folded up our futons for us and put the table and cushions back in the center of the room.  Then, it was time for breakfast!  Not as many courses for breakfast as dinner was the night before, but it was still a lot of food with many fun and pretty dishes!
Notice the tray on the floor next to my cushion?  That is the rice that accompanies every Japanese meal.  Our server set it there because I am the woman, and it is traditional for the woman to serve the man.  Serve the man I will, because this trip is for him!

Very different breakfast from the typical American breakfast of bacon and eggs.  There was a grilled fish (with the head still attached) and sushi......

...and miso soup.  We often have miso soup for breakfast since coming to Japan, but clams (shells still attached) added to its flavor.

This was some type of hot rice cereal with bits of seaweed in it.  It reminded me of oatmeal, but it tasted better.

On the hot pot was a soup with little potatoes and scallions in it. 

Some different types of seafood.  I don't know what was in the green dish...it was very salty and the texture was slimy.  That was the one thing out of everything that we were served here that I just couldn't eat.

All too soon, it was time to check out and head back to Tokyo--where the kids were waiting for us to take them to Hakone! 

Our stay in Atami was so relaxing and fun--we truly were treated like an emperor and an empress during our stay at Furuya!