Houshi Ryokan, 21.04.24

 Houshi Ryokan, 21.04.24

Time to leave Osaka and venture into the unknown and a less traveled region of Japan along the Sea of Japan on the east coast of Honshu Island. The reason for going there was not so much a town or monument or even a sightseeing spot. It was to stay in a traditional Japanese guesthouse called a ryokan. An experience like no other! 

This particular ryokan claims to be the second oldest inn in Japan dating back to 718! It has been owned and managed by the same family for 46 generations! Tradition was assured and maybe we got a bit more than we bargained for!

Travel by train in Japan is quite exciting. We left Osaka at 12.12 on the Limited Express Thunderbird! It took us to Tsuruga where we changed to the Shinkansen Tsurugi direction Komatsu but had to get off at Kagaonsen as the hotel was only picking us up at that station. And sure enough their curtesy bus was right there at the small station of Kagaonsen. 

It took about half an hour to get to Houshi Ryokan located in a small village with no real name. It was sort of in the middle of a built up area and not what I expected at all. Anyway we were greeted by friendly staff and led in through a small entrance where we had to take our shoes off and put some wooden clogs on which were rather uncomfortable to walk in. 

Then they took us into a lovely room with views into their garden. A very Japanese looking garden too. We were invited to sit down and they gave us a cup of green tea. An attendant told us in broken English all about the ryokan and its facilities while in the meantime they processed our passports and check-in formalities. 

We were taken to our room through a maze of corridors and a sliding door which opened to a large room with tatami mats, cushions on the floor to sit on, a corner with a sitting area luckily normal height and a balcony looking out into the garden and pond. The bedroom was to the side and had two 'normal' beds. Attached were two bathrooms and a separate toilet. One of the bathroom had its own thermal pool. Very luxurious it was all. 

Once we settled in I was making my way back to reception to find out where dinner would be as it was included in the package. To my astonishment I was told that dinner would be served in the room and there was no other place to have dinner! That was unexpected and no way could I sit and eat my meal sitting on the floor! Just too hard with my two new hips. 

So I asked for a table and proper chairs. Not long after they delivered a kind of folding table and two chairs. Not quite normal height but manageable. 

As it was still quite early I decided to go for a walk and discover a little bit of the village. But not far from the guesthouse I found the entrance to a shrine, I suppose a shinto shrine and made my way up a flight of steps to a prayer hall. 

There was a display of two wooden statues both from the eleventh or twelfth centuries . One was of Bhaisajyaguru, the Medicine Buddha, holding in one hand a medicine jar and the other raised up in an Abhayamudra gesture signifying protection and peace. The other one was representing the Goddess of Mercy holding a lotus flower in her left hand and the other close to her chest with thumb and index finger touching.

It occurred to me how much these Eastern representations of gods and goddess resemble the Western and Christian symbols of Christ and Mary. Christ can often be seen in a very similar pose and Mary is depicted with a flower, a rose or sometimes a lily, in her left hand and Mary is also the Mother of Mercy.

Behind the temple led a path deeper into the forest and I decided to just explore a bit. All along the track were small statues or little gravestones most of them overgrown with mosses. Probably graves of people of long ago and now forgotten. I put a branch of fresh leaves into one of the vases as a token and went on my way.

It was lovely and quiet in this forest just coming back into green again. Mainly cedar trees and Japanese maple. The path soon forked and judging of where the village was I took a right turn downhill and through a small gully where there was another shrine. But soon I came out of the forest past a pond and a playground and back onto a road which took me to the hotel.

Dinner was going to be served soon and we were quite excited of getting to taste some real Japanese food! Our room attendant arrived and set the table and then brought in a tray of food. All nicely presented in beautiful bowls and ceramic dishes and a pot of rice too on the side table.

The attendant was a nice old lady and breathing rather heavily through her mask. We didn't really see much of her face but saw that she was smiling at her unusual European guests. After some bowing and words we could not understand she left us to our own devices.

Well we knew straight away that this was different and was going to be a challenge. Christine opened one of the bowls and nearly screamed! There was a live abalone in it! She put the lid back on and put it to the side. What were we supposed to do with it?!

But then looking over our tray of food there were other things we just could not bring ourselves to eat. There was a snail, not sure whether it was cooked or not, it had a toothpick right through its head presumably to prize the snail out of the shell. Then there was a small dish with two baby squids in a kind of inky liquid looking rather fresh. It was all rather hard to look at let alone to eat!

Luckily there was plenty of rice and soya sauce and the sashimi was good plus there were pieces of wagyu beef as well. Mizo soup was good and tofu was ok. There was also a grilled sea bream which I enjoyed the most. We also ordered a bottle of red wine which was served ice cold! It made it drinkable!

The lady came back after a while and cleaned every and showed some astonishment that we did not eat everything especially the abalone. I wonder what happened to it.