Monday, November 17, 2008

Shokuyoku no Aki

Shokuyoku no Aki - Autumn is for eating, Japanese proverb.

We spent a late autumn weekend away and it basically amounted to finding something to do between eating fantastic kaiseki meals. Autumn is for eating? Hells, yeah!

So we (being me, my spouse and Benri the Ninja) travelled to Hakodate, a city on the southern end of the island of Hokkaido. This was our third trip to Hokkaido, our second to Hakodate. Chris and I were celebrating our 5th wedding annivesary. Benri was celebrating being back from the desert, seeing clouds again, and tempratures less than 140 degrees farenheit. We spent Friday through Sunday at the beautiful Wakamatsu, a traditional Japanese ryokan.

Ryokans are reknowned for the level of service, the loveliness of the rooms, and the fantastic kaiseki meals. Some ryokans have onsen or hot springs, too. Wakamatsu had a gorgeous onsen, all marble and pale wood. The outside bath was on a balcony!

We were the only people on our floor and there were scant few guests at the rest of the ryokan. We had a huge room with a gorgeous ocean view - we were about 100 feet away from the water. The sound of the surf was amazing! I can understand why the Japanese Royal Family chose to stay here.

Did I mention the food? I think I did. But I will mention it again. The whole stay revolved around eating.

You can see pictures on my flickr photostream.

No comments: