A Ryokan is a Japanese Guest House. We stayed at Maruei at the base of Mount Fuji and it was AMAZING (great job on picking that out, Andrew!).
Very strange staying somewhere as the only English speakers. Andy & Jana gave us an idea of what some of the cultural expectations were, but I'm suspicious that for all the bowing and Ohio Gozeimas ("good morning"s) they were glad to see the bumbling Americans leave ( : I even tripped over all the shoes at the entrance on my way out the door! Anyone that knows me well can appreciate this classic moment of Mandy clutziness!
So, here's the drill: Right after you check in, they lead you to a small cafe where you sit down and they serve you seaweed green tea using some traditional tea ceremony moves.
The tea was disgusting so we moved on pretty quick...up to our rooms to clean up for supper.
We ate in a private little room with a sunken floor-you put your feet under the table by the heater, and they bring many many courses of Japanese delicacies-some were hard to stomach but I tried everything ( :
KJ trying to eat the sea snail
We didn't find out til later what all we'd eaten...I think it's better that way ( : Sashami (raw fish platter), lotus root, shrimp, snail, jellyfish, and...um...rocky mountain oysters? ( :
While you are eating, the staff comes and gets your futons ready-not like I pictured them, but very comfy "sleeping bags" on the floor made of Tatami mats.
And of course, the best part was the Onsen (hot springs bath). Here's some pictures.
Etiquette states you don your Yukata robe to go to the baths. Benj is modeling the robe with the split socks (split so you can wear sandals with them). In his words, he was "plenty stylish".
I grabbed a quick pic of the onsen when no one was around. The "no one around" part is important because everyone bathes "in the buck"...yeah, talk about a culture shock ( :
Here's some more pics of the baths and the views of Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi. It felt like jumping into the pages of an exotic travel magazine. They even had an herbal hot spring bath, which was like bathing in green tea!
One of our favorite stories was Benj & the steam room...Benj tried unsuccessfully to turn on the steam, only to give up and return to the hot springs. Moments later the hotel manager in his 3 piece suit came running into the bath,gesturing and looking frantic-apparently Benj had pushed the emergency call button! Benj & Trent tried to explain, but the poor guy didn't understand the meaning of "false alarm", so he searched every single room, and being japanese he was tiptoeing around WITHOUT his shoes in the wet bath. Nothing worse than wet socks!
Like I said, we loved our stay, but I think they were glad to see us go ( :
