Day 11 – Travel Day 2, The Ryokan

Today was finally a day of relaxation! I mean it was a travel day, so there was obviously travel involved, but there were no massive walks, no mountains to climb, no scary adventures to be had. Nevertheless, I am still tired. I somehow don’t think that feeling is going away any time soon.

So today we had a sleep in – finally! Although does a sleep in still count if you stayed up later the night before? Oh well. We were up and checked out by 11 and on our way to our Hakone night! Our luggage is getting shipped directly to our Tokyo accommodation, so we needed to pack one night supplies to get us through. So lugging a carry on sized bag, we headed to the station. We organised today’s train tickets last night so it was easy to just pop through. We took another bullet train for 2 hours (by the way, best things ever, Melbourne needs them) a local train for 30 minutes to get off at Hakone station. With a 10ish minute walk along the river (Hakone is a beautiful little town, I will definitely make sure we take more photos walking out of it), we finally got to the Ryokan at about 5pm. This place is just overall beautiful. You walk up the driveway and immediately you are met with a waterwheel and pond filled with Koi fish. The guys kind of grouped around this for a minute or two just enjoying the sight when an older gentleman came out to greet us – a little unsure about the group of 12 white folk staring at the koi pond. He lead us to the lobby where we checked in and one gentleman took the boy pairs up to their rooms, and another man took the couples up to our rooms. I was first in line so when we stopped at the first room I took it for Drew and myself. Turns out that each room is a little different in size, and the first room was the smallest (typical Dani luck really). Even so, it is much much bigger than our Kyoto room and massive compared to our Osaka room. You walk in and you are met with the paper walls and the straw floors and a little table with the low chairs. Visually it is awesome to look at. Not quite like the movies but pretty close to! 

We were in our rooms long enough to have a little snoop when we had a knock on our door. A little elderly lady walked in with green tea and sweet bean cakes and sets them down on the table, and turned on that little table which turns out to be a Kotatsu, which is a little heated table with a doona under it, so when you’re sitting at it you keep nice and warm! Although they keep the rooms so warm it’s kind of redundant, but a cool feature nonetheless. While she was here she also demonstrated how to use the robes that were hanging in our closet for out Japanese Banquet. She seemed to have fun dressing me up in the kimono like robe, with the waist bow and everything. While also enjoying telling Drew off for doing it wrong. She was also very good at telling us where to sit for the perfect photo! Once she was done, she left us to go and start preparing out Banquet for 12! 

Another lady came down at about 5.55 to collect the crew for dinner. She took us all down leading us to the banquet hall, which is usually reserved for business meetings and the like, but they were kind enough to open it up for us, considering we were hiring a Geisha and we were such a large group! As we walked in, she inspected our attire to make sure we were all dressed correctly, and that no one had crossed the robe the wrong way – right side in then left is for the living, left side first then the right is how they dress their dead. Everyone passed apart from Brad and Chris! Who were rushed into the back room to be dressed correctly before the Geisha arrived.

We then all sat down at our prepared tables and were served our first course of sashimi! Now me being not a huge fan of fish was pretty unsure about this banquet, but committed to at least try a little bit if everything. And wouldn’t you know, the sashimi ended up being my favourite course! I have no idea which fish I ate, but I dipped it in soy sauce and it was delicious. It was after this first course that our Geisha arrived. She was so graceful in everything she did, and she was stunning. She was dressed in a beautiful pale green kimono, her hair up with a comb. She didn’t have the made up face like most westerners would imagine, apparently this is only done by request and special occasions now. She introduced herself as Yumiko and started preparing her instruments as we ate our next few courses. 

We all sat there mostly quietly, not quite sure what to do. And as it turns out, our group is quite unusual. It’s usually old executive men she performs for, and the fact that we were a large group of young tourists but very foreign to her! She sang and played 2 types of instruments, and also danced for us. When she was done she told us how unsettling it was to have everyone watching her so quietly. Apparently most of the time she performs, her clients don’t really watch and continue with their conversations – which is so sad, since what she was doing was so beautiful! She sat down with us and answered any and every question we had about anything! From asking specifics of geisha, to how long she has been doing it, even how to properly use Japanese phrases. She was wonderful and patient and answered everything as best she could. It was well past her time when she finally told us she had to leave. We were just so curious about everything; she could have answered our questions all night and we still wouldn’t have been done! We ended the night with a photo with Yumiko and then parted ways. 

Drew and Tim ventured to the inside baths (you have to be naked for these, a little too much for me!) and Amy and Alysha got to use the open air hot springs. Would have been wonderful! 

And I’m thinking that I might venture to the bathtub in the room as soon as this is posted!