Silver & Gold Part 2

After visiting Nagoya Castle, we went to our ryokan to stay over night.  The ryokan's website said that it was within walking distance from the castle, but I'm glad we found a cab.  Staff at the castle suggested going to the hospital across the street to get a cab and that worked out fine -- there were several waiting for fares.

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn.  Most often the rooms have tatami mats and guest sleep on futons on the tatami mats.  Japanese futons are not like American ones.  They are much thinner, but come with a thick quilt to lie under.  At this ryokan, Kyoya,  our futons were on a stack of thick foam pads, so there was plenty of padding.  

At my dorm room, I have a futon set on a hard cot.  It's not bad, but if I was staying any longer, I'd buy some foam pads to put underneath.

Our room had a living room with TV, a wet bar, a toilet room complete with the washlet toilet that even opened the lid automatically.  There was also a shower room, and a bedroom.  Very nice!

Here are our futons.

 Here's the wet bar, with instant coffee and tea.

There was a living area with a couch, and this small table, too.

Outside was a garden, with a dusting of snow on it.

We didn't choose dinner at the hotel. so we went out to find some place close by.  We found a ramen shop and tried a local specialty -- it was ramen noodles without the soup -- just the fixing on top of noodles: some pork belly, egg, pork fat, and veggies.  Not my favorite, but it was nice to try something new. Since my friend had paid for the hotel, I had wanted to find some place nice to buy dinner.  Hopefully, lunch tomorrow will fit the bill!

Surprisingly, we managed to get to the restaurant, wander though a shopping street for a bit and get back to the hotel without getting lost.  Apparently, we both share a lack of a sense of direction -- but not Friday night.

There was also an ofuro (Japanese Bath), so we took advantage of that when we got back.  I wish that there were towels at the bath -- we left the ones in our room there.  Still, it was very relaxing to soak in a hot bath after a cold day!

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel.  Yes, it was as good as it looked!

Sashimi

Chicken and lotus root

Fruit

Spinach with dressing, beans with dressing, soybeans, salmon

There is an egg in there, being poached at the table!

The egg with tomato and greens

Miso soup

Tofu soup 

And of course, there was coffee and tea as well.  We were well fortified for the day!