Each traditional Japanese meal we ate on this trip, including this one, consisted of many courses of small portions beautifully presented. Some of the food items we ate at this breakfast were: miso soup with clams, tofu, rice, salmon, pickles, sour plums, sardines and yogurt with strawberries. For other traditional Japanese meals we ate elsewhere the food items sometimes were served in small wooden boxes. Food items often served at our other traditional meals were: various Japanese salads (fruits and/or vegetables), sashimi (meat and fish), sushi, cooked meat with vegetables sometimes prepared by us in a small cooker at our table, rice, tempura, miso soup, green tea and of course sake.
Also seen in this photo (left to right) are Ruth and Linda directly behind Judy , and Jane and Michael directly behind Ruth and Linda.
The Nunohan Hotel is a traditional Japanese inn (a ryokan). The Nunohan Hotel has been in existence for 150 years. Ryokans date from the Edo Period (early 1600's to the mid 1800's) during which time (and later) they served as guesthouses for Japanese traveling on the road.
Many guesthouses and residential houses (even upper class houses) from the Edo Period (early 1600's to mid 1800's) had few items in the rooms. Perhaps a religious and cultural simplicity was a guiding theme. As was true of the historical ryokans, Nunohan is bare (by today's standards) in style, especially the guest rooms. Each guest sleeps on the floor on a futon placed on a tatami (a traditional mat) in a traditionally styled room. When we first arrived at our room, the only piece of furniture in it was a table. When we came back to our room after dinner the table had been moved to the side and the futon and tatami were in the middle of the room. Widespread use of tatami for nobility, priests and samurai dates from about 1100 c.e. - a time marked by the emergence of the samurai class and feudalism in Japan.
Guests of Nunohan are expected to remove their shoes before entering their rooms and use the provided toe socks when in their rooms and the provided slipper/sandals when in the rest of the hotel. The hotel also features communal hot spring baths (Judy did it), meals of many small portions of fresh, seasonal ingredients (typical of our other traditional meals elsewhere in Japan) and a beautiful garden which reflects seasonal changes in vegetation. Guests at Nunohan are encouraged to wear kimonos (provided by the hotel) which we did to dinner.
Nunohan is in Suwa-shi, a resort town which features hotels with hot spring baths and Lake Suwa - both presumably a nice change of pace for the big city residents of Japan. Nunohan is located next to Lake Suwa. Excellent views of the lake are seen from the hotel's guest rooms. There is a natural hot spring under the lake.
In the book "Autobiography of a Geisha" by Sayo Masuda Suwa-shi is prominently featured as Masuda explores the life of a hot springs resort geisha (in contrast to the more commonly told tale of the life of a city geisha).
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