(no subject)
It's easy to forget just how comforting even a warm toilet seat is on a cold morning. We've gone from warm, humid days in Osaka and Kyoto, to rainy, dry spells in Kagoshima and chilly grey mornings in Beppu. For which I am eternally grateful for said warm seat. :P
After 5 days in Kyoto, we left on a rainy day, where the rain just got heavier. It was therefore rather nice to be ensconced in our warm shinkansen cabin. I left harlzen to ooh and aah at the scenery (he loves train rides) while I lapsed in and out of sleep. We did have a station bento though (another long held dream of harlzen 's which he finally got to fulfill).
We got to meet up with illusion_85 which was great! Catching up was lovely and it was nice to see how she had settled into Kagoshima - the three years have really flown by. And thanks to our lovely hostess, we got to try an izakaya in Japan, including shabu-shabu, kurubota and the region's famous shochu.
And now we're in Beppu. The place we're staying at, Yamada Bessou was built in the 1930s. We are upstairs in the room above the dining room. Which is huge by today's Japanese standards. It is in two sections, has a corridor that takes up two sides and an attached toilet. We've tried the rotemburo, and ow, I had forgotten just how HOT it can get. But even just after 10 minutes of soaking, my skin does actually feel softer. We also had our first onsen dinner last night, which was tasty, albeit a bit surprising, with quite a bit of a western twist to how the food was prepared. Our main dish was stewed beef that I found delish but harlzen found too similar to his mother's cooking!
Oh, and after sleeping on futons, our unanimous vote is that it's great only if someone sets it up and packs it up for you. Like at this onsen. It is quite comfortable though. But I can see how storing it can be a pain and take up a lot of room, especially in small apartments.
After 5 days in Kyoto, we left on a rainy day, where the rain just got heavier. It was therefore rather nice to be ensconced in our warm shinkansen cabin. I left harlzen to ooh and aah at the scenery (he loves train rides) while I lapsed in and out of sleep. We did have a station bento though (another long held dream of harlzen 's which he finally got to fulfill).
We got to meet up with illusion_85 which was great! Catching up was lovely and it was nice to see how she had settled into Kagoshima - the three years have really flown by. And thanks to our lovely hostess, we got to try an izakaya in Japan, including shabu-shabu, kurubota and the region's famous shochu.
And now we're in Beppu. The place we're staying at, Yamada Bessou was built in the 1930s. We are upstairs in the room above the dining room. Which is huge by today's Japanese standards. It is in two sections, has a corridor that takes up two sides and an attached toilet. We've tried the rotemburo, and ow, I had forgotten just how HOT it can get. But even just after 10 minutes of soaking, my skin does actually feel softer. We also had our first onsen dinner last night, which was tasty, albeit a bit surprising, with quite a bit of a western twist to how the food was prepared. Our main dish was stewed beef that I found delish but harlzen found too similar to his mother's cooking!
Oh, and after sleeping on futons, our unanimous vote is that it's great only if someone sets it up and packs it up for you. Like at this onsen. It is quite comfortable though. But I can see how storing it can be a pain and take up a lot of room, especially in small apartments.