A little taste of Japanese ancient customs: A night at Shiraume Ryokan in Kyoto

While living in Miyanoshita, Hakone in 1991, I had the honor of being invited to a private Japanese tea ceremony in a classic Japanese room at Kikkaso-Inn, the former Imperial family summer villa in Miyanoshita that was built in 1895. Couldn't ask for a better place to experience it! I was blown away and humbled by the experience. The experience that stayed with me for a long time and that made me dream of staying at a ryokan. My dream finally came true almost 2 decades later when we stayed at this lovely Shiraume Ryokan in Kyoto last month.

Shiraume Ryokan is located in this picturesque little street in one of the historical areas near Gion district.

loved the entrance...

When we arrived, we were greeted by Satoko-san who helped us with our luggage and took us to our room, Umezono on the second floor where we were served Japanese green tea and sweets. 

Umezono has a private bath (made of hinoki cypress wood) and a view of a serene garden and Shirakawa Stream. 

Since we wanted a full Ryokan experience, we booked a room with Kaiseki dinner and breakfast - both served in our room. Our 12-course dinner was just outstanding. Tomoko-san, the owner, who personally served us during both dinner and breakfast, explained that the ingredients for Kaiseki meals are carefully chosen and properly prepared according to the season and artfully presented to reflect the nature shapes and color. To maintain freshness, each course is served right after it is prepared. Every time she brought in the food, Tomoko-san took the time to explain what we were going to enjoy. I couldn't remember all the details of each meal, but in addition to fugu - the infamous Japanese fish that people risk their lives to eat it - there were appetizer, a bowl of clear fish soup, beautifully presented sashimi, jelly dish, baked dish, vegetable dish, seared duck breast, deep fried dish, tempura, rice and pickles and dessert.

                     appetizer - light, delicious and beautifully presented  

                   

                                

                                

      I slept like a baby in this comfy futon 

The Japanese breakfast was fabulously delicious. I especially liked the Japanese rolled omelette. 

After breakfast we hanged out in our room enjoying the classic, elegant and tastefully done decor and watching the world go by while listening to the stream outside. Staying at Shiraume was simply one of the best experiences in my life that I will never forget! 

Jakarta, November 2009

Beautiful pictures of Bunderan HI (HI roundabout) Jakarta at dawn viewed from hotel room.

and on a normal day...

I was in the city for 10 days last month and as always, had a great visit. In addition to spending time with family and doing some work, I attended a half-day workshop about making batik (mostly tracing over the design on a cotton cloth with hot wax using canting) held in Museum Bank Mandiri. It was a fun activity in a beautiful setting. I would do that again for sure.

18 hours in Narita, Japan

On my way home on JAL, I was transiting in Narita. It was already dark by the time I arrived at my hotel. So after freshening up a little bit I went to the nearby restaurant just across the street, spotted from the shuttle bus earlier. It was a noodle house. What a perfect meal to have in a cold and rainy night like that evening! But I went for a bowl of rice, vegetable stir fry and one hard boiled egg as they used pork for the broth. It was the lightest, simplest and tastiest stir fry I ever tried! 

This wasn't my first trip to Japan. I lived in Miyanoshita in Hakone for about 3 months in the early nineties. That was some time before I was really interested in food.  But I do remember after returning to Indonesia, I found myself often craving for sushi which was not available in the city where I lived at that time. I didn't even like fish before I came to Japan!  Fast forward, early in the morning after breakfast, I took a shuttle from the hotel to Keisei Narita Station. 
It was very cold in Narity City. I rushed to Doutor Coffee outside the station for a cup of hot chocolate and Japanese pastry and sat around to enjoy my morning. 

Then walked down to this cute Omote-Sando path

 to Narita-san Shinsyo-ji Temple (pictured below). 

From the temple, after exploring the side streets I went back to Omote-Santo path in hopes to find a restaurant that was already open so that I could enjoy unagi for (early) lunch. I loved unagi (eel) and heard that unagi is Narita City's speciality. So I had to try it. To my disappointment, the city was still pretty dead. 

Several restaurants were just getting ready to open their doors for their customers by the time I had to go back to the station to catch the shuttle back to my hotel. Sigh...

Saw this gentleman bake senbei (Japanese rice crackers) on my way to the station, so got some to snack on the plane and for my family in Jakarta.  

Glad to find onigiri at the hotel's convenience store. Grabbed a couple of those to munch on while waiting for hotel shuttle to take me back to the airport.