Omotenashi-spirit, hospitality at Japanese hotel 2

There were some other omomtenashi at Suimeikan.

There were some events and activities for guests.

They had a room for table tennis. Table tennis was a very popular activity at ryokan in the olden days. I don’t see table tennis much at ryokans nowadays. We enjoyed it. My brother and I are pretty good at table tennisψ(｀∇´)ψ

Live jazz at the lounge for free ♪( ´▽｀)

Bingo game at night
We all won some prizes except Hiro, my wife.
Poor Hiro 。・゜・(ノД`)・゜・。

I joined a little tour in the hotel.
They showed some art pieces in the hotel and facilities such as huge banquet room, a hallway for small banquet rooms and the stage for Japanese play called “No”.

During the tour, we passed a tea room. The guide didn’t explain about the tea room. I wish they had served tea at the tea room.

There were some flowers and decorations in the hotel. I think they are a part of their omotenashi.

Kadomatsu, a New Year's decoration made of bamboo and pine branches, literally means gate pines. It is displayed in pairs outside of the main entrance as a gate.

Decorations with rabbit figures at the lobby
Rabbit is the animal of the year.

Flowers around the hotel

Kagami-mochi, a special decoration for New Year made of rice cake.



Flowers in guest rooms

Where is the bedroom in a Japanese-style hotel?

I have been talking about the trip during my New Year holidays and ryokan, Japanese-style hotel.

The rooms for guests at ryokan don’t usually have a bedroom. They are tatami room with a low table and some cushions to sit on, and look like a living room. You won’t find any beds there. You might wonder where to sleep.





Actually, the living room becomes the bedroom. After dinner, staff come to your room. They will move the table aside and lay out futon-beddings. They are used for the operation, and they are fast in doing it.



See, The living room became the bedroom　ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ
Ta-dah!!


We had dinner in our room so the staff came after dinner and arranged futon in front of us. But if you have dinner at hotel’s restaurant, they usually arrange futon during your dinner. You might be surprised when you come back from the restaurant ((((；゜Д゜)))))))


Where did the futon-bedding come from?

Each room has a closet for futon at ryokan. Futon is usually kept in the closet.


I’m sorry about today’s post. It is not relevant to tea. I just wanted to introduce Japanese culture.

Omotenashi-spirit, hospitality at Japanese hotel

今日は雪です。この辺では年に数回しかふらないんだけどね。今日はちょっと積ってきてます(^-^)

I’ll introduce some omotenashi (hospitality) that I found at the ryokan (Japanese-style Hotel).

When we checked in the hotel and got in our room, the maid put our shoes away into the shoebox. She arranged the slippers. Slippers are not allowed in the room. You do not wear any slippers or shoes in a tatami room. The slippers are to walk around in the hotel. In the morning we checked out, without noticing, the maid has already prepared our shoes and returned the slippers in the shoe box.



They have light cotton kimono called yukata for guests. Many guests wear yukata and hang around in the hotel. It can also be a nightwear. They are usually average sized. When we arrived, the maid asked us our height and changed the youkata size for the ones needed. At many ryokan, the sizes you can choose from are limited to S, M and L But at this ryokan, they also have median sizes available. I thought it was a good service.




They also had socks for guest. This service was only for the high-grade rooms, not for the regular rooms. Do you notice the interesting design of the socks? The big toe is separated. This is similar to Japanese traditional socks and I guess it’s to fit Japanese sandals or wooden clogs.



They had a new year’s gift for us. It was a sake cup that is a white porcelain vessel with a golden kanji character. The meaning of character is rabbit, the animal of the year.



The breakfast for the regular room was buffet meal at the hotel’s restaurant. There are not only western meals but also Japanese dishes. What I liked about it was that a chef was making omelet on the demand of guests. I loved the hot and nice omelet. I thought this is a kind of omotenashi of the hotel.




The breakfast for the high-grade rooms was brought and served at our room. Before breakfast, sencha green tea and umeboshi (pickled plum) were served. I don’t know the reason why pickled plum is served with tea. Anyway we waited for breakfast preparation over tea. It was nice omotenashi.

Welcome drink at ryokan, Japanese-style hotel

ずっとサボってたけど今日久しぶりにウォーキングしましたv(^o^)v　三日坊主で終わらなければいいけど。。。

We visited Gero hot spring resort in Gifu prefecture on New Year holidays two years in a row from 2010. We stayed in Sumeikan, a ryokan or Japanese-style hotel. Omotenashi-spirit which means hospitality is valued in The Way of Tea. You can also find omotenashi at ryokan as well. I would like to talk about the trip and ryokan focusing on omotenashi-spirit for a week.



This year, we stayed at Suimeikan for two days, one day at a regular room and a nicer room on the next day. They served tea to welcome guests. Sencha was served at the regular room. Matcha was served at the nicer room. At Suimeikan, tea was prepared in other room and brought to us. At some ryokan, the welcome tea can be prepared by a maid in your room. At some reasonable ryokan, you will find a tea set on the table and prepare the tea yourself.

Sencha with some snacks at the regular room
The tea came in a cup with lid.



Matcha at the higher-grade room

Matcha on the go

今朝（けさ）は寒（さむ）かったぁ(+o+)　-3℃でした。車（くるま）のフロントガラスの霜（しも）がハンパない。。。

I sometimes visit my grandpa at the nursing home. I of course visited him on New Year’s with my family.



My grandpa is hard of hearing, so we can’t have smooth conversations. But we do not need many words when we have tea together. We can communicate through tea, so I sometimes bring my tea set and serve him matcha. He is very happy when we do that. It’s nothing special. It is just an ordinary tea time, letting him choose a confection from the various and colorful sweets, preparing matcha in front of him and drinking it together. The natural moment spending with family over tea is the greatest pleasure and makes us smile. Not many words but we are definitely communicating though tea.

I think Japanese tea is a powerful tool for communication and peace. I think matcha should not only be served in a nice tea room or at a formal tea ceremony. You only need a whisk of tea and a tea bowl. You can take them anywhere you go and have peaceful time with your significant others. Why don’t you go out with your tea set and have fun?

Tea ceremony at Urakuen in Inuyama

こんにちは

After tenshin at the hotel, we moved to Urakuen for matcha (thin tea). Urakuen has a few tea houses surrounded by gardens with a lot of greens. As we went on the pass, the historical tea houses appeared from the trees. I was excited having tea in this nice place with a quiet and peaceful atmosphere.




Each ceremony was held with about 30-40 guests. I believe this Inuyama tea ceremony is popular. Many people were there, so we waited our turn for quite a while, maybe a half-hour in a waiting room and we moved to another waiting room and waited for another half-hour. Our turn came and we were led to the tea room. It was kind of a formal occasion, so I was not able to take photos of the ceremony. Sorry.　As I waited my tea, I looked around the room. The walls and pillars were old and tasteful, and the decorations on tokonoma were pleasing to the eye. My matcha came in a colorful bowl. I think it was a kyo ware. Various bowls used at the ceremony. The lady next me was having tea with a black raku bowl. The matcha and confectionary were pretty good. Not only the great taste of tea and sweets, but also I was happy with all the experiences regarding the ceremony. I thought it was an excellent experience relishing tea on tatami in the rustic tea room with the beautiful environment at New Year’s. I also though this is a good start of New Year!! And it will be a wonderful year for meヽ(^。^)ノ

This is our master and me in front of the tea house.


Some photos at Urakuen

Tenshin, light meal at tea ceremony

On the second of Jan, I went to Inuyama with Hiro and our tea master to join a tea ceremony. Inuyama is our nearby city in Aichi prefecture. The tea ceremony is held at Meitetsu-Inuyama Hotel and Urakuen which is next to the hotel. At the tea ceremony, tenshin (light meal for tea ceremony) was served at the hotel and matcha was at a tea room in Urakuen. We went to the hotel first. The tenshin was served in a big hall with tables, not in a Japanese tatami room. Eventhough people were wearing nice outfit (Some of them were wearing kimono), the tenshin ceremony seemed casual. You were seated on a first-come-first served basis. Formal manners for tea ceremony were not required so much, so we just enjoyed the meal (^-^)

This is the tenshin served there. It’s New Year, so the dishes were osech-style. Osechi is Japanese special meal for New Year. Sacred sake was also served, which is in the red vessel on the near side.



Zoni was served in a bowl. Zoni is a soup with rice cakes and vegetables. It is also a popular meal for New Year. Zoni has different tastes and ingredients from region to region. Zoni isn’t my favorite meal but the zoni served here was pretty good. I loved the tasty flavor of the soup.

The tea served with tenshin was hojicha ヽ(^。^)ノ

Sweets from a confectionary shop and supermarket

I went to Azumaken, my favorite confectionary shop in my town on the New Year’s Eve. There are several confectionary shops in the town, and I think Azumaken is the best. They might be a little expensive but their sweets look beautiful.

These are the sweets we bought at Azumaken. They were around 200yen each.



I also found some confectionary at a supermarket. They were about 100yen each. I don’t usually find this type of confections at the supermarket, but I guess it’s New Year so there are some demands. I bought them to compare how different from sweets at Azumaken.


The sweets from Azumaken were about double in the price, and looked sophisticated. The sweets from the supermarket were harsh in the color and crude in the design. Supermarket ones were not bad. I love these reasonable sweets, but they pale when compared to expensive sweets, as a matter of course.

There was a same design of sweets at both Azumaken and the supermarket. It was a plum-blossom-shaped confection. Do you see the difference?

They are made of sweet bean paste, and nothing taste like plum, though.


These are confectionary from Azumaken. They are images of crane and tortoise. Crane and tortoise are lucky animals in Japan.




These are also confectionary from Azumaken. The pink one on the left is an image of the rising sun with a design of big wave on it. I like the pretty color of hte sun and the great composition of the wave. I think the wave looks like The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa2.jpg).




We had osechi, a special meal in the morning of New Year Day. After osechi we enjoyed the confections with matcha.