Dining at Yoyokaku

Dinner is served in our room at our ryokan Yoyokaku.  Our room is actually two separate rooms - one is 8 tatami mats, the other is 6.  There is a sitting area that looks out into the garden, along with a bathroom with a shower and bath.  The larger communal bath is located elsewhere in the ryokan - big washing areas and large soaking tub.  The water is incredibly hot.  Andrea loved it (so she told me - the baths are single sex); I found it somewhat relaxing but too darn hot.

Our dinner was the traditional kaiseki of 8 or 10 courses prepared in different ways - boiled, raw, steamed, grilled and fried (tempura).  We had specified that we wanted fish and they did not disappoint.  The first course included an aji (horse mackerel) sashimi in a delicate, but spicy sauce that was out of this world.  We also had a saw-toothed perch sashimi that was delicious.  The tempura dish was "top shell," with which I was not familiar, but I Googled it and it appears to be some sort of snail.  That was served with a fried pepper as well called shishito.  The meal was finished with a rice course (a little boring) and then a melon for dessert, the type of which I was not familiar.

This morning's breakfast was traditional Japanese.  A variety of pickled items, grilled fish, tofu, a custard, miso soup with clams, special cherry tomatoes, a barley gruel.  They kindly brought me coffee instead of the obligatory green tea.

Second night dinner was the same idea.  A lot more sashimi this time (Andrea points out they call it the "raw course"), which we both enjoyed.  The top shell that we had the other night was served the second night was as good and interesting raw as it was in a tempura batter.

A couple of pictures will say a thousand words.