food Archives - Page 2 of 29 - The Wifey's Corner

April 19, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 12 Tokyo DisneySea

Here comes the happiest day of our trip, day 12 we finally went to DisneySea! Having seen some parts of the park from our hotel room window, it felt surreal to finally set foot in there. The Happy 15 entrance gate should be opened at 8.15 am and we went to the line at around 7.45 am. There was already crowd every where, noticeably more on the regular entrances. The Happy 15 entrance also had a fair long queue and I thought to myself the 15 minutes may not be that much help at that rate. Really have to give to the Japanese for their motivation to line up for theme parks so early! The same case happened when we visited Universal Studio Japan, although then we made an effort to came at least one hour before the opening time.

Anyway, let’s talk a bit about DisneySea. As far as my knowledge goes, there is only one DisneySea theme park in the world and it is only in Tokyo. Currently there are seven ports: Mediterranean Harbour, American Waterfront, Port Discovery, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Lost River Delta, and Arabian Coast. So yes, the park is massive and there is no way to enjoy everything thoroughly in one single day visit. But, a good planning ahead and choosing a right day to visit can help to maximise our visit.

As many others have suggested, try to come on either Wednesday or Thursday, avoid public holidays or weekends or school holidays. Make sure to check the crowd calendar to avoid heavy visitors days. If you do not read Japanese like myself, you can translate the page when opening it on Google Chrome. When we went there on December 6th, the predition was going to be well crowded (39,999 people) and sit on the mid range of the crowd prediction. I think the crowd calendar was quite accurate on the day, it was crowded but not that bad. And with the Happy 15, we managed to do all the rides I wanted to try.

Day 12

As soon as the Happy 15 gates opened, the line moved very quickly. The staffs browsed our bags only very briefly then off we went in. Our first destination was Toy Story Mania located on American Waterfront, as were many other people. Along the way, there are many staffs whole waves and smiles and remind people to not run 🙂 As we got to Toy Story Mania, there were already a big line. Hubby went to get the fast pass for 11.30 am and we went straight to Port Discovery for Nemo & Friends Sea Rider. Luckily there was almost no line and we went right in. It was a fun kids-friendly ride despite we do not understand Japanese 🙂

It is also a good advantage to familiarize yourself with the map and locations of rides that you want to try. Because of the huge land size, it is easy to lost yourself in all the other attractions. Getting lost and distracted will leave you with shorter time do the rides you want. They have maps on the show schedule stand and I believe you can always ask the staff for a copy. Also take note of what time your have-to shows started on this notice board near the entrance plaza.

After that, we tried our luck at Lost River Delta for Indiana Jones Adventure. Again, the waiting time from entrance to actually got into the ride was perhaps only 15 minutes. I love this ride, all the little details was meticulous and amazing with a tiny bit of adrenaline kick.

Finishing that ride, we still had more than one hour before we could use our fast pass for Toy Story Mania. So, we went to Mysterious Island for Journey to the Centre of the Earth. This one was a long wait ride, it took us approximately 90 minutes to finally get to the ride. It started as easy ride with beautiful props then it started roller-coaster-like and out of the blue we were out of Mount Prometheus and turned downward right away. I did not see that coming, but I enjoyed the ride and would definitely do it again if not for the long wait!

Next was Toy Story Mania which we agreed is our favourite ride and no wonder as many people would also agree. It is such a fun ride while shooting at stuffs then at the end of it, you get to compare your score to the person you share the seat with. I would absolutely ride this again and again and again, but man, the queue was long. Even to get a fast pass, it already run out so early! 🙁 So, despite we would love to ride few times, we only got one chance. Before we joined the fast pass queue for Toy Story Mania, we actually went to grab another fast pass for Tower of Terror.

We then walked back to Mysterious Island for 20,000 Feet Under The Sea. I had no idea what that was, it sounded cool, right? Turned out it’s such a kiddie ride 😛 But, it was pretty and felt like we were really under the sea. Anyway, there was almost no queue on that ride when we went there. After that, we went for our fast pass queue for Tower of Terror. It was meant to be one of the rides at DisneySea with most adrenaline kick and frankly, we were quite anxious about it. The actual ride was fairly short, but definitely turned our stomachs upside down 😀 I am not a fan of such ride where you get dropped suddenly from height, so I would not look forward to do that again.

Another kiddie ride we took while at Tokyo DisneySea was Aquatopia which we did twice, not really because it was super exciting. Just because we wanted to ride something before the day ended and it was one of the few with significantly less queue 🙂 But regardless, the ride was fun and enjoyable enough. We also did Jasmine’s Flying Carpet and Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster which the latter we also did twice and I quite fond of. It was a mini coaster with just enough adrenaline kick, a tiny scale in comparison to Raging Spirit. Raging Spirit with its 360 degrees coaster was probably a little out of our league, so we didn’t go for it. Maybe next time going there, I would join the single rider queue for this ride 🙂

The only shows we did at Tokyo DisneySea were Magic Lamp Theatre and the infamous Fantasmic! Looking through the website now, I regret not doing Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage – in fact, we did not pass that at all. Anyway Magic Lamp Theatre was nice even though not understanding Japanese.

The buildings on the background is Hotel MiraCosta

The Teddy Roosevelt Lounge at American Waterfront

Fantasmic was so magical!!! I could not recommend this enough to anyone going to DisneySea. You’ll see people started taking up best seats for the show like two hours before it started. We joined the crowd taking our seats about 90 minutes before it started and sat there in cold. A lot of the Japanese people came here really well prepared, brought their own mat and blankets. We definitely should do so next time, especially during the colder season. But, all that waiting in cold was so paid off when Mickey came to life! The show was magnificent and absolutely made you to be kids again. Love how it ended with the Disney characters parade on the boats, dancing and singing – total highlight of the day!

By the way, getting to restroom after the show finished was somewhat a challenge, all of them had super long queue 😀 We walked around the park once more time and by the time we went back to Mediterranean Harbour, the Christmas Tree Show was just about to start. We stayed for that and realised this was what’s on when we checked in to Hotel MiraCosta last night. Beautiful show complete with fake snow 🙂

Also, do not forget to ride the Transit Steamer Line or Electric Railway to get from one port to the other. It’s fun and you get a glimpse of the theme park from different perspective than walking. We tried to ride the Venetian Gondola, but it was not started yet when we were there. And we did not come back on the time they supposed to run again, so we missed it. We also missed out on the highly recommended Big Band Beat show.

Make sure to drop by inside Mermaid Lagoon, it is very pretty. All the colourful and lighting and underwater-themed truly brings mermaid cartoon to life! And there are also many child-friendly rides here, so if you come here with little kids, I am sure they would totally in love with Mermaid Lagoon.

Inside Mermaid Lagoon – ain’t that pretty?

I thought we did a lot that day and yet we still miss out on so many! It truly was an extremely happy day, being kids again, forget about all the worries in our lives and just enjoy the magical moments. We miss Tokyo DisneySea so much and wish if only they made one in Australia, which I would definitely buy the annual pass then 😀

Anyway, the Christmas Tree show wrapped up our day at Tokyo DisneySea and off we went to Tokyo DisneyLand hotel for the night.

What We Ate Here

There were a few snack food I wanted to try even before came here: weirdest flavoured popcorn, the gyoza steamed bun, and lastly those mochi with ice cream fillings. In fact, I deliberately looked for those mochi here until we found it in a small cart with long queue 🙂 It could be very easily missed but we got them at last. Some of the food we tried were surprisingly yummy. Some others were not that nice and I would definitely not bother with them again next time. Without further ado, here are what we ate at Tokyo DisneySea:

Delicious mochi with ice cream filling (chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavours) – ¥360

Attracted to this snack bar, Barnacle Bill’s, for the nice smoky smell and crowd in front of it

disneysea food — Sausage (with bone) – ¥370. It’s a bit salty to my liking, but cute eh 🙂

Another one that smelled good! – Liberty Landing Diner

Pork roll rice, yummy and hearty! – ¥500

High Tide Treats – saw some crowd in front of it and we got curious – smells sweet and chocolatey

And we got the chocolate Tipo Torta, yummy! – ¥360

Mickey castella cake with caramel cream ¥350 – this would be our least favorite snack at DisneySea.

Delicious gyoza sausage bun from Nautilus Galley – ¥500

Tiramisu Ice Cream ¥310 – was good but did not blow us away

Milk chocolate popcorn ¥310. We did not buy the container package, thinking it would be too much.

Curry naan with rice from Casbah Foodcourt, it was actually pretty good. Worth to try if you come here

The mango lassi, nice and refreshing. Total spent for two servings of food with one mango lassi was ¥2,140

We also got a sausage roll and some hot drinks after Fanstasmic! show which we forgot to take the pictures. The hot apple cinnamon drink, I believe a seasonal menu, was really good. There were actual chunks of apples in it and goes really well with subtle cinnamon flavour. The hot chocolate, on the other hand was so so – but it served the purpose to keep us warm 🙂

Obviously we missed many other good food here, for example spring tail from Sultan’s Oasis; Seaside bun; Gondolier’s snacks and Magellan’s. Let’s save them for our next trip!

March 31, 2018March 30, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 11

On day 11, we would be travelling out from Takayama to Tokyo. We used the free shuttle bus facility by Takayama Kanko Hotel that morning and waited only about 20 minutes or so for our train. The journey consisted of a train ride to Nagoya and another train to Tokyo station. Note: when reserving a shinkansen train from Kyoto or Nagoya towards Tokyo, remember to request seat on the left side. That is because Mount Fuji will be on the left side, and vice versa get seats on the right side when travelling out from Tokyo to Kyoto. This time we actually forgot to ask that when made the reservation, but thankfully the kind officer gave us seats on the left side 🙂

Day 11

Again, do not fall asleep on the train from Takayama to Nagoya. I only managed to take some footage from about half way through the ride. We were so grateful for able to see Mount Fuji with its snowy cap clearly on the ride to Tokyo. Before our trip, I have read many people say that often it’d be too cloudy to see that snowy cap. So, I kind of not letting myself too hopeful about seeing it, but there it was! 🙂 When we first got a glimpse of a mountain with white tip from far distance amongst many other mountains, hubby commented: “Are you sure that one is Mount Fuji? “. And, I had to admit he was correct, I wouldn’t know for sure. But as we got closer and it came to full view, everyone started to take pictures then you know it is indeed the majestic Mount Fuji. We also got another glimpse of it on our way to Haneda Airport before departing the country, truly grateful for these chances.

Mount Fuji viewed from the train to Tokyo

Anyway, our plan today was to get to Tokyo around 1 pm then went straight to Disney check in counter at Maihama Bay. The first things we noticed as we got to Tokyo were it was noticeably warmer and huge crowds in the station. Because it would be too early to check in to the hotel, but we could leave our luggage there and have them delivered to our hotel later. We were super excited to spend the night at Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta that night. We had left it until too late to book accommodation here and I had to literally monitor the web everyday to finally be able to get a room. So, we had our expectation up high on this – but anyway, I’ll do another post just for the accommodation next.

Once we left our luggage, we went back to Tokyo Station then to Asakusa. Our mistake was we used the JR to get to Asakusa-bashi instead of taking the subway to Asakusa which is closer to Sensoji Temple. Oh boy, that was a long walk from Asakusa-bashi to the temple, in which half way through I almost wanted to walk back and gave up. But, in the end we persistently walked to Sensoji Temple. And to make thing worse, we did not have pocket WiFi to access Google Maps. A really big thank you to all the convenience store chains in Japan where they provide free WiFi connection. We stopped at couple of convenience stores to get drink, access to Google Maps, and screen shot our walking journey 😀

asakusa tokyo skytree — Spotted Tokyo Skytree on the way to Sensoji Temple

Some streets in Asakusa near Sensoji Temple

What a relief to finally get to Sensoji Temple, but we actually did not spend long time here. Took a few pictures, walked around the market stalls then headed back towards subway station. On the way to the subway station, we stopped by a ramen shop for quick dinner. Then we made a quick stop at Akihabara, where hubby browsed some shops quickly before headed back to theDisneySea MiraCosta Hotel.

What we ate on Day 11

We had our big breakfast at Takayama Kanko Hotel, as can been on the previous post. When we got to Nagoya, we bought these ekiben for lunch – total ¥2,474. Hubby said his unagi bento was the least delicious unagi he had in Japan. My karaage chicken was delicious and generous portion as well. We also bought a pack of chocolate Pocky for ¥162 for dessert 🙂

ekiben unagi bowl — Unagi rice bowl with (what we think as) shredded fried eggs topping

ekiben special karaage set — Special karaage chicken set

While exploring the market outside of Sensoji Temple, we bought one rice cracker with seaweed ¥120 – but totally forgot to take picture of it 😅

And, these were our delicious warming dinner. The broth was such a delight and the owner was very friendly. The gyoza were delicious with crispy skin. The restaurant detail can be found below and we recommend this ramen place if you are nearby.

Ramen Asakusatai

2 Chome-19-12 Kaminarimon, Taitō-ku, Tōkyō-to 111-0034, Japan

I could not find their website, but this page have a great reference on the restaurant. They even have details on how to put your order through the vending machine. I wished we had learned about this before we came to Japan 🙂

Lastly, we bought this from a vending machine at Maihama Station before proceeding to the monorail to our hotel. I thought this was melon juice, turned out it’s soft drink with melon flavor 😅 Actually we also bought some bread in the convenience store at the station for breakfast the next day, but forgot to take pictures also.

March 22, 2018March 21, 2018

Hagi Takayama Kanko Hotel

Hagi Takayama Kanko Hotel was actually the first ryokan we booked mainly because they have few family onsen aka reserve-able onsen. Besides the good reviews on TripAdvisor, they also have shuttle services to/from Takayama station. That’s why we thought this would be a great ryokan style accommodation experience. For the first night at Takayama, we originally planned for a hotel stay, but as it turned out we ended up at Ryokan Tanabe, which was superb!

Anyway, back to Hagi Takayama Kanko Hotel – it is much bigger in size compared to Ryokan Tanabe. There are five reserve-able private onsen, one of them is outdoor; and three gender separated public ones (both also have outdoors). That itself was already a big attractive point to us; then they also have manga corner with massage chairs, table tennis room, and even ladies spa. Another big drawing point is its location, being in highland provides a great view of the city at night time which was lovely.

We called the hotel a day earlier about the shuttle pick up and was told they would come around 3 pm. The shuttle van came on time on the day and the ride took around 8 minutes from Takayama station to the hotel. As we approached the hotel, there were several reception staffs stood outside, bowed and welcome us! It felt a bit too much, but perhaps that’s just how it is there? Check in process was swift and smooth, the reception staff offered us available slots for private onsen and the shuttle back to station for the next day. Then a lady ushered us to our room, and showing us where the public onsen and restaurants are. It is basically made up of two buildings, the restaurant for dinner along with public onsen and four private ones are in the back building. The breakfast hall and the other public onsen are on the front building where the reception and main lobby are.

takayama kanko hotel view — View from parking area – isn’t that beautiful?

We got room number 1202. It is even bigger than one we had in Ryokan Tanabe, consists of two sections with a sliding door that can be closed off. Highlight of our room would be the view, it faces the backyard that gives a pretty view at night times. The bathroom also has a bathtub with a window facing to that same view – but we did not even use this bath tub at all having learnt about onsen. The overall feeling of the room was a little old but everything worked just fine, so it was not a big deal.

We went to try the private onsen at our reserved time, loved the view from the window facing the streets of Takayama. Then, the kaiseki dinner followed – I felt we had way more food here than at Tanabe Ryokan and whilst they were all delicious, I just could not finish everything. The highlight of our dinner was of course that Hida beef, fish and tempura. The dessert jelly was also lovely to finish off the meal with just enough sweetness.

The kaiseki dinner at Takayama Kanko Hotel

After the kaiseki dinner, we walked around to peek at the top floor onsen which was really nice. We also had relaxing time at the massage chairs. Eventually we went to the public onsen, oh my God the outdoor onsen was so beautiful. The water temperature was just perfect, the onsen was made from rocks, super relaxing bath! We even made the effort to wake up early and come back again the next morning before breakfast.

By the time we went back to our room, the futon mattress have already been laid out. It felt a little warm in room after a while, so we left the window slightly opened at night. It worked really well and we definitely had great sleep!

They serve breakfast in a different hall to where we had dinner last night. We had the Japanese set breakfast again, but there were also buffet selections should you want extra something. Oh, and we finally tried natto aka fermented soy beans! It doesn’t taste much if you can get past that sticky texture and strong smell 🙂 There are also selections of cereals, bread, coffee, and juices as well.

The Japanese breakfast set with Grilled Fish and Beef Croquette from buffet table

We had booked the 08.00 shuttle bus back to Takayama Station and it left exactly on time. Check out process again was swift with friendly face. Overall, we had a very pleasant stay here especially the onsen experience. Food wise, I’d probably prefer the ones we had at Ryokan Tanabe. In saying that. there really was nothing wrong or not delicious about the food we had here by all means. And for the onsen, Takayama Kanko Hotel is definitely the winner. Plus due to its size and location, it gives a feeling of ryokan as you see on many Japanese dramas: with massage chairs, table tennis and fire works.

Sayonara, Takayama – we most definitely had great time here and will be back again!

Takayama Kanko Hotel

506-0852 Gifu Takayama Hachiman-cho 280 Japan

Telephone: +81 577-32-4100

Email: admin@takayama-kh.co.jp

www.takayama-kh.com

March 20, 2018March 19, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 10

On day 10, we would be checking out of Ryokan Tanabe and went to Shirakawa-go, then came back to Takayama for another night at Takayama Kanko Hotel. I had hoped that we would be able to see some snow falls at Shirakawa-go, unfortunately that has not been the case. Having seen pictures of traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, I already made up my mind that we had to go there. And that being one of the reasons why we had not spent a night at Miyajima 🙂

Day 10

Takayama, as it’s location in the mountain, was freezing cold in the morning – but wait until we got to Shirakawa-go, it was even more so! During our short time at Shirakawa-go, it was mostly cloudy and heavy snow fall was forcasted for the night and next few days. What a shame, had we come here one day later, I would have experienced the snow fall. But that’s ok, at least we got to walk around the town easily without having to worry about slippery road, right?

The bus ride from Takayama to Shirakawa-go took about 50 minutes passing through highways with mountains view. When you get to Shirakawa-go, make sure to book a return bus ticket right away. We did not know about this and we went to explore the town right away. By the time we came back to the bus station, we were told the next bus was already full and we should wait for the next one. Not that it made much difference because buses run regularly approximately about every 30 minutes. But, it was freezing standing outside waiting for the bus and 30 minutes felt much longer!

Shirakawa-go was declared as UNESCO world heritage site in 1995 and famous for its traditional gassho-zukuei farmhouses. The steep thatched roofs of those farmhouses resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in praying, and hence the name gassho-zukuri. But, the practical reason of this construction was to withstand heavy snow fall especially during the winter season. Another highlight of the roof was that it was made without nails, and with such construction it provides an attic space to cultivate silkworms.

Here is the short clip of our time exploring Ogimachi, the main attraction and largest village of Shirakawa-go.

We arrived back at Takayama around 2 pm and were starving. Because the shuttle pick up from Takayama Kanko hotel would come around 3, we had one hour or so for lunch. And of course while in Takayama, we just had to have Hida beef for lunch 🙂 We finished lunch, walked back to the station and waited few minutes then the shuttle came. And off we went to Takayama Kanko hotel, detailed review will be on the next post again.

shirakawago4 — Spotted this crystal clear creek on the way back to the bus station

What we ate on Day 10

Obviously you had seen our breakfast from Ryokan Tanabe in the previous post, but in case you have not then here it is:

ryokan tanabe breakfast — The traditional breakfast, love the fish and toasted miso, delish! (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

Then we bought these at Shirakawa-go:

shirakawago beef croquette — Beef croquette @ ¥250 – warm and fluffy delicious croquette

hida bottled milk — Tried the local Hida bottled milk, love it! @ ¥200 This warm milk helped to keep us warm while waiting for the bus

shirakawago beef croquette2 — The shop where we got the croquette and milk from

For lunch, we went to Hidagyu Maruaki not far from Takayama Station and opted for beef yakiniku. Ah the best beef meal we had in Japan or possibly so far in my life. The meat was so fresh and tender and literally melt in your mouth. It really was that good and I am not exaggerating. We ordered the Hida Premium Beef Plate, Grade A5 Beef Cubes, and sake to share. Those Grade A5 beef cubes were really worth paying extra for if you could set some budget for it. Total spent here was ¥10,140.

maruaki takayama Premium Hida Beef Plate & A5 Beef Cubes — Hida Premium Beef Plate & A5 Beef Cubes

maruaki takayama Cashier and waiting area — Cashier and waiting area

This bottled pudding stole my attention while waiting for bus to Shirakawa-go, but we only bought it when we came back. This pudding was made from Sukune Kabocha, a type pumpkin produced in the Hida Takayama area. The texture was smooth and rich without being too sweet. Perfect treat for afternoon tea 🙂

Le Midi - Sukune Kabocha Pudding — Le Midi – Sukune Kabocha Pudding ¥350

For dinner, again it was a kaiseki meal from Takayama Kanko – stay tuned for full review in the next post 🙂

Hidagyu Maruaki – Takayama Branch

Takayama-cho, Takayama-shi, Gifu Prefecture 6-8

Phone: 0577-35-5858

hidagyu-maruaki.co.jp

March 16, 2018March 15, 2018

Ryokan Tanabe, Takayama

Most people we talked to before came to Japan have similar tips regarding accommodation in the country, which is to try one or two nights at a ryokan. Yes, staying at a ryokan can be more expensive than hotel or AirBnb, but it will be worth the experience. So, we knew all along we would spend at least one night at a ryokan in this trip. And when we finalised our itinerary, we decided to try two ryokan during our stay in Takayama. The first ryokan we tried was Ryokan Tanabe.

We chose Ryokan Tanabe for its location, high ratings on TripAdvisor, the kaiseki dinner, and the private onsen. Its location is close to Takayama station as well as the Old Town shopping streets, proved to be a great advantage. And as we experienced the stay, meals, and overall hospitality, we really have to agree with everyone that gave them a 5 stars on TA. The private onsen, we thought we’d be using ended up a waste. We ended up going to the shared onsen and had really great time there. Before went to Japan, I would flinch at the idea of public onsen, even gender separated ones. However, I learned that it was not awkward or uncomfortable in any ways at all. And at the end of two nights in Takayama, we both got addicted to onsen, especially the outdoor ones where eater temperature was right!

As we arrived at Ryokan Tanabe before their official check in time, we were told the room was not ready yet and that we could wait in the sitting area or left the luggage to explore the city and came back later. We, of course, chose the latter option! Check out here for our time exploring Takayama Old Town 🙂

When came back around 4 pm, we proceed with the check in process and the lady asked me to pick which color of yutaka I’d like then walked us to our room. On the way, she showed us where the public toilet, onsen, and the opening hours of them. We got room number 10 and it was a huge room with view to small private garden! The bathroom has a massive wooden bathtub, which sadly we used only once. We agree to get a room without bathtub next time and just enjoy the shared onsen. She also asked us what time we would like to have our dinner and breakfast the next morning. Then we were left to enjoy the hot matcha with some traditional cakes.

We eventually ventured out to have a peek at the public onsen. Turned out there was no one in the ladies onsen, so I happily enjoyed the whole place for myself. But soon enough another lady came in and we just enjoyed the hot spring bath in quiet and surprisingly it did not bother me. Anyway, the general rule for enjoying onsen is rinse yourself in the shower area first (use soap/shampoo if you feel you need them), then you can dip yourself in the hot bath making sure your hair is tied up and not soaking in the bath. And lastly, rinse again before drying your body and move inside the powder room. I love how they provide all sorts of skin care and hair care products, hair dryer, comb, even shaver. I actually prefer their indoor onsen than outdoor ones mainly due to the water temperature on the outdoor onsen was not hot enough in that weather.

Earlier, we had asked the dinner to be served at 7 pm and about 15 minutes before then, the lady came back to tidy up the room to prepare for dinner. It was a kaiseki dinner which is multiple intricate dishes served in smaller portions. We knew it would be several dishes but didn’t know it would be that many. Super filling dinner, but everything was so tasty and delicious! And the highlight was that piece of Hida beef, so tender and soft – totally changed my idea of Hida beef from experience earlier. Oh and they also served a small glass of wine, it was sweet and so good – but we forgot to ask them what sort of wine was that.

ryokan tanabe kaiseki dinner — The kaiseki dinner ლ(´ڡ`ლ)

After everything was laid out on the table, the lady left us to enjoy our dinner. She came back around 90 minutes later to clear the table, gave it a good wipe then move it to the side. Then the ladies would take out the futon from the closet and lay them in the middle of the room, put some fresh cover on them and said their good night and left. Some of the older ladies here could not really speak English but they were so friendly and warm and try their best to explain things. Yes, we resorted to using body languages a lot but, hey whatever works! 🙂

ryokan tanabe beddings — The fluffy and soft bedding – the pillows were filled with beans and they took a while to get used to, but everything else was very comfortable.

We wake up around 6 in the morning and went to public onsen again before breakfast. A couple of staff came to the room to put away the bedding back to closet. They took away the teapots from yesterday then prepared the table again for breakfast. We had the traditional Japanese breakfast and again, very delicious and truly nice meal.

It is check out day today and we decided to use the luggage lockers next to the train station. We would be heading to Shirakawa-go today and try out another ryokan tonight. Oh, also at check out, the reception lady gave us pairs of chopsticks as souvenir – how nice 🙂

We definitely had a great stay here and would love to come back again. Needless to say, the hospitality was outstanding and the meal was all super delicious. The ryokan is fairly small in size, but you have everything you would need in here. We can’t recommend Ryokan Tanabe enough and please book the full board package when staying here 🙂

Ryokan Tanabe

58 Aioimachi, Takayama, Gifu Prefecture 506-0014, Japan

Phone: (+81) 577-32-0529