A Slipper for Every Occasion
21.09.2014
26 °C
We may only be a train ride and short walk from the modern city of Matsumoto but we have stepped way back in time and are staying in a two hundred year old coaching inn in the ancient town of Narai in the Japanese alps – a town once known as the town of a thousand inns. This town has been a stopover between Tokyo and Kyoto for centuries and it is easy to picture throngs of Japanese traders arriving nightly after walking the mountain passes…
It must have been a relief to take off boots and shoes and to slip into more comfortable footwear in olden times and nothing has changed…
There are slippers for every occasion and floor type at the hotel and guests are strictly required to stick to protocol as they move from place to place, even to the toilet. No shoes are allowed anywhere and not even slippers on the tatami mats…
With its bath house, (more of these later) and superbly prepared and presented meals our traditional lodging house (a ryokan) in Narai is a wondrous museum where we are living history…
Imagine waking each morning to a breakfast like this…
And filling your water bottles from the many pure mountain streams…
…before strapping your wares to your back and heading up the main street towards the mountains…
Sayonara for now. Hope to see you on the other side of the alps in a few days.
Oooh, I remember those wonderful meals - Sheila, let me know if you ever come across a meal like the feast we had on our way to Akita!
Still HOT here but a change is a-comin'.
by Joyce