Japan Travels, Day 4

the japanese countryside and the on-sen

day 4 was a trip to the wilderness as we headed to the hills of isehara to stay overnight at a ryo-kan(traditional japanese hotel with on-sen)...went picking strawberries first at a local farm, something which can never happen in singapore cos singaporeans don't dare to just pluck direct from the shrubs and eat and even if they dared, they would probably eat themselves silly and have wiped out the strawberry within the first few people. the strawberries were delicious but after tad too many, (mom was a good strawberry plucker.. those i found were miserly and small) it got a lil' sianz.. what made me even more dismayed was that i was the only idiot to smudge my white adidas sneakers with strawberry stains.. sheesh!

afternoon was some really boring shopping at the isehara shopping center before we headed to the japanese ryokan. i honestly think the ryokan's facilities don't justify it's exorbitant cost. honestly, you dun charge people ¥12000 a night when you merely offer a tatami-ed room for the whole family to sleep on the floor. i mean, it scores on traditional sense and uniqueness but to make our family sleep together akin to like a refugee camp is.. pretty paltry. and well, the on-sen was worth the cost, cos the waters were quite special and soothing, but really, it's just a swimming pool-esque thing. haha.. only thing that probably justified the cost was the confusing 10 course-ish dinner served all at once that included raw meat, raw fish, raw squid, sake, gluten and so on so forth.. hmm... i think it is only japanese cuisine that despite things looking green and slimy and wierdish, it still tastes pretty decent and nice. (my sis obviously begs to differ)