A Japanese Inn Stay

We stayed at this Japanese inn. I was surprised to see a big wooden sign near the entrance with our name listed with the names of the other guests.




These old containers were used to make sake. They were in an outdoor restaurant area outside the entrance of the inn.




A pond seen from the lobby.




This is a washitsu, a room that has tatami or grass mats. This room has nine mats. In Japan, room size is measured in mats. We had a suite of two rooms of tatami, a sitting area near a window, an entrance leading to our toilet's room, and a bath and shower that didn't work.

The inn was an onsen , an inn with a separate hot spring bath for women and for men. Most guests probably go downstairs to use the community showers and then bathe in the hot spring water instead of using the bath and shower in the room.

I have to add that we used to live in a much smaller space than this inn room. For seven years, we lived in an 8 mat room. It was the dining room, living room and bedroom for the four us.




Washitsu usually have a tokonoma or an alcove where decorations are displayed. The scroll is usually seasonal. This one is a summer view of Mt. Fuji.



Our beds were in the closet when we arrived. We moved to another washitsu downstairs to have our dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of our dinner!





When we came back from dinner, our beds were made for us. They were all in the same room leaving the other room as a sitting area. The futon had no pads under them, but they were thick and comfortable.

Walking to the Hardware Store

Today was hot and sunny. No surprise that people had their laundry and futon outside. Actually, I was surprised that there weren't very many futon out. On my way back home, it started to rain. As I passed this way again, the woman was scrambling to get her beds inside and I was carrying my dogs' toilet sheets over the camera case to keep it dry. She and I didn't watch the weather report this morning. There was a lot of thunder, too. No wonder there hadn't been many people out on the street as I was coming and going. The weather report includes thunder forecasts. The reports can be pretty accurate here, but not as accurate as they used to be when I first came to Japan in 1988. Baba usually watches me as I leave and tells me to take an umbrella. She was asleep on the sofa today when I left.






I took this picture of these two houses to show how close some houses are here. I am amazed how the sun makes its way through the most narrow and smallest places. These houses open to the west. Look between the houses at how much sun the house on the left gets even though the house on the right is so close. Amazing.






I saw these two dragonflies. I took many pictures of them trying to get a close-up. Each one would fly away and then light in only two places. The top two pictures are of the same dragonfly on her two chosen places. The one in the bottom picture chose another place that was too difficult for me to get close enough to take a picture so I only got this spot. My son said that many dragonflies came during pool time at school today. Some were red and some were orange. No blue ones went to his school.

I'll show you pictures from the hardware store tomorrow.

Hanging Out

What a difference a day makes. Everyone is taking advantage of the sunshine today. Futon look rather flat, don't they? To make the bed more comfortable, pads made of thick cotton or foam are used under them. The pads are usually stiff so they are harder to put over a balcony to air out. Baba (grandmother) places hers in the sun on a chair in the garden. We live upstairs and I don't really want to carry them down the stairs so I put ours next to a sunny window. Big Sister and Little Brother have "up beds".

Airing Out

Some people have western beds or what my children call "up beds". Futons (bed mattresses), however, are still the most common bed choice. They are aired outside on sunny days. They are usually hung over the balcony or clothes line (pole) in the garden with the rest of the laundry. It has been such a wet winter and spring this year. There have been very few sunny days. These days the sun peeks out only once in a while. It looks like someone was reluctant to put her beds all the way outside, worried that it would rain again. We're all desperate for a good airing out.