kkk 7 Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 On Thursday night my extended family (all Japanese apart from me) went to stay in a large expensive Japanese style ryokan hotel. I had a really relaxing time and it was good to take lots of baths and generally get away from normal things. Just some thoughts: The very traditional Japanese set meal (kaiseki?) food looked beautiful, but I can only eat about 20% of it. I really wish I liked it but most of it is curious looking seafood and tastes that my stomach just can't, er, stomach. Does anyone here really like that kind of meal? One item on the menu was "awabi no odorigui" (so I'm told). Basically this living shellfish type thing is brought in front of you, some heat put under it and you can see it squirming about (in agony?) as it is cooked to death. Then you eat it. One of our party suggested it was the same as eating cow, but seeing the thing thrashing about in front of you a couple of minutes before consuming it somehow seems different... Not keen on having 8 people sleep in the same room, however big it is. In this case the actually sleeping area bit wasn't that big, and this meant that different peoples feet were being stamped on my pillow. And the pillow - was it really a brick? I like my pillows nice and soft, this was so hard! Can't help feeling that the communal slipper thing going on goes against the general taking-4-baths-and-being-really-clean thinking. Go to the onsen in one pair of slippers, go back to your room in another pair. Perhaps I should have taken a sticker with my name on it. The rooms were just so hot I could hardly sleep. Couldn't open the windows properly either. This was the first time that I have seen a toilet where the top lid opens automatically by sensor when you stand in front of the toilet. I wonder what part of the toilet experience will be automated next! Not only were there 3 tvs in the large room we had, but there was a tv in the public sauna!! Do we really need a tv in the sauna! ---- Very nice hotel and very relaxing. Just wish I could have turned the heating down a little! Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Automatic toilet seat?! A tv in the sauna is just so not the thing I want to see in there. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Quote: Does anyone here really like that kind of meal? No, I'm afraid I'm not very good at that either. And I don't like the inevitable conversation that comes from me not liking it. I just try to avoid that and drink a lot. (And eat a bit before the party itself). Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Quote: One item on the menu was "awabi no odorigui" (so I'm told). Basically this living shellfish type thing is brought in front of you, some heat put under it and you can see it squirming about (in agony?) as it is cooked to death. Then you eat it. Sounds charming! I'm not keen on all that kind of food, I usually look forward to some ramen later on and of course concentrate on the drinks Love a stay in a good onsen hotel though Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Quote: Originally posted by kkk: Does anyone here really like that kind of meal? I love it. not sure it's the same style you had but I like it when they bring out the alive fish/lobster as sashimi... Yuuuuum! Link to post Share on other sites
SirJibAlot 0 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 I've stayed at Ryokans a few times, I bring my own pillow. The food isn't that bad, but the live shell thing is a bit much. Usually i can't finish everything due to the sheer quantity. Each dish is tiny, but after 20 or 30, i'm full. Link to post Share on other sites
gamera 0 Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I think perhaps we can find different things in different places. I found a small pig penetrated by a big iron pole and grilled in the air a lot often when I walked around Paris, Athens etc. They sliced some to serve. The feeling I felt is probably similar with what you felt when you saw the awabi no odorigui. I don't like to see something is dying, so obviously that's not my cup of coffee. The other thing is sometimes you find some "living" fish in a glass water, someone drink it all - the water and the fish together. errrrr...No! don't want to see that! >Not keen on having 8 people sleep in the same room Me neither. If someone fell asleep very quickly sneezing a lot, I don't think I can sleep good. >The rooms were just so hot I could hardly sleep Body temperture difference causes, I guess. Japanese have roughly 1C lower body temperture than Westerners. E.g. my normal body tempertuer is around 36C, the other day when I went to a clinic neaby and checked mine, it was 35.2C. Wondered if i was going to die. I don't need a TV in the sauna. Link to post Share on other sites
charlotte 0 Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 TV in the sauna is a bit much. Can't people survive without the tv for just half an hour. Pillows, yes I need a nice big soft pillow. I remember once at a ryokan the pillow was really hard it wasn't comfortable at all. Take your own, good idea SirJib "Awabi no odorigui" sounds like something I couldn't stomach. Happily I have never really been confronted with something like that. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 Quote: Originally posted by Indosnm: Quote: Originally posted by kkk: Does anyone here really like that kind of meal? I love it. not sure it's the same style you had but I like it when they bring out the alive fish/lobster as sashimi... Yuuuuum! yeah and the octopus as its wriggling down your throat as you swallow is kinda funky too Link to post Share on other sites
HighlyTrainedNovaTeacher 2 Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 That sounds gross. You tried it CB? Link to post Share on other sites
veronica 2 Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I asked about that awabi thing once - they said that the appeal was that it was so "fresh". It dying a few minutes earlier behind the scenes was not acceptable, seems seeing it squirm is part of the appeal. Don't get it myself but... Link to post Share on other sites
dale#1 1 Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 The last ryokan place I stayed at had a machine that supposedly cleaned slippers when they were put in there. One at every genkan. Link to post Share on other sites
kkk 7 Posted April 3, 2007 Author Share Posted April 3, 2007 I am not keen at all on the slippers thing, it just seems so unhygenic to me. The few times I have been to places like that, I have gone to the onsen in my own so I know I'll come back in my own. Link to post Share on other sites
Ezorisu 0 Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 I don't think I could eat that squirming abalone thing, but not due to any distaste from my own ethnocentrism - it's more of a waste to ruin something that would probably taste really good raw (and not squirming)! I second what SirJib says about sheer quantity. I'm no small eater, but it is typically volumetrically challenging to finish one of those kaiseki set meals. Ugh! The slippers... now I'll be imagining what sweaty oyaji or mizumushi-boots-yamanba wore the things before me! Thanks! And what's up with people taking MY slippers? I've been to the ofuro either on a non-busy day or non-busy time and there is maybe one or two other people there. I'll purposely put MY slippers somewhere completely distant on the rack from anybody elses, and when I get back someone's taken them and left me theirs! WTF! Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 I noticed in ryokan the staff often move the slippers so even if you put them in a distant rack (as I have done in the past), all those look-alike slippers might just end up being on the floor lined up for you when you finish. Link to post Share on other sites
Ezorisu 0 Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I'll have to carry them inside and hide them in the little clothing basket next time! Link to post Share on other sites
wattiewatson 0 Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Onsens I like them but i cant see why some people make such a big deal out of going to them. Live food I dont mind killing animals for food. However it has to be done humanly. If its not i tell the group why im leaving and just walk out. I cant compromise on this, no matter who im with and what offense they will take. I cant change some peoples practices but i can choose not to support them. I dont do it in a softly softly way either. i dont believe culture can support things that should not be practiced in a civilised society. So i dont believe you can hide behind culture as an excuse for a inappropriate practice. After all not many people believe scalping and eating people is reasonable these days, yet it was part of my culture less than 200 years ago. Also if i see whale is on the menu i walk out. I have had to leave enkais over it. Im not interested in going to an establishment that has whales on the menu. Matt Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 Good on you mate. How do the people react when you do that? (WTF? Hen na gaijin?) Good idea Ezorisu. Hide and take. Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Why on earth do they have a tv in the sauna? That's just silly. (And doesn't it get a bit too hot? I presume some kind of special hi tech case protecting it in the wall or something?) Link to post Share on other sites
cal 6 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 TV in the sauna shows how advanced the country is. And also gives us a chance to catch up on the latest geinokai (celeb) news. Link to post Share on other sites
Fossil 0 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 "awabi no odorigui" Ive eaten some bizarre things but never "live" food. I stayed at the Kironoya Ryokan in Narita on my last day in Japan in March and it was great. The owner is very friendly and obliging. It is fairly traditional and has lots of interesting brica brac in cabinets all over the hotel. The Narita formal gardens are about 250m away on the other side of the hill too. The owner picked me up at the station cooked me dinner and breakfast and dropped me off the next day all for about $70. Top value! I like the futons but the pillow is an acquired taste. Link to post Share on other sites
brit-gob 9 Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 I like to get in an onsen and sauna to get away from things and relax not watch shouting tv programs. I always ask for a non seafood menu when I go to a place like that. I just can't eat any of it. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts