We decided to take a side trip to the countryside of Gifu Prefecture, to a little but well-known town called Gero. It is famous for its onsen, or natural hot springs baths. It was great to get out of the city and head to the countryside for a change. I made a reservation at a very Japanese-style hotel called a ryokan. Our room was a tatami room with just a short-legged table and seat cushions that could be pushed aside when it was time to sleep and our futon were rolled out side by side on the tatami floor. Since tatami are tightly woven rice straw mats - thick ones and permanently installed, which are different from how I envision a "mat" - they are softer than wood floors and actually quite comfortable to sleep on with a futon. I didn't think to take a picture of our futon at this place, but there is a picture of our tatami room and 3 futon on the blog post about the apartment we rented in Kyoto.
In the morning, our breakfast was included in the price of our hotel, and they asked what time we wanted to be served - 7:30 or 8:00? The girls decided 7:30 was much too early, so we settled on 8:00. But this was no continental breakfast or institutional egg patty - this was a full-on, eat-till-you-roll-out kind of Japanese breakfast. Holy cow, there was so much food I couldn't eat it all.
It was Japanese style, though, so some of the food was a bit more challenging for my girls, even though they are pretty good eaters and have eaten a lot of Japanese food in their lives. Here is our breakfast from the second morning:
Clockwise from top: cold Japanese root vegetables, poached egg & ham (in the hot pot), wakame miso soup (covered), Japanese pickles, cold baked salmon (yum!), rice, shrimp shumai (Chinese-style dumpling), and cold grated daikon radish with tiny, tiny mushrooms that were soaked in a nice broth. I'm not a fan of mushrooms at all, but it was actually pretty good!
The presentation was just as amazing as the food. In true Japanese fashion, we all had many dishes that were beautifully arranged in small, gorgeous plates and bowls.
This lady made breakfast and served us tea and rice! So awesome!!
The reason we came to Gero was to meet our newest exchange student, Yuki! She will be coming to live with us for a few months starting in August, and she will go to Ryle. She is 18 years old and is a senior in high school. But since she's coming to America for a year, she will repeat her senior school year next year. We wanted to meet her and her family, and see where she is from. We thought it would help us to understand her better and to help her have a great experience in Kentucky!
Since she had a school trip the day before we arrived, she didn't actually have school that day - so lucky! So, we met her after her club activities and we went around town together. Our first stop was a historical village that preserves old houses as they were hundreds of years ago. The houses are set up to be cultural museums and show everyday life as it was back then. Here is a picture of the girls around an old-fashioned cooking fire. Notice the fish on skewers drying above the fire.
After walking around a while, we rested our feet in a hot springs foot bath - wow, it was HOT!! But my feet did feel great afterwards...
After all that resting in the hot springs, we needed a break (ha!) and had some shaved ice. Mine was matcha flavor, which is traditional, strong green tea flavor. Usually it is very bitter, but in ice cream and shaved ice, it's sweet and I love the flavor! :)
This is one of the traditional gassho (thatched roof) houses in the Gassho Village we visited. These roofs are shaped with very steep peaks that look like hands in prayer - which was great for keeping the large amounts of snow off them in winter.
