After our wonderful but huge lunch at Hinokiya in Gero Onsen, we traveled to Wanosoto, a lovely traditional inn near Takayama.
The first thing one sees upon entering this ryokan is a traditional charcoal brazier with a boiling kettle hung on a hook above it. After dinner we returned to sit around the fire enjoying sake and the comforting smell of burning charcoal.
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| Large brazier near Wanosato's entry |
Wanosoto's huge rooms are in separate buildings scattered along the property, each with views of a rushing stream and, at this time of year, glorious foliage.
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| A room (a house, really) at Wanosoto |
The food was excellent, and we hugely enjoyed it despite being more than sated at lunch.
Early dishes included a vegetable medley with pickled loches (a small fish) beautifully presented on a pull-out tray from a lacquer box, and a sashimi plate incorporating a whole larger loche.
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| Vegetables and pickled baby loches (lower left) |
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| Big loche with sashimi |
and dobi mushi, a soup dish filled with ___ that is always served in a crockery vessel like this one.
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| Dobi mushi -- soup and vegetable inside |
Next up was local hida beef, as good and well-marbled as the more-famous kobe beef, which we grilled ourselves on a plate over a hibachi, accompanied by a slice of shiitake mushroom that cooked in the sizzling fat. Some found this dish to be too rich; others, including me, found it sublime.
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| Extremely marbled hida beef and mushroom, before and while cooking |
As is traditional at a good ryokan, breakfast the next morning was copious and excellent. Among the assorted plates was another portion of the precious hida beef, this time grilled in miso over a leaf instead of a ceramic plate. Fantastic.
And the obligatory grilled dried fish as a principal course, served with very typical slices of rolled omelet,
followed by rice and pickles and miso soup. A good, if rather excessive, start to the day.
Bobby Jay
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