Japan - Lamp No Yado - Lap of Luxury

We got on the bus looking forward to relaxing for several hours. Even though we both had gotten international driver's licenses we decided that driving on the "wrong" side of the road and not being able to read directional signs might be hazardous. Besides after all the walking we had done for the last four days we were ready to be pampered.
This was the apex of the trip in a number of ways. Serena and I eagerly anticipated this most remote, luxurious ($$$) splurge of the trip, the Yoshigawara Onsen. Lamp No Yado, this solitary ryokan at the tip of the Noto Hanto Penninsula, was named from the fact that 300 years ago it was lit by kerosene lamps, now coverted to dim electric.

Dinner and breakfast would be included, a good thing because of the isolated location. We had taken a second local bus from Suzu, past some seaside residences and through the woods to the top of the hill where we expected to have a fifteen minute walk down to the sea. When we got off the bus we were amazed to be greeted by a driver who asked "Miss Serena?" We got into the car that was sent to pick us up! The turn was so tight at the last switchback that the car backed into it as to face forward on the final approach.

We were greeted cordially and escorted to our second floor room like we were visiting dignitaries. Instead of the yukatas and bedding being folded in a stack as we had been accustomed to seeing, the room was elegantly bare.

Our attendent brought several colorful yukatas for us to pick from


We wasted no time getting to the rotemboro for our first soak, looking out at ships on the horizon of the Sea of Japan, waves crashing below on the bolders.

We expected a fabulous meal but we never imagined the feast that was served to us in our room. The attendant, also dressed in a yukata, laid out four large trays on the floor. Each seasonal dish of the kaiseki, she placed in an artful presentation on our table. We ordered saki.

OMG! They exclaimed...



Where to start?

Oddly, our favorite dish

After ALL that and a dab of citrusy soy ice cream, and we left behind the carnage to enjoy our special invitation to indulge, gratis, in another hot soak, the Reserve Bath, normally about $30/hr.






Returning from "Nami No Yu"

we found our beds made and another frozen treat, my guess might have been a lychee nut frozen in the shell. It really couldn't get much better than this!

I took quite a few more pictures the next day, some of the staff, a fisherman on the rocks below, the many shoes outside the dining room, the irori room, all of which mysteriously disappeared from my camera card!

Text and pictures © 2008 Mona E. Dunn

Japan - Kanazawa

Ishikawa-mon Gate

Leaving Kyoto around sunset meant missing the train journey to Kanazawa. The only unfortunate aspect of travelling this time of year is that the days are so short. As we zoomed past the landscape one thing I could discern was spotty snow along the tracks. We had checked the weather continually not wanting to believe that Kanazawa would be rainy and cold as we enjoyed the Indian summer autumn of Kyoto.

Kenroku-en Garden

The thing I liked most about travelling in Japan in late autumn is the fact that in the region we selected there were very few Caucasian faces. With few foreign tourists we had the sense of being in the timelessness of feudal Japan blended with the quaintness yet precociousness in the 21st century.

Nagamachi-Samurai district



As in Kyoto, you never know where a temple might show up. Fortunately the ancient, rooted, icons of antiquity survived the overgrowth of the encroaching urban jungle.

Kanazawa is a castle town and renown for one of Japan's three most beautiful gardens, Kenroku-en.




Thank God Kanazawa was quite a bit smaller than Kyoto. We got a bit soggy as the weather moved across the bottom of the peninsula of Noto Hanto from the Sea of Japan towards the Japanese Alps. As a jumping off place, we were able to take a bus north to our splurge destination of Lamp No Yado, then back to Kanazawa before heading inland to Shirwakawa and Takayama.

(For more pictures of the trip you can go to Witness the Wonder )

Text and pictures © 2008 Mona E. Dunn

Japan - Kyoto - Last days

Tsukishima Fish Market


One of our favorite pastimes is the market. Like kids in a candy store we could wander around for hours tasting the many varieties of pickled vegetables, salted fish and candied seaweeds. Occasionally we would find bean and/or rice confections but you never knew for sure if the ambiguous item was going to be sweet, salty or sour.

Serena and the giant cabbages

Another unusual eating experience (note only two live bodies)

Breakfast included in ryokan


Real live geisha encountered on our "walking tour"

Shizuko, Serena's neighbor in SF, travelled by bus overnight from Yokohama to meet us for the last tour of the Kyoto area. She took us for traditional Zen vegetarian lunch with many colorful entrees and sides. It was so nice after information deprivation to be able to ask questions about what's what

The Fushimi Inari Shrine was one of the most interesting we had seen

Next stop

Kanazawa Station


Text and pictures © 2008 Mona E. Dunn

Japan - More of Kyoto

One of the big adventures of the trip was the hike to Kurama-dera, Kurama Onsen and spa. We took a train out of town for 20 minutes and had to hike over a bigger ridge than we imagined. After many "kanichiwaaa"s it was very worth the effort.

The temple




The spa and dinner

That night on the train back to Kyoto, the lights went out for about a mile and the train slowly cruised, to many oooos and aaahs, past orange lanterns lit along the side of the tracks.
Characteristically, Serena was hungry walking back to the ryokan. I'm always game for another culinary adventure so when we saw this display we had to check it out.

It turned out ot be a bar food experience we had been looking for with tempura and raw dipping cabbage.


Text and pictures © 2008 Mona E. Dunn

Grandma July 23, 1913 - Dec 6, 2008

One week after I returned from Japan, my precious Grandma passed on. I talked to family, Susie, Georgie and Kathleen, three of the surviving children who were present during her last days since Grandma had become too weak to even talk on the phone. Georgie reassured me that Grandma had seen my post card from Japan, sadly my last contact with her. I called Susie at her bedside about three hours before her passing and she agreed to give her a hug from me.

Great-Grandma Lucas, Grandma Flury, Mom and me

Her life was a devotion to her family. Certainly my most precious memories were of the visits to the family home in Ohio and the time I could steal away with her.

Kathleen told me that Grandma had picked out a peach colored dress with a white collar and gold buttons. The flowers were her favorite yellow roses, with peach roses and baby's breath. She was sure that Grandma was quite pleased. My brother Phil was the only one of us to make it to the funeral but Stan, Becky and I each vowed our candlelight vigils and prayers to help her transition.


Picturs borrowed from Stan's fall trip
Text and pictures © 2008 Mona E. Dunn