January 13, 2003
mixed with the village doing its business
Here is a photo of our dinner...can't even begin to count all the dishes. All fresh fish...mmmmmm. Then there's a picture of a fire we woke up to. There was a huge bamboo decoration for Adult Day, and this morning at 6 am was the moment to burn it...all the village people brought their New Year's decorations (kadomatsu) to burn for good luck...they also brought the New Year's mochi (kagami mochi) to bake in the fire for breakfast along with some squid and a mikan to boot. The village firemen were out in force to make sure all went well (thus the cute little truck), but by the time we walked by (after our sunrise bath), they were all pretty drunk...
And the bonus of visiting such small villages is that you find things that have more or less disappeared from Tokyo...like this round post box (vs. the square ones they have now). Although this one is overwhelmed by the high tech cigarette vending machine. In the bathroom at the ryokan, there were instructions on how to use the toilet. I swear...there was a diagram of how you should raise the seat if you are a male and lower the seat to sit if you are female or have to, um, do your business sitting...