Nagano 15 The Ryokan and Dinner

 There are four of us, waiting  we all had the same idea  our bus is the last down the  mountain  we can not miss it, it is getting dark, and cold.  It is late, but finally it arrives and off we went.  I arrive at the ryokan, and the owner is there waiting  she has Conversation in Japanese  I understand a total of three words- toilet, spa, room.  She points to my backpack, to signal I should pick it up, and I do.

I had to purchase a winter coat for the trip at Uniqlo  it was actually supposed to be a raincoat but it is not waterproof  this is strange because it doesn’t breath  when you sweat it traps all the moisture and you are wet underneath  not a good feeling  I am wet now, I really need a shower  there’s no shower in the room, only a small sink  the toilet is down the hall, the only shower is the “spa”, or communal bath  I pop down to the spa  the windows are cracked open about 3”, it is 39 degrees out  I shower, and warm up a bit, then step into the bath.   It is slightly cooler than body temp, my teeth are chattering, back out I go to warm up with the shower, dry off and upstairs I go  the owner seems pleased I have used the spa  yay I hope that makes us friends!!

The room is equipped with a little tea and snack.  Could this be a peace offering for acting so erratically? The tea is nice and welcome, the biscuit must be a refined pemican, because it is pretty dry and awful, tasting like packed flour and sweetener. Let's hope dinner is better.

 I get dressed for dinner and pick something close, they serve mushroom miso soup, which warmed me up. It's a lot of mushrooms, but they look and taste very fresh.

Then a chicken cutlet with sauce, and salad. One of the few salads I've had here that isn't pickled.

Mont blanc which is a Swiss cake with whipped cream and an extruded topping of chestnut paste  it was all yummy, I head back to the ryokan to sleep.

  Into my pjs, the room has an adequate heater, the bed, a very warm duvet  the mattress is so hard it hurts. I have slept on a carpeted floor and been more comfortable. It is 9 pm, I convince myself to fall asleep, I am awake at 11:00 until 3:00 am. Finally I remove the duvet, top myself with the sheet, the kimono and my down sweater and drift off to sleep. I am awaken at 6:00am by people who I believe had as just as good a night sleep as I did.  They were rushing to check out.  

I mean it looked cute, and reasonably comfortable, it was not.  The reviews are all glowing, I understand why.  These people are kind, but not truthful, they don't want to put this elderly couple out of business, but really, there should be a little hint, if you are over 60, you may want to look elsewhere.

My personal sink, and the scary bit of electrical work hanging from the lamp.

I'm not sure what this was, but there's a closet in the back.

The view from my window

The house is a bit like a fun house, or the Remington house in California.  I took the wrong set of stairs coming back from the "spa" the first time and got lost.

And here, the double slippers at the bathroom threshold.

I get dressed and get out. Onto a bus to Nagano station to leave my bags at a luggage locker. Then back up the mountain by subway for a 16 minute walk to Zenkoji Shrine.