HAPPY (belated) CHRISTMAS!!

This year for Christmas, Christian gave me a weekend trip. He reserved a night away for us at a ryokan (Japanese inn) about an hour north of my house. It was a beautiful place, set back in the mountains and on a river. We drove up on Saturday afternoon through a terrible white out! The snow was flying up so baldy that the main roads were closed and we had to take the (elevated) pay highway! There were points where we could not even see the hood of the car! It was scary but we were so glad to have made it! When we arrived, we were shown to our private cottage (each room is like its own little cottage) and shown around the room. The woman also directed us to sit under the kotatsu (heated table) and warm up while she served us tea and cookies. We enjoyed an evening of hot springs, relaxing and a wonderful dinner!

Here are some photos...

We had to park across the river and walk over this bridge...


the river...



Here is our room right after we arrived. You can see the kotatsu table in the middle. There is a heater built in under it! This is one of the main ways Japanese people stay warm in the winter! I never wanted to leave it was so cozy!

The view out the back door...


Our room have 3 different hot spring baths. 2 were outdoors and 1 was indoors. This bath was the best because it had a beautiful view of the snow covered mountains and river.

The room also had ukata for us to wear. These are like kimono but made of cotton. Since it was winter, there was also an overcoat. It was presented so beautifully!

Me in my ukata...


Christian tied a beautiful knot which he learned in iaido (the art of sword fighting)...

Christian and I with our Japanese stern faces....

and not so stern...

Part of the service was a beautiful 6 course meal served to our rooms! The first course was 4 different salads...


On the tray was also this drink of strange bitter alcohol! We just thought it was cute being the shape of a heart...

Then there was crab and raw beef served on ice (with an adorable igloo)...

Part of the crab tray was this stuff...It is cod sperm. We both tried and did not like it.

There was this mini nabe dish with meat and veggies cooked over this little fire...

There was the fish plate with 3 different kinds of fish...

And dessert...

After we were done, she asked if we also wanted rice but we both felt like we were going to explode!!

It was a lovely and relaxing weekend away!