Shrink in the Kitchen

I left the ryokan noted this early A.M. and after a long, mountainous drive through challenging and exquisite roads reached another ryokan.  I would like to live like this: Ryokan to ryokan, bathrobes most of the day, and 5-6 baths a day.
It’s sort of the Japanese version of certain, um, institutions in the West one [...]

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Yesterday, which is today in Boston, and tomorrow somewhere, I was put in a car and driven to Osaka where, nearly missing it, a train took me north to Kanazawa.  The drive was just over two hours.  Ditto: the train.  Nearly missing the latter due to a jam in which the former was caught, there [...]

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Perhaps the most moving experience I have had in some time occurred yesterday.  We’re talking of “Norito,” here, which is a lengthy Shinto ceremony.  The GM of the Anaga Hotel paid to have me blessed.  Drums, flutes, stylized movements, hot sake.
It was transcendent in the way ceremony can be if done properly.
And calming.
At this moment, [...]

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“Cadeaux de la Mer” is the hotel’s French restaurant and tonight the host took me there for a meal laden with local, vegetarian and fish dishes served kaiseke style, staggered over about 90 minutes.
Vegetarian mosaic terrine.  Great textures, nearly raw, delicious okra.
Cauliflower custard with two pieces of roasted chicken the size of tablespoons.  Contrasts and [...]

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