Traditional Kyoto

Below are some photos of the historic part of Kyoto. A lot of people on the street wore kimono, tourists can rent an outfit for the day in stores found around the streets.

We finally checked into the Kyoto Ryokan Kinoe. It cost $450 a night for the two of us. The room included access to an onsen which was a communal hot bath, gender separated, no clothing (not even a swim suit) and no tattoos allowed. We did not use the bath, our room had an ensuite bathroom. A Kaiseki Ryori, the Japanese multi-course dinner, was also included. The decor was traditional Japanese, below is our minimalist room with tatami mats, and a small balcony past the screen doors. Our hostess spoke a little English and told us that they prefer we wore the provided yukata while at the ryokan, which we did. Note: we had to wear house slippers (provided) in the ryokan as soon as we left the reception area.

Dinner was served in our room; our hostess came in to prepare the table and gave us menus that listed the courses for that night. We sat on the floor, on top of cushions. I think there were about 10 courses (little plates/bowls of food with condiments and sauces, more like a tasting menu to Americans), all beautifully presented. Below are photos of a few of them.

Dinner service was unhurried, as each course was presented, explained and enjoyed. Then the hostess came in to clear the table and a few minutes later came back with the next course. After the desserts were done, our hostess came in to prepare the room for the night. She asked us to go to the balcony to sit and have tea. She pushed the low table to the side of the room, took two single futons from the closet, laid them on the tatami mats, and put fresh bedding over the futons. She then asked for our time preference for breakfast (included with the room rate), and bade us goodnight. There was no easy chair/sofa/recliner in the room, so I had to read my Kindle lying on the futon which was surprisingly comfortable. Forgot to take photos of the bed setup.

The next morning, we went for breakfast at the scheduled time. This was in a small breakfast room; they requested that we try to keep to our time slot because they had to rotate guests through the room. We had a table with our names waiting for us, and were served a variety of traditional Japanese breakfast dishes. The environment was quiet and peaceful, we all spoke in low voices as expected in such a setting.

By the time we went back to the room, the beds have been moved back into the closet and the room cleared! We checked out soon after, stored our carrry-on with the reception, then took another walk around Kyoto before taking the train to Nara in the afternoon and on to Osaka.