A Japanese Feast - Breakfast At Taenoyu Onsen

If at 5.00am the hall and baths were pretty deserted but by 6.00am, the staff were already up and about. Despite them being busy sending trays and trays of food to the two dining halls for breakfast, they didn't make any noise at all. I on the other hand felt like I was a baby elephant with my heavy footsteps. The day before, we had already set 7.30am for our breakfast. Knowing that we came by bus and train (shinkansen) the staff checked on whether the timing would be OK for us.

Last night's dinner was at the lounge so for breakfast we got to eat in the Japanese dining room. I came in wearing just my yukata. A bad idea if you can't stand sitting with your legs folded under. Can't sit cross-legged because I'll be revealing too much!

Raimie was given a small table on his own, seen here holding a piece of nori.

Me, in my yukata

We ate almost all the things served, including the natto. We didn't inform before hand that we wanted to avoid certain meat dishes for breakfast (we took it for granted there weren't going to be any for breakfast) but there were some bacon ready to be grilled included in our breakfast that we were suppose to crack an egg over it. We declined to eat that and the staff quickly extinguish the burner. Not seen in the photo are the rice and miso soup.

Everything was great and both Zaini and I both agree that the natto served here was way way better than the ones we ate previously (in Japan and Malaysia). Before our breakfast ended, Raimie was given some grapes. Smaller grapes than what Raimie had before in Tokyo. A bit different in taste but still absolutely yummy!

And we were asked whether we would like some coffee. I just love the coffee cup and the presentation.Not to mention the wooden spoon.

The staff remarked that we ate our breakfast far too quickly. LOL No time to sit around unfortunately. We need to pack up and wait for our bus!

Talking about bus, when you check-out, a staff will send you until you enter your car and wave you goodbye until you were out of sight. Then, she will bow deeply for a few seconds and wish you well. We witnessed this because the mother and daughter whom I wrote about in earlier post checked-out before us. A staff would have waited for us while we waited for our bus, but that would put too much strain for her (by having to converse with us) and for us too. Sensing that we like to be left alone, she went inside but quickly came out when the bus approached the ryokan. She waved us goodbye and off we went back to the city with a heavy heart.

It was definitely a great experience, and we are looking forward to such experience again in future. Even if it meant that we need for fork out a pretty sum to pay for a night's stay (for our standard, that is)! Actually, a night's stay here cost just a bit more than what we would've paid at Nikko Ginza (and at Nikko, we didn't get any dinner or breakfast).