You guys would ALL love Kagaya. I promise you. I don't know how you would go there, though, because it costs $500 per night. I mean, you could do it. It's actually pretty worth it, if you ever want to splurge. A lot. I don't know how they got us all in!! All of our host families were jealous.
So, now that I've gotten
you all excited, let me actually tell you about it... We arrived at Kagaya, which is north of Ishikawa, after a long busride, with many stops at famous sights along the way - we visited a beach, for instance, and stopped at several temples and shrines. (One girl fell into the water - she arrived at Kagaya wet...) (The picture is an illustration of what I do at shrines. No! Not really! I am mostly very respectful! I also like to pretend to be awesome demon/protector/I-don't-know-whats...)So we were all kind of already tired, it being the afternoon, and we were delighted to have arrived at our hotel. What we were not expecting, though, was the line of over ten kimono-wearing women waiting to bow us into the hotel. They took our bags, which had been tagged with our names so they knew where to took them, and a few of them peeled away to lead us inside. We entered through glass doors, and everyone around us - both the women wearing kimonos, and other hotel personnell - bowed and smiled, repeating "Irasshaimase" over and over again. (This means welcome, or come in, or something like that.)
I felt a bit intimidated - we were all getting the $500 treatment, despite having paid nothing. I felt like a fake! I cannot give a big tip! I thought. What should I do?! Will they hate me after we leave?! This was just panic, though. I know they weren't expecting a tip. They were very kind as they led us into a huge ballroom full of neatly arranged tables, at which we sat, and watched a demonstration of the tea ceremony. This was cool, but we'd already participated, which was cooler, so I wasn't exactly riveted. (Factoid for those of you who are interested, though: Japanese green tea, "matcha" is SO bitter that you have to eat something sweet before you drink it! That's literally what you do at the tea ceremony - eat something as close to pure sugar as you can stomach, and then swallow the tea fast so that it's bearable. Hmmm...)
What was SHOCKING was what happened when we were preparing to leave. Before we had time to walk through the doors, one entire WALL of the room we were in lifted up to allow us to leave! Unnecessary? Yes. But awesome? Also yes. Next, the ceiling parted in the middle to reveal a huge skylight! This is in a two-story tall, room, let me remind you, that could fit 100s of people easily - this was a seriously large vaulted skylight. I'm telling you. It was really cool!
After this, our constant companions - the kimono clad women, slash employees of Kagaya - led us to our rooms. We had to take off our shoes to enter, and when we came back, they had dissappeared, replaced by flip-flops! I was nervous, until someone found the cupboard where they had placed our shoes. That was the last I saw of them until we left the following morning... We wandered through our suite of rooms, this being me and my new acquaintances my three roommates Lindsay, Li, and Ana. We had a beautiful view of the sea, and two low tables in the main room. There was no sign of any beds.
Before we had time to comment on this, our personal kimono-wearing guide returned with another round of tea and sweets. I tried to keep my grimace to myself, and I enjoyed the sweets - a strange purple jelly-thing (Japanese people love jelly, which they call "zerii") with red-bean inside. No sooner had our guide taken away the empty tea things than she returned with another woman, both of whom informed us that they were going to dress us in yukata (light summer kimonos). We, embarrassed, allowed ourselves to be dressed, and smiled awkwardly at each other.
Fully dressed, legs tight together because our yukata didn't let us move them very much, we were led down to an outdoor porch-like area, where they had set up a festival for us! We made cotton candy, received fans and candy, and fished for rubber bouncy balls in a fast-moving stream of water. (This last activity was poorly explained, I apologize. I don't know how to do it better concisely, though. Just invent your own idea of what it w
as like!)Next we went into dinner in a huge tatami-mat lined room, where we were served, again, by our good friends the kimono-wearers. We had sashimi. We had yakisoba. We had tempura. We drank tea and juice and water. It was the biggest meal I've ever experienced, and everything was delicious. Partway through, we paused to watch a drum performance. Later, we all got up to MAKE mochi! We used the traditional, incredibly heavy hammer and everything. (There's me! I'm not exactly going to open my own shop, but I succeeded in pounding that rice!)
It was a long meal. We finished at 9
or 10 pm, and after taking a few pictures, (at left, one example of many. New friends, and me, from left to right: Julie, DongHwa, me!, Wendy, and Christine. After leaving dinner, we set out to make use of Kagaya's most famous, and important, amenity - baths! Yes, as Americans, we were not used to sharing a bath with many many other people. I was also really not used to getting into 40C water at all. So it was a steep learning curve. But when we discovered an outdoor, but secluded, bath, we were very happy and comfortable. So I will return to the U.S. able to say that I have been to an "onsen" (Japanese for "hot spring") and that I liked it. Wow.Next we slept on futons (exciting!) and awoke early for a very large breakfast. A very satisfying one-night stay at the best hotel/resort I will probably ever experience.
And that, my friends, was the story of one beautiful night at Kagaya.
(Today's photos provided by Christine K., because I forgot my flash drive... Thank you Christine!)
I want to go to Japan!!
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