We woke up to a gray, cloudy, rainy looking day.
But it was OK.
We were going to a museum.
Art will tell you he planned it that way.
I do love the Japanese bathrooms. I won't talk about those squat toilets here. The sit down toilets are just wonderful. See that handle on the right? The Japanese character on the handle points to small and big.... meaning small or big flush.
On the arm of the toilet you've got dials that enable you to have a jet of water for a bidet to clean... well... never mind. It's for women.
Then there's the dial for your other end and it all allows you to be as clean as can be with minimum toilet paper use.
The breakfast (included) at the Hotel Los Kochi was wonderful, but with my shaky system... I decided not to put the raw egg onto my rice. Art and Dennis? They never let anything go to waste.
You can see I'm looking a little tired here.
The rain let up just enough for us to walk briskly to the bus station to catch the Ryoma decorated bus to the Ryoma Sakamoto Museum.
By the way, one of those statues is of Ryoma Sakamoto.
It was a short walk to the museum from the My Yu bus stop.
We saw a Japanese Taiga drama about Ryoma Sakamoto last year and became interested in this brilliant man who rose from obscurity to change Japan.
The sign here said to shake hands with Ryoma.
While Mom looked at Ryoma's letters, watched a video about his life, and learned even more about this amazing man... we... ummmm... had just a teeny bit of fun.
If a sister can't have fun with her baby brother, wouldn't it be a sad world?
Ryoma wanted us all to be equally happy... equality being the operative word.
There is a famous photo of Ryoma with his mouth a little down turned and hand in his kimono... sort of like Napoleon. Art just couldn't resist. This wax mannequin was really realistic!
Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with Ryoma... particularly the shogun in power. Ryoma was assassinated on his 33rd birthday at the Omiya Inn in Kyoto. This is what the room looked like down to the blood splatters on the wall.
The museum hotel restaurant was great; we really enjoyed the meal.
Everything was delicious and at the top right hand corner is tataki which is seared sashimi, another delicacy my cousin in Sendai, Norio recommended we try.
We did also have a mango soft serve for dessert at the museum. Actually, Dennis had to be different and tried the matcha soft serve which is a bitter tea. He liked it. We sure enjoyed the mango soft serve.
When we got back to the Hotel Los Kochi, mom and I were pretty exhausted. However, we needed to find dinner.
Searching for a restaurant was the last thing she and I wanted to do.
What a surprise to find the Han no Ren restaurant on the first floor below the hotel registration desk!
On top of that, all the teishoku meals were delicious... or maybe it was the beer that again provided that extra flavor enhancement.
We almost NEVER drink beer at home. Honest! Cross my heart... But, somehow... in Japan we did have our beer.
We also rarely have pastry type desserts at home.
But in Japan... somehow... the calories didn't count.
Dennis and Art went out and got some desserts for us.
And they were good!
