Sunday, December 11, 2005

Monday November 28, 2006: Yanagawa: Our Hotel

Posted by Picasa On our way to Yanagawa, Meg told us that this city had 76,000 inhabitants. Since March of 2005, three cities: Yanagawa, Mitsuhashi, and Yamato merged into the current city of Yanagawa. It is about the size of Atlanta. It has 19 elementary schools, 6 junior high schools, and 3 high schools.

The main industries are fishery (eel, nori-seaweed, sole, shell fish), agriculture (grapes, egg plant, rice), tourism (canals), and they manufacture sake(rice drink) and miso soup (fermented soy bean). They also produce handcrafts, the Yanagawa kites, and pottery: Kamachi.

Yanagawa was a castle town. The canals were built for self defense. The junior high school was built on a castle site. Meg told us that we were going to a small town where traditions are still alive and well. She hoped we would enjoy the beautiful Japanese gardens, our visit to a History museum, tickets courtesy of the hotel, and try grilled eel, a delicacy of the region.

My first impressions of Yanagawa: "A poor, rural city." After a few minutes of a walking tour, I loved its charm and the fact that in such a small place you could find every modern convenience except Internet availability for hire. We went to eat to a restaurant that did not give me a very good first impression. The food was wonderful and Meg became waiter, cashier, and food advisor. She is amazing. She is with us 24 hours a day with a great smile.
By 6:00 p.m., the Yanagawa group was installed in Japanese style rooms and one Western style room. We were also given a review of Tuesday activities and requirements. Our hotel's name was New Hakuryu Soh, 16 Shin-machi, Yanagawa, Fukuoka. It was nice to find our luggage waiting for us at the hotel. The hotel was clean, but old. Later on the Western style room was changed for a Japanese style because of the heavy smoke smell.

Everything had worked without complications and the group was beginning to bound. I did not know Stacey, Buffy and Sheila well, but I liked their positive outlook to everything so far. I wanted to know all my group members better but especially, the woman with whom I got lost at the airport, Ann. I knew that by the end of our stay in Yanagawa I would have learned to appreciate every person in my group for the particular talents and passion they brought with them.

When I went to my room, my biggest surprise was my bed. Somewhat I was expecting a regular bed just like at the Prince Hotel. Well, it was a futton on the floor. An electric teapot with complementary cookies greeted my hungry stomach. I loved the cookies, but I did not care much for the green tea. I had a carefully folded Yakata to change to for my personal confort and I was invited to use the public bath at my convenience. Since I know you have to be in the buff, my convenient time will be 3:00 a.m., just to see what is like. I do not intend to go to a public bath when people are around, whether this is the tradion or expectation. There were only 3 hair dryers available, no Internet, and a very friendly, efficient and always running around desk clerk.

My room had a very small bathroom (Western style toilet-thanks God, and a tub/shower). I had a small area to hang my clothes, no real closet. The closet space had several futtons. The TV had only Japanese channels. The only decorations were a beautiful Ikebana arrangement and a Sumi-e painting. My windows overlooked a beautiful Japanese garden, but the hotel and the town smelled like fish, very much like my native town of Lima, Peru early on a fall morning, but the difference was that it was night time.

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