Romantic Railway to a Flowery Ryokan

After the lunch at the nice French Restaurant we headed for the Sagano Romantic railway for a ride through scenic countryside, through tunnels and alongside a river where we'll ride a boat today. The hills were covered with bamboo forests, or would it be better to say groves? Actually the bamboo here in the Kyoto area is prized for bamboo shoots and for its timber qualities. Where the bamboo doesn't grow there are forests of cypress trees.

Harold and Ikuko, a romantic couple for over fifty years.

The Kusumi's, over 56 years a romantic couple.

At one stop along the way and at the completion of our trip there were groups of ceramic Japanese raccoon dogs (tanuki) waiting to say hello. These tanuki are famous for their large testicles (kintama (gold balls) in Japanese) and there is a popular childrens folk song which goes, Tan, tan, tanuki no kintama wa. . . and goes on to describe their large "gold balls" as swinging even if there is no breeze like a golden bell. There are several verses which I don't know but are probably available on line if you are interested

After our ride on the romantic railway we headed for our ryokan and a good hot bath.

Everywhere we've stayed there have been flowers in the lobby but this place was special. There were flowers in the lobby, in the hallways, in alcoves and in the tokonoma (honored place) in our room.

The mineral water in the bath was unusually good and the dinner was also very good. I've described the kaiseki style so won't bore you with all the details but, again, the dishes were well prepared and served. It's a real pleasure to observe the serving dishes and how they match the food. 

Another trip to the ofuro after dinner and then a good night's rest before another full day of sightseeing.