dinner honke bankyu

1. sorry the order is jumbled up! figure it'll all look the same in my stomach and hope you don't mind imagining the correct sequence of events and courses.

2. this was by far the most theatrical meal i've ever been to! was initially a little thrown off by the lack of in-room dining but when i saw the hot sand pit in the middle, it suddenly made a lot of sense!

walk the bridge honke bankyu

the indiana jones-esque rope bridge i'd to cross to get to dinner!

didn't know we'd to cross the bridge. it was so exciting when i stepped on it and it started to sway. felt like a real adventure and the element of surprise and anticipation made dinner one to remember. quite like not knowing what's going to happen next or when i'm going, don't you? :)

photos, from the most meticulously prepared dinner ever, to come!

brand new day sanraku

scored a room on the third floor that looked into the lone tree outside the window. sort of felt like i was staying in a tree house when i'd wake in the morning and feel like i was surrounded by leaves. this ryokan stay felt like it was all about the light. or at least that how it feels when i look at my photos - trying to capture the different light through the day :)

nasu, incidentally, is famous for its dairy products so i think i overdosed on natural yoghurt while i was there. mhmM!

next up: photos of the treacherous journey to the next ryokan, honke bankyu where we had to go around a mountain...

second dinner sanraku

yet another mouth-watering kaiseki dinner.

nothing compares.

photos from just before check out next, and of, um, local yoghurt!

good morning sanraku

for someone who usually doesn't wake (or eat) before noon, this sumptuous feast for breakfast was at the same time a real treat, and shock to the system. but i persevered and finished everything. and the japanese rice was divine. nothing like japanese rice in japan. japanese rice outside japan is not japanese rice. and rice that isn't japanese, well... ;)

it's not a ryokan without steaming hot onsen! come by tomorrow for a sneak peek into the men's onsen, if you would like.

first dinner sanraku

the kaiseki dinners are the highlight of any ryokan stay and this was no exception.

photos of the room in the morning light to come tomorrow.

one last look kuching

after the wedding festivities, we had a day with nothing to do :) 

having nothing to do was, and always is, a luxury. 

so we did the things we enjoyed again, like jalan bishopsgate coffee, and bought too much piah for my granny's good. i also picked up some kuching white peppercorns for hay mee and went crazy at the bakery with its oven as big as a room. sort of like a malaysian version of a boulangerie.

my roomies exercised again while i vegged out and watched trashy D-rated horror shows. and then i got scared and didn't dare stay in the room alone. so i was forced into the sunlight and got some reading done by the pool. it's about time i started traveling with my notes, as a concerned friend pointed out, so i have taken note (haha) and will endeavour to revise on the go while in japan. shinkansen has got to be my absolute favourite mode of transport (yay!) and because i have to solo trip into the ulu, i just might get some studying done during the study break :(

feeding frenzy kuching

101 ko lo mee

101 kuching laksa

jalan green ko lo mee shop - birth place of the ultimate ko lo mee.

ohsogood. words cannot begin to describe how amazingly awesome this bowl was. the boss man has been making ko lo mee from scratch for over 40 years. his father was originally a mee pok man and taught him how to cook noodles. then he experimented and created the springiest, tastiest stringy noodles imaginable, tweaked the mee pok recipe and tadaaaa! perfect ko lo mee - each bowl nothing but lard-laden perfection. it was so so good. i cannot get over how good it was. if i had the money, i would kidnap the ahpek and have him open a shop in singapore, charge S$10/bowl knowing that hardcore foodies would gladly pay a premium for the good stuff. of course, i would keep all the money and the kidnapped ahpek would remain my ko lo mee slave :) mhmm.

oily wantons that i slurped out of the bowl and slid so very smoothly down my throat

teh c special with a layer of palm sugar at the bottom. palm sugar adds a richness and complexity ordinarily not part of teh c.