Ryokan

The last night we were in the Ehime prefecture we stayed in Matsuyama at a Ryokan. This is a hotel that has tatami mats and we shared our room. I got Victoria and Sheree as roomies which was fine with me because they are friendly. When we fist arrived, they had tea and "cookies" for us. They weren't really cookies, but a semi-sweet ball of something. The first two pictures show what our room looked like. The third picture is a picture of the three of us before we took our bath. Along with sharing a room and sleeping on a tatami mat, this Ryokan had a bath house that the guest were able to use for free. In Japan there are many bath houses that any one can go into. In these bath houses you shower before you go into the bath. Clothing of any sort is not allowed. So you get a small hand towel to cover yourself with while you get into the often very hot water. I had an opportunity to go to a bath with my host family, so it wasn't too awkward for me, but it was for others. Fortunately this bath was not as hot as the first one.
After our bath we all met in another room with tatami mats and had our dinner. The hotel gave us so much food. I am sure it was a 20 course meal. You would eat what you had on your plate and be stuffed, yet they would just keep bringing out more and more food! The last picture is of Jenny kissing her fish. She can't eat shell fish, so this guy was on her table. Yummy!!!