Tokyo/Kawaji Onsen Dec 2014 Part IV - KAI Kawaji Ryokan (Dinner & Breakfast)

Continued from

Part I - Shibuya, Tsukiji Market
Part II - KAI Kawaji Ryokan (Room)
Part III - KAI Kawaji Ryokan (Ryokan and Onsen)


Food is always a large part of a ryokan stay experience. Usually dinner and breakfast is included in the room rate. For dinner, typically a Kaiseki course is provided using the local delicacies and seasonal produce. Sometimes, the bigger hotel-style establishments would offer sukiyaki or nabe instead. But for us, we would opt for the kaiseki course as it's not everyday that you get to experience such a feast.


For KAI Kawaji, meals are served in the dining hall which we preferred (don't like meals served in room coz I don't like the lingering smell afterwards). And what we liked about this dining hall is, each dining table is segregated/partitioned from one another, so there's privacy for us. There are specific timings for dinner so that the chef can prepare the food accordingly, we usually opt for 7pm.

The menu, which we tried hard to decipher, with the help of the hostess. Seriously, after six months, I couldn't remember what exactly we ate, but I remembered they were totally delicious. As with kaiseki meals, there were some ten to twelve courses, luckily portions were kept manageable, so at the end of the meal we weren't over-stuffed.

Here we had the appetisers, like tofu with miso, mountain veg with mushroom, salmon, crab, smoked duck etc etc, as well as a small glass of grape vinegar drink.

All so delicately prepared.

I think this was a pumpkin soup.

Freshest sashimi.

Buckwheat noodles with vegetable tempura.

Eel and yuba.

This was like a palate cleanser, a drink made of japanese mountain yam, nagaimo.

This is a specialty dish of Satoyama, a salt-baked beef with wild vegetables and yuzu.

Rice with miso, pickles.

Tofu with kinako and cream.

Dessert was pudding/creme brulee with rasberry sauce.

For breakfast, we opted for 8am. Actually not used to having such sumptuous meal in the morning, but this is the Japanese culture (which is a correct practice since breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day).

Fancy eating salmon early in the morning?

Typical breakfast with grilled salmon, pickles, miso soup, onsen egg, fruits, as well as tofu in soya bean milk pot etc.

Each time we visit a ryokan, we would always be overwhelmed by the hospitality and attention to details by the host in every aspect of our stay, and enjoy a feast of the senses, and we always go away feeling rejuvenated and re-charged. That's why we love ryokan stays so much and always try to squeeze in a ryokan stay in our holidays to Japan.

Stay tuned for the next post, where we bade our farewell to Kawaji Onsen and returned to the hustle and bustle of city life in Tokyo.