As the fall came over Japan, i decided to do a little 2 day scape to the countryside, to see the famous beauty of their forests and rivers.
I ended up by coincidence in a little inn, 20 minutes before reaching Nikko, north of Tokyo, Akira and Tomoko, a very charming couple that owns the inn, in the middle of nowhere, cottages that are in fact very old and traditional countryside houses, rehabilitated with a few modern touches (airtunes via old speakers, mini tv inside the wall, all the basic stuff to cook Japanese food, a bath, a washlet...), with a lot of elegance, i was specially impressed by being receive at reception with a nice tea when arrived and an Illy expresso in the morning, a truly quiet place where you can dissapear from the stressfull life in neotokyo... worth definitely the journey.
they run a simple and nice web, where they also publish recipes or things that they find interesting.... they even made an article about my visit: http://nikko-inn.jugem.jp/
They also grow their own stuff in the back garden, fresh yuzu, mini kiwis, cakis and even shitake, which they traditionally sun dry when the season comes to make their own dashi throughout the year, jezz....
and to complete, in case you don't know how to do nothing, they have a very interesting library with books and movies, from porco rosso to the science of sleep...
the last night they asked me if i could teach them some spanish dishes they had in mind, i couldn't say no, salmorejo, his brother gazpacho and crema catalana, all times classic was what we did, and surprisingly they had a bottle of Freixenet cava and iberian pork filet as cured meat to go with and make a round menu, discussing about food and culture differences was most interesting and inspiring i have to say...
i attach some photos of the surroundings and the evening at the landlord's, hope you can also pay a visit some day to this corner of quietness if you are in Japan.
Raf.
