I went to a Japanese style inn to have lunch with the ladies who come to my English class. One of my students knows the owner of the inn and arranged lunch for us.

Each room has great view of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately on that day we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji , though.

Every summer Fujinomiya City hosts students from Santa Monica since they are sister cities. The people from Santa Monica love this inn which commands one of the best views of Mt. Fuji.

We had lunch in one of the rooms. We had a variety of small dishes. Each one was little but we had many kinds and we ate them slowly. I felt really ful when I finished it. This inn prepares meals for vegetarians, too. The person who arranged it is a vegetarian so some of her dishes were different from the rest of us. For example, while we had griled fish, she had ” miso oden” or devil’s tongue with bean paste.

For kaiseki dishes, seasons are a very important factor in deciding what to cook. It was the end of Feb. the beginning of spring. In April or May we are in the middle of spring and enjoy eating bamboo shoots, ” fuki” a kind of wild vegetable ,  ” kinome ” a small green herb on top of the bamboo shoot can be seen in April and May. These kinds ingredients which are early in the season are called ” hashiri ” On the other hand ” nagori” is the ingredients behind the season. We can enjoy the changing of the seasons.

You might find more about this inn at http://www.tachibana-fuji.co.jp/