Rinkaiso

近三日月海灘，一泊二食傳統風味，金目鯛好大條好味

Katsuura City in Chiba Prefecture is located on the south eastern edge of the Boso Peninsular facing the Pacific Ocean. I had long wanted to visit Katsuura in March during their Hinamasuri Festival). In early 2023 the pandemic had clearly started to ebb, and in early March I visited the city to view their Hina dolls display, which was being held for the first time in four years. It is too far for a day trip from Tokyo, and I booked this ryokan at the seafront. They've used building material from old houses and built the ryokan in a fisherman's residence style. Our room was on the second floor close to the landing. There were many aged objects related to fishing by the landing. Our room was modern and spacious enough. One feature of Katsuura is their onsen. This ryokan was equipped with a not so large onsen public bath on the ground floor, but I guess because of the limited number of rooms, it's of an adequate size. I took a quick relaxing bath, which I had completely to myself, and was great after a long walk enjoying the hinamatsuri event. We had an early dinner which was served in a large tatami dining room, segregated for each room by divider curtains. I had been looking forward to their dinner, as they promote themselves for serving good seafood dishes. It started with the appetizers already served, including local shellfish and assorted sashimi. This was followed by their speciality, kinmedai (a bright red fish resembling a seabream but of a different species) simmered in soy sauce and mirin (cooking sake with sugar), which was excellent. There was no tempura or any meat. The total meal was modest compared to other first class hotels and ryokans, but enough for those with average appetites. We went to see the festival the following day, but the hotel staff kindly recommended us to leave our car in their carpark. Overall, I was satisfied with this ryokan.

シニアに足を突っ込んでいる世代で、隣の大きなホテルのバイキングにしようか、この宿の金目鯛の煮つけにしようか迷った末に、この宿を選択。部屋は1階で海岸はすぐそこ。青い海原が目の前に広がる。夕焼けは曇り空で、朝日は少し角度がずれていたけど、チェックアウト後に海岸を散歩した。噂の金目鯛の煮つけは絶品です。その他の魚のお刺身もどれも生きがよく、食事量もちょうどよかった。朝食のアジの干物もふっくらとした肉厚で大きいものだった。部屋もベッドに和室と窓際にテーブルがあり、TVも大きく、ゆっくり落ち着けた。唯一、部屋の洗面台とトイレに入るわずかな板の間がスリッパもなくマットもなく、裸足の足には冷たかった。 大きいホテルもいいが、個人を大事にするこんな宿もいいと思った。