Breakfast in Japan - February 26, 2014

The bed in my room was extremely comfortable and I even did another late-night soak in the 4th floor rotenburo. In the morning, I made green tea in my room and read about the local attractions while sitting in front of the huge picture window and beautiful winter scenery.

At five minutes to eight, I went to the dining room for breakfast. At check-in, I had asked the staff to please make sure that I got a traditional Japanese breakfast rather than a western-style breakfast.

Boy! Did they ever deliver! They had even honoured my request for natto!

What is natto? Well, to start, it is a popular morning meal in Japan. Nothing that you would normally order in a fancy restaurant but something you get at the grocery store to eat at home or grab at the corner deli on your way to work Natto would be comparable to Raisin Bran or an Egg Mcmuffin.

Imagine fermented soy beans but not mashed up into miso paste yet. When you stir the natto, it releases a  coating...something like gooey melted cheese but very fine in texture.

As you lift the beans out of the bowl, the strands of goo stretch and stretch and never seem to break. It's like trying to eat spider webs!

You get all kinds of toppings to mix into your natto. The waitress demonstrated and used the onomatopoetic expression "guru-guru" to show me how to stir them in "round-round."

Most foreigners describe the taste of natto as "inedible" or "disgusting" so obviously, I needed to get some in my belly!

For my first bite, I tried it plain. It was strong-tasting, similar to miso paste right from the container. For me, that is something that I am familiar with and rather enjoy! It wasn't yucky or sour like I feared.

However, the texture was definitely difficult to adjust to. As I mentioned, the consistency of the beans changes as you stir. The natto residue (I don't want to call it slime but that might best describe it) pulls like taffy.

It makes long strands that end up trailing from your chin, your chopsticks, your bowl and makes you wish that it was considered polite to use your oshibori to wipe your face.

I managed and delighted myself by gradually mixing in the toppings: chopped green onion, miso paste, chopped pickles, mustard, some kind of sauce and bonito flakes which just made it more delicious.

I couldn't stop thanking my waiter for the special effort that he made. Ordering natto in this hotel was like asking for a bag of chips to be served on a silver platter in the dining room. They understood that it was important to me, though. Everyone was so kind and wanting to go out of their way to please.

Don't forget...there was more breakfast:

Baby prawns with hijiki seaweed served in an egg cup.

Shirasu (dried anchovy minnows) with grated daikon radish.

Konnyaku (a special kind of mountain potato with a texture like tofu) in a bowl.

Pickles including umeboshi (pickled Japanese plum.) Which tasted deliciously of cedar. It must be pickled in wood! Confirmed! It was pickled with salt and the red shiso leaf. Yum!

Sashimi white fish with wasabi and those red peppery shiso sprouts plus a dipping sauce.

Nori in a wood box warmed by heated pumice stones served with dipping sauce.

Tofu cakes with spinach in an egg drop soup.

Salmon with grilled mozzarella cheese and jalapeño mayonnaise?? Wow! I must be dreaming.

Miso soup

Here is a picture of the natto fixin's before they got guru-guru'ed.

There were also steamed veggies: broccoli, spinach, carrot, red and yellow flesh potatoes plus an outrageous and bizarre combination... English bacon with a poached egg.

Of course there were two kinds of tea served with the meal and I was invited to take coffee served in unique pottery mugs and a mango/raspberry mint palate cleanser at the bar.

Please see the attached photo of the post-meal crockery and understand why I have gained eleventy-seven pounds this trip!

Checkout was sad but quick and easy. All staff were as sweet as if I had been staying in their home. I will never, ever forget this incredible experience staying at the Gora Tensui Ryokan.