After changing into your yukata (house lounging clothes), take your towel and basket along the stone path toward the outdoor onsen for a pre-dinner soak, stopping by a wooden hut with a pot of simmering tea and the gentle sound of water flowing into a stone water basin. There are steaming rock pools and wooden baths, all divided by gender for nude bathing. Some are private.
The focal point of a ryokan stay is the elaborate kaiseki dinner, which is a sequence of seven to 14 courses of Japanese haute cuisine focused on seasonality, style and freshness. Sometimes the dinners have references to classical poetry or history. Yumoto Choza has private dining rooms for all guests with drop tables and fire pits.
To start, four courses are carefully arranged at each setting, including an aperitif of chilled housemade plum wine served alongside local river puffer fish sashimi. A lacquerware platter features different textures including persimmon jelly, crisp roasted chestnut and deep-fried buckwheat miso. To the right is a simmering pot of medicinal chicken soup with petal mushrooms and lemongrass. The waiter brings a local Takayama dry sake and then ignites the fire in the pit set within the banquet table, theatrically staking a skewered whole grilled river fish in the sand. It is served with roasted tofu and gohei mochi, a grilled rice ball dipped in a rich miso sauce. Next is the yakiniku course where you self-grill beef, onions and peppers. The parade continues with spare ribs, rice, miso soup, pickles and a green tea custard.
After dinner, you can return to the outdoor onsen to dip yourself in the hot bath and breathe in the mountain air while watching the steam curl upward. Lay on a stone, naked, and stare at the moon to the sound of the spring water.
