Our first night in Kyoto we stayed in a traditional hot spring "onsen" hotel in a small lakeside resort a few miles out of town. This was our private hot tub on the balcony of our room. It was very, very hot and very relaxing. The view across the lake was peaceful, although the resort and the hotel had a slightly run-down feel of faded grandeur - perhaps just because it was out of season. In the even we had a traditional 7 course formal banquet. The menu was all in Japanese and the waiter spoke no English so we could only guess at what we were eating. It was all exquisitely beautiful, and (mostly) delicious.
