はなの舞 - Hananomai, Yufuin

大分から湯布院へは電車に乗った。赤い電車はかっこ良かったが、これが一両編成というのには驚いた。宿からは車で駅まで迎えに来てもらえたが、正午を過ぎたばかりだったので、我々は荷物を宿に預けて散策に出た。
みやげ物屋などが並ぶ通りをひと通り歩いた後、宿に近い玉の湯のカフェNicolに入ってひと休みすることにした。あいにく僕は朝方腹具合が悪かったので、昼食には躊躇があってハーブティーを注文した。カミさんはスープセットを軽いランチ代わりに頼んだ。
玉の湯は母が生前、もう一度行きたいと何度も漏らしていた宿だ。老舗中の老舗で、僕らが泊まる雰囲気とは違うかなと思ったし、宿代だって2倍以上だ。


はなの舞の母屋はフロントとダイニングルームがある建物で、エクステリアもインテリアもことさら飾り立てたところがなく、そのさりげなさがオシャレだ。巨大な梁や一枚板の分厚いカウンターなど、木の温もりをふんだんに活かした品位のある築17年の建物とのこと。客室は離れの長屋形式になっていて、浴室へのアクセスも含め合理的に動線がレイアウトされている。客室自体はこれという特長はなく古い感じだが、落ち着ける。
僕らは迷うことなくダイニングルームで夕食を取ることにしたが、テーブル席ではなく奥の座敷の方に席が用意されていた。掘りごたつ形式で足元は暖かい。






料理は先付けだけ写真でお見せしよう（出汁巻き卵の上にからすみもちらり）。予約の時に懐石を選んでおいたが、小振りな品々が次々に出され、魚もステーキも美味しく、料理法もなかなか凝っていたので、すこぶる満足な夕食だった。おなかの方もどうにか回復していた。


さらに、我々にとっては負けず劣らず楽しめたのが朝食だ。器も良い、食材も良い、おそらくはこれが湯布院らしさなのだろう。



We took the train from Oita to Yufuin. I was surprised to see the only single cart train, but its red color was charming [*1]. The inn picked us up at the station, but it was still just after the noon before the check-in time, and we went out for a walk in the village leaving our luggage at the inn.

There was a street with many souvenir shops lined up conveniently for a window-shopping. We then decided to take a break at Café Nicol of Tamanoyu [*2]. I had a problem with my stomach in the morning and hesitated to have lunch and ordered an herb tee. My wife took a soup set in the menu as her light lunch. Tamanoyu is one of the authentic inns in Yufuin where my mother, when she was still alive, repeatedly expressed that she wanted to go back to stay there again. I thought it was too classy for us this time, and besides the charge was more than a double.

The main building of Hananomai [*3] was the public zone with the front desk and the dining area, and its interior as well as the exterior was not too decorative, which looked to me rather refined. A huge wooden beam [*4] and an amazingly thick single wood counter top [*5] were the examples of their affection toward the warmth of wood in this 17-year old house. As for the guest rooms, they were in a separate house, and the access was well taken into account in the layout including another building of baths. The room had nothing to marvel and relatively old, but very relaxing.
We felt happy to have the dinner in the main building instead of our own room, and we were led to the Japanese floor further in through the area with tables and chairs. The floor around the table was digged out (“horigotatsu” as we say) for the comfort of sitting, and the floor was kept warm.

Shown in the picture [*6] is the starter of Kaiseki dinner we had ordered in advance at the time of our reservation, and the series of small but sophisticated plates came one after another. The fish and the steak were excellent, and it was quite satisfying meal for us. My stomach seemed recovered by this time.

And equally enjoyable was the breakfast [*7] with beautiful ceramics and porcelains and of course very nice food. This is the style of treatment in Yufuin, I thought.