Rinkaiso

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.