Meguro River Hotel

Saturday, April 8, 2000

Lunch - The Hotel

Lunch with Kondo and his wife

We wanted to take Kondo and his wife out now that they were back in Japan since they had been nice enough to invite us to their house when we were in Chicago. When Tara suggested it, Kondo suggested we meet at the Meguro station on Saturday, April 7th for lunch. This would be very convenient for him since he could drop his two girls off at his mother's house in Meguro-ku. We went for a nice lunch at a little Korean BBQ place (whose really name in Japanese is yaki-bimbu we learned) on the second floor for lunch. 

The little restaurant was very busy and the first table available was the Japanese style one. So, we all took off our shoes and sat on the tatami mats on the floor. Lunch was yummy, but the real surprise came after lunch. We walked to the Meguro river, took some photos of the beautiful cherry blossoms, then headed towards the hotel. 
The Hotel
We live only a twenty minute walk along the river from this hotel, but we never knew it existed since it doesn't look like a hotel from the river front. When Kondo was explaining where he'd like to take us, Tara actually was thinking of ANOTHER hotel along the river. Well, turns out that place that Tara was thinking of was a 'love hotel' -i.e.. a short stay hotel for couples!!

When we arrived at the real hotel, we were impressed! Beautiful gardens were visible through the glassed in lobby and beautiful paintings of ladies in kimonos were on the walls and ceilings. However, we weren't looking at the paintings - we were looking at the real thing! We saw more people dressed in kimonos while we were in the hotel than maybe we've seen in nearly two years in Japan. That's because there were lots of weddings being held at the hotel. Oh - and the wedding dresses! Kondo took us up the escalators so we could have a look at all the couples in various stages of the wedding. We can remember these dresses:
- the traditional American style dress, but in bright red
- and in yellow
- and in gold
- and in the expected white
Plus, on the top floor where the actual ceremonies are held, we saw one couple in their traditional Japanese white kimono. The head-dress on the woman was very impressive.

After wandering around bug-eyed for a while, we settled down at a nice cafe for desert and continued to watch both the brides and grooms and the guests walk around in their finest. Tara was especially impressed with the bows on the back of the young ladies kimonos. She didn't know what to look at first: the traditional Japanese garden complete with waterfall or the traditional Japanese kimonos.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch and then went to the bathroom. Needless to say, there was a heated seat (with an added feature even!! - a built in blow drier). But, the big surprise was the bridge over the river that you passed over. Wow! Then, after a walk through the Japanese gardens alongside the hotel, we thanked Kondo for a wonderful day - especially since he hadn't let us pay - and walked back home along a fully in bloom cherry blossom lined river.