Kaiseki-ryori (Banquet cuisine)

Yesterday my wife and I went to see my mother, who has been in a nursing-care facility in my home town for more than four years. After seeing my mother, we stayed at a near-by hot-spring inn with my brother's wife and her daughter who were also visiting my mother from Ibaragi prefecture, near Tokyo. We all enjoyed the hot-spring bath there very much.The dinner was one of the Japanese cuisines called kaiseki (banquet cuisine). In the picture which I took, you can see a sheet of menu lineup (at the top), appetizers (in the center) , and a steamed dish in a hot steamer made of bamboo (at the bottom). Kaiseki is one of the most popular Japanese cuisines at a banquet. It usually consists of appetizers, soups, sashimi, steamed foods, grilled foods, deep-fried foods, pickled foods, rice, and fruits as dessert. The arrangement of the food is meticulously planned out in order to utilize the seasonal ingredients and satisfy not only the tongue, but also the eyes. For further information about the inn and kaiseki, you can look at the following websites.
http://www.jalan.net/jalan/jweb/yado/YADS_322717.HTML
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiseki