太陽様が起きる前に、ロビーやお風呂場を整理しました。露天風呂をチェックしたら、周りの庭に雪がまだ残っていて、東の空が段々と明るくなっていて、露天風呂から湯気が上がっていて、｢これは日本だ！｣と感心しました。

This morning, I woke up before the sun did and made my rounds around the lobby and baths. When I checked on the outdoor bath, its surrounding garden was still covered in snow, and the eastern sky was starting to get light, and steam was rising from the onsen bath -- quite a scene. And I thought to myself, this is what I came to Japan for...

日本建築の格好良い所の1つは雪見障子です。障子実態は格好いい（欧米では紙で壁を作る何って、考えられない！でも、その木の格子や後ろからのやわらかい光は渋い！）けど、｢雪見｣と言うポイントは素晴らしい。冬は寒いから暖房を付けて、障子を閉じたくなるけど、冬だからこそ外の雪景色を見たい。そこで、一石二鳥の雪見障子。格好良い！

夕べからこの戸倉上山田温泉で大雪が降りました。実は、雪を待っていました。というのは、亀清旅館の今年に改造した2部屋のパティオドアのガラスを曇りガラスだった。今までは大した庭じゃなかったから曇りで良かったかもしれない。しかし、中の障子は雪見です。意味ないじゃないか！とずっと思っていました。部屋を改造した時に、庭は綺麗に作りました。客室の中から庭を見えるようにガラスを透明に取り替えた。そして、今回の雪でお客様が障子を閉じながら、雪見と透明のドアを通して雪景色になった庭を楽しんで頂けました。雪見障子の本来の目的はやっと実現が出来ました。嬉しい！
Japanese carpentry always amazes me. One feature is particularly cool: the "yuki-mi" (snow-viewing) shoji screen doors. Shoji in and of themselves are cool -- the wood slats creating a warm contrast to the white rice paper (who in the West would've thought about making a wall out of paper!), while letting in a soft, translucent light. But the yuki-mi is the icing on the coolness cake. Allow me to explain: a traditional tatami-mat Japanese room usually has a "en-gawa" corridor between it and the outside wall. Shoji screens are used for the dividing wall. In the summer, one opens the screens to enjoy the view of the garden outside of the en-gawa. At night or when you want privacy, you close the shoji screens.
The problem is, in winter, people in the room want to close the shoji to keep the heat in, but you still want to see the garden. Hence, yuki-mi, which is a glass section of the shoji screen. The rice paper section in front lifts and is held in places by tiny side springs. So you have a barrier to keep in the heat, but you can see through it to the garden outside covered in snow. Pretty cool, eh?
Now, back to the story at hand. All of our guestrooms have a "veranda" in place of the en-gawa corridor. So there's the tatami room, the shoji screens, the veranda, full windows or glass patio doors, and (for the 1st floor rooms) a garden. This past October, we built new gardens for 2 of the rooms. Those rooms' patio doors had been made of obscure privacy glass. We changed them out to clear glass so guests could enjoy the new garden. With last night's snow, the guests in those rooms could keep the shoji closed, look through the yuki-mi glass sections and enjoy the view of the snow, all while staying warm. The yuki-mi shoji which had been there all along, but had been rendered useless by the privacy glass, finally got their chance to be utilized! A Cool Japan feature realized by this American innkeeper.

The new clock in the ladies bath

この間、亀清旅館のお客様から指摘を頂きました：お風呂の脱衣室及び客室に時計を付ける様にと。
脱衣室は確かに、時計が必要です。お風呂の浴びる時間と夕食を食べる時間は合わせなきゃいけないし、隣のお風呂で浴びている仲間がいれば、何時に待ち合わせるかと言う事もあるし。男湯の脱衣室に以前から時計が設置してあったけど、女湯はなかった。ですので、お客様から指摘を頂いて、なるほどなと思って、お風呂場に会う時計を探しました。今日はやっと和の味する木造のを見つけて、買って、早速取り付けました。
お客質は別の問題です。実は、我々旅館でお客質に時計を置かない宿が多いです。あれば便利でしょうけど、それより、日本の旅館というのはゆっくりする為の所です。時間を忘れる場所である。ですから、時計はわざと置かないです。
という訳で、お客様の言われた通り、お風呂場の脱衣室は時計を取り付けました。しかし、客室は無いのでご承知くださいまっせ。

We received some feedback from one of our guests here at Kamesei Ryokan that we need clocks in the onsen bath changing rooms and the guest rooms.
Now, we definitely should have clocks in the changing rooms. Guests need to time their baths around their meal times, as well as guys and ladies tell each other what time to meet after their separate baths. There has always been a clock in the guys bath, but not in the ladies. So when we got the comment from our guest, I thought, Yes -- we need a clock! So I started looking for one that matches, and finally found a wood trimmed one that seems to fit in. I bought it and put it up on the wall right away.
The guestroom is a different issue. We ryokans hesitate to put clocks in the guestrooms. The reason is that a ryokan is a place to relax, take it easy, and forget time. So we don't put a clock in the rooms on purpose.
I went ahead and followed our guest's suggestion on putting a clock in the bath changing room, but as per this reason, we won't be puting one in the guestrooms. I hope our guests appreciate it.

戸倉上山田温泉の亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for the website of Kamesei Ryokan in Nagano.