Mr. Maclean and his partner on top of Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen at the Arato-jo Fortress
欧米の大手旅行ガイドブック「Ｒｏｕｇｈ Ｇｕｉｄｅ」の記者Neil Macleanさんが戸倉上山田温泉に来てくれました。我が温泉はまだLonely Planetやミシュランガイド等、海外のガイドブックに載らせて頂いていません。以前はミシュランの方に戸倉上山田の芸妓さん達を連れてＰＲした事がありましたが、結局はパスされました。
今回はNeilさんが戸倉上山田まで足を運んでくれたので、一生懸命で案内しておきました。夜は射的にも連れて行って、朝は自転車で温泉街を回りながら色々と歴史と伝説を説明しておいて、お昼はおしぼりうどんも食べさせました。
良い印象になったかと思います。次回のＲｏｕｇｈ Ｇｕｉｄｅの出版は楽しみですね!とにかく、メニューに載っていないものは選ばれない； こういうガイドブックに是非に戸倉上山田の魅力を載せて頂きたい♪
Rough Guides writer Neil Maclean and his partner came to Togura Kamiyamada Onsen. I took them around and showed them the highlights of our onsen town, in the hopes that Rough Guides will consider including us in their next edition.
Presently, our onsen town Togura-Kamiyamada is not listed in any guidebooks from overseas. In the past, we'd taken some of our geisha and made a presentation to the Michelin Guide writer, but to no avail. This time, the Rough Guide writer came to our onsen, so I made sure to give him a thorough tour. At night, we even went and did shateki (corkgun target shooting), and the next morning we toured the town by bicycle, and finished up with a lunch of oshibori-udon, our local specialty of udon noodles with a spicy daikon radish.
Hopefully our town made a positive impression, and that we will be included in the Japan Rough Guides when the next edition comes out!
