夕べは松本のＪＣに頼まれて、外国人の目線から松本について講演しました。つまり、ＪＣは松本の活動をする事に当たって、まずは「松本は何」って把握しないと駄目だと。そして、自分達から見た松本より、外国人の印象が参考になると。
まあ、私は何度も松本で観光や買い物した事があるし、代表の温泉、あさまを研究した事があるし、色々と意見を述べました。ユニークな松本。例えば、代表のお城そして城下町の縄手通りや中町通り、文化の浮世絵美術館や毎年に行うアートアンドクラフト祭、再生された宝のひかりや、大自然の上高地の玄関、独特の買い物スポットパルコと井上百貨店、などなど。
そして、今日は千曲市の仲間の柿崎さんと一緒にその井上デパートや縄手通りで観光・買い物しました。松本は何なんだと改めて認識しながら。ＪＣの講演の時に、お茶会も行いました。その時のお茶菓子は井上デパートで手に入れる真味糖を頂きました。そして、「井上デパートの井上です」と名刺を渡された。おっ、格好いい！さっそく、買いに行きました。ちなみに、井上デパートの生き残る秘密が分かりました：買い付けは現場の人に。つまり、実際に商品を売っているスタッフに商品を選んでいる。普通なお店は専門の人が買い付けをするけど、現場から離れているから消費者の好みが分からない。尚且つ、現場のすタッフは自分で選んだ商品をお客さんに積極的にアピールが出来る。失敗はあるだろうけど、かしこいやり方だと思いました。
そして、縄手通りを歩いたら、女鳥羽川と触れ合えるスポットもあるし、商店街に味のある古い道具を売っているお店もあって、あちらこちらに水が流れて、素晴らしいひと時でした。
松本のＪＣの皆様、呼んで頂いて、有難うございました。しかし、自分の町を自分で歩けば、何が「松本」か、その魅力が分かると思います。頑張って下さい。応援しています。

The Matsumoto JC's invited me to give a talk on their town's "identity" from a foreigner's perspective. I've gone sightseeing as well as shopping in 'Moto many times, in addition to working on a project to study the city's signature onsen, Asama. So based on those experiences, I gave my insight. Besides its famous castle, the related side streets of Nawate and Naka-Dori have a medieval feel to them. Arts-wise, there's the Ukiyoe Museum as well as the annual Arts and Crafts Fair. Shopping-wise, even Nagano-ites are envious of Parco and the Inoue Department Store. Nature-wise, 'Moto is the doorstep to Kamikochi and the Japanese Alps. And so on.
Today I did some sightseeing and shopping with my buddy from Chikuma City, Kakizaki-san. At the talk I gave, there was a small tea ceremony held, featuring Shinmito tea sweets that are sold at the Inoue Department Store. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Inoue. So Kakizaki-san and I first went to the department store to buy the tea sweets. By the way, I figured out Inoue's secret to surviving the slump most other department stores are facing. Their sales people do the buying. Most department stores probably have specific purchasers, but they are in their own world separate from the sales floor. Not only do the salespeople know what the consumers want, but if they do the purchasing, they are in a better position to "sell" the consumers on the products. I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes made, but their idea sounds good to me. I certainly want to encourage them.
Next, Kakizaki-san and I walked along Nawate-dori street. There were stairs down to the Metoba River who's tranquil riverside made you forget that Nagano's second biggest city is all around you. And there was a shop selling antique tools -- I loved it! Plus, there are water features all over the place.
I really appreciate the Matsumoto JC's inviting me for a speech. But they don't need me. They themselves need to get out and walk around their town. Then they'll realize it's unique qualities!

松本ＪＣのＨＰはこちらClick here for the website for the Matsumoto JC's.

縄手通りの詳しくはこちらClick here for info on Nawate Dori

井上デパートのＨＰはこちらClick here for Inoue Department Store's website.

松本青年会に呼ばれて、外国人から見た松本のＩｄｅｎｔｉｔｙについて講演いたしました。夜は、あさま温泉の富士の湯に泊まらせて頂きました。良い刺激になりました。亀清もそうですが、宿の良くあるパッタンはお風呂を中心で良くする。内装はどちらかと言うと、犠牲になる。亀清は露天風呂を作ったお陰で、お風呂の満足度は上がったけど、客室の満足度がまだ低いです。富士の湯は内装がうんと綺麗になっていました。良い材料も使っていて、木の温もりが伝われました。若旦那と若女将も親切で、一番感心したのは布団引き：２ｍの身長の私のために、特別に長く引いてくれました。

それが日本の旅館のおもてなし！

I was asked to give a talk to the Matsumoto JC's tonight. Afterwards, they put me up at Fujinoyu Ryokan in Asama Onsen, Matsumoto's main onsen area. It's always inspirational to see other ryokans, and Fujinoyu was especially inspirational. Most onsen inns, including Kamesei, put the majority of their efforts into building nice onsen baths, and let the upkeep on the buildings slide. However, the owners of Fujinoyu obviously put a lot of time and money into the interior decorations of the inn. The warmth of the beautiful wood trim and features really comes across well. And the young wife and husband running the inn are so kind. When they prepared my futon, they made it extra long because I'm so tall.

Now that's Japanese ryokan hospitality!

富士乃湯のＨＰはこちらClick here for Fujinoyu's website

我々旅館青年部の仕事は半分が宿の、もう半分が町の為です。今日は良い例です。午前中は夕べからのお客様がお帰りになってから、青年部の皆が戸倉上山田の中心の公園で集まって、冬のイルミネーションを回収しました。そして、昼食後、我が宿の宴会場改造について大工さんと打ち合わせして、それからこの温泉の町興しのボスとちょっと話して、そして観光協会の印刷物部会と長い会議。その後、宿に戻って、今晩のお客様の分の布団引きをやりました。今日の仕事の半分以上は戸倉上山田温泉の為でした。
ちなみに、青年部の皆と公園で作業していた時に、来月に結婚する晴山さんのRyo君が面白い運度を始まった。久しぶりの暖かい日のせいか、そろそろ結婚するので興奮しているか、写真のようにFlipしました。大見事!
まあ，我々若旦那は仕事ばかりじゃないね。
For us proprietors of inns here in Japan, typically half of the work we do is for our inn, and the other half is for the town. Today was a perfect example. This morning, after last night's guests left, the other junion innkeepers and I gathered in Togura Kamiyamada Onsen's main park to take down the winter illumination lights. After that, I grabbed lunch with the guys, then met with our carpenter to discuss renovation plans. Then it was on to the town's tourism center for a quick talk with our main civic improvement guy, followed by a long meeting with the publications committee. Once that was over, I returned to the inn to flip futons for tonight's guests. Over half of my day was spent on work for the town!
While the other innkeepers and I were at the park this morning, Ryo from Seizan Ryokan started doing some funky exercises. I'm not sure if it was due to today being a spring-like warm one, or if he was excited because he's going to get married next month, but he started doing some flips. I managed to get this picture of him upside-down. As you can see, we mix in a little play with our work.

旅館晴山のＨＰはこちらClick here for Seizan's website

戸倉上山田温泉の若旦那ブログはこちらClick here for the Togura Kamiyamada Onsen Junior Innkeepers' Blog

この間、ある先輩と自分達の子供の話をしました。うちの娘、美咲ちゃんが才だと言ったら、「あっ、その年は毎日に何か新しいパフォーマンスをするよね。」と言われました。そう言えば、美咲ちゃんは確かに、保育園で習った歌や、お兄ちゃん達から聞いた事とか、友達やテレビに見た踊りを真似するか、何か面白い行動を起こす。今日は人形に笛を吹いていたのを見て、先輩の仰った事を思い出しました。あわてて、今日の美咲ちゃんパフォーマンスの写真を撮りました。

（青い目の若旦那の生活とあまり関係ないけど、可愛いから許して頂戴！）

The other day, one of my "senpai" (older fellow innkeepers) talked with me about children. When I told him our Misaki is 2 years old, he said, "Ah, when they're that age, everyday they do some new performance." After thinking about it, I realized he was right. Our Misaki is always singing a song she learned at preschool, or copying some funky action that her older brothers are doing, or mimicking a dance she saw from a friend or on TV. Tonight, I spotted her playing a flute for her doll friends. It reminded me of what my senpai had mentioned. I got out my cell phone camera and took this picture, today's Misaki performance.

(This entry doesn't have much to do about me being an American innkeeper in Japan, but isn't she cute?)

信州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.

家族で遊びにお出かけして来ました。上田市でボーリングしてきました。急いで行ったから作務衣から着替える暇もなくて、最初は作務衣ののままで始まりました。あんまりにも変で、すぐに普段着に着替えました。（まあ、私の場合は普段着＝作務衣・・・）

Our family went out for some fun today -- bowling in nearby Ueda City. We were in such a rush to take off, that I didn't get time to change out of my samue, the traditional Japanese working clothes that I usually wear. After bowling a frame in the samue, I realized how weird it looked and changed into street clothes. (In my case, though, most days my street clothes ARE the samue...)

障子。

欧米では考えられない。「壁は紙でできている？紙？」

まあ、日本建築で有っちゃいけない。和紙でできている障子。特に、我々伝統的な旅館に。意外に断熱効果もあり、使いがてが非常に便利だし、良い雰囲気が出るし、私は個人的に大好きです。

但し、すぐ敗れちゃう。貼替は業者さんに頼めば、1枚1500円がかかちゃう。今日はずくを出して、子供達に手伝ってもらって、おばさんにやり方を教えてもらって、亀清の破れた障子の全部を貼替えました。業者ほど完璧に出来なかったかもしれないけど、初心者としては悪くない。

しかし、途中、雪見の部分のガラスを割っちゃった。結局、業者さんに頼んだ方が安く済んだかもしれない。それにしても、良い経験でした。

Paper Shoji Screens.

In the West, no one would ever imagine a wall made of paper.

But here in Japan, a shoji screen is a staple of a traditional Japanese room. After using them, I have come to appreciate their usefulness, their insulating properties, and the soft feel they give to a room.

However, I don't appreciate how easy the paper tears. It costs 1500 yen a panel to have a shoji professionally recovered. Today, I got the kids to help, and got our aunt to demonstrate how, and we recovered all the torn shoji from Kamesei's guestrooms.

We didn't do as good of a job as a pro would, but they turned out just fine if I do say so myself. That is, until I broke one of the glass panels in a yuki-mi shoji. So this will end up costing us more than if we had a pro do the job to begin with. But it was still a good experience!

信州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.

信州国分寺は戸倉上山田温泉から来るまで４５分で上田市にある。このお寺の縁日は１月８日ですが、「八日堂縁日」は前日の午後がメインです。そこで、伝統的な珍しいお守り「蘇民将来」を買い求める人でにぎわう。（今はガイドブックの説明）。
この辺で、どこに行ってもその蘇民将来を集まっている人がいます。その蘇民将来はきっと深い意味があるだろうけど、色々な人に聞いていますが、誰も分からない。ただ、この地域に住んでいる限りで、毎年に蘇民将来を買う義務があると。集まる為に集まるって感じ。それより深く考える必要がないと。
そして、そのお守りの特徴の一つは大きさが４つもあります。一年目は一番小さいのを買って、二年目は次の大きさ、そして３年目、４年目は一番大きいのを。５年目はまた一番小さいのから始まるというパッタンです。
私にとっては、そのパッタンがポイントです。私がアメリカでの人生を捨てて、日本に来てからの年数は私の集まっている蘇民将来の本数を見れば分かる訳です。つまり、私の日本での人生の流れが分かるという奥深い意味です。
ちなみに、今年の八日堂縁日は我が子供達を始めて連れて行きました。まあ、子供にはお参りや蘇民将来よりも、スマートボールや佐世保バーガーの方で盛り上がりました。しかし、来年からは自分達の蘇民将来の集まりを始めたいといっていました。人生の流れ・・・
At some point in Japan's history, every "kuni" (medieval era prefectures) were given a specially designated temple, "kokubun-ji". Nagano Prefecture's kokubun-ji is located in Ueda City, about 45 minutes from here, Togura Kamiyamada Onsen. Guide books explain that the temple's annual festival is held on 08-Jan and features a traditional unique good luck charm called a "sominshorai". Guide books tend to fail to explain the significance of the charms, and if you ask the locals, no one seems to know. However, everyone seems to collect the charms -- it's just THE THING TO DO to the extent that you live here.
One of the unique things about the charms is that they have 4 different sizes. The first year you go, you buy the smallest. The second year, you buy the net biggest, and so on until the fourth year when you buy the very largest one. Then the fifth year, you start over with the smallest.
For me, the significance in the charms is they are like milepost markers for my life here in Japan. One look at my collection, and you know exactly how many years it's been since I threw away my life back in the States to move here. So for me, the charms have a deep significance indeed.
This year, by the way, I took all three of our kids for the first time. I think they enjoyed the games and food booths more than the temple ceremony, but at the end, they spoke of wanting to start their own sominshorai collection next year. Time goes on...

今日は私達家族のお正月休みで、長野市へ出かけて、善光寺で初詣してきました。亀清でのお正月のお客様の中で、善光寺へ行かれた方が多かった。偉い混んでいたと皆が言っていました。それはそうだね。この辺で初詣しょうと思えば、自然に善光寺に行きたくなる。
私達が行ったのはお正月の終わりの方、尚且つ夕方でしたからそんなに混んでいなかった。そのお陰、色々とゆっくり見れました。善光寺の魅力は改めて感じました。

注：善光寺はいつ行っても感動しますが、お正月が終わって次の注目の時が灯明祭りです。善光寺のライトアップが見事に綺麗です。今年の予定は２月６日から１４日までです。

Today for our family's New Years holiday, we took the day off and went to Zenkoji Temple in Nagano City. Several of our guests here at Kamesei had gone to Zenkoji this New Years and had talked about how crowded it was. Well, of course! When we Nagano-ites want to go for "hatsumode" (making New Years offerings at a temple), Zenkoji is THE place to go. We are naturally drawn there.
When we went, it was towards the end of the New Years holiday period, as well as the end of the day, so the temple was relatively quiet. Thanks to that, we were able to walk around and take in the massive temple and its surrounds at a leisurely pace. We were once again impressed with its enormity.
A lot of foreign travellers to Japan get "templed-out" while sightseeing, and I often reccommend seeing some of Nagano's natural highlights (e.g. snow monkeys, spiritual Togakushi, etc.) instead, but if you have the time to visit Zenkoji and take in some of its powerful details, it is well worth the trip.

Zenkoji is popular throughout the year, but after the New Years rush, the next big time is the Toumyou Festival where Zenkoji gets lit up in the Olympic colors. This year's dates are from 6-Feb to 14-Feb.

善光寺は戸倉上山田温泉から来るまで約一時間、電車なら長野駅から戸倉駅まで約２５分。
Zenkoji is 1 hour by car from Togura Kamiyamada Onsen, or 25 minutes by train from Nagano Station to Togura Station.
善光寺灯明祭りのＨＰはこちら。Click here for the Zenkoji Toumyou Festival website.

このブログは最近、ちょっと真面目過ぎるかなと思います田。町興し、宿の改造、社会貢献、日米関係など等、かなりドライになってしまっています。今日はもうちょっと楽しい話をしたい：我が娘、２歳半の美咲ちゃんの保育園クリスマス会。｢取替えっこ」という演奏で、美咲ちゃんがねずみ役でした。可愛いかった！舞台の上で皆の前で立つのは怖かったようでしたが、可愛いかった！

以前はお客様に言われましたが、タイラーの顔より、美咲ちゃんの方が売りだよと。了解です。時々、我が子供達の顔もブログに載せていきますので宜しくお願い致します。

This blog has been getting too serious lately. Civic improvements here, building maintenance there, topped with social contributions and Japanese-American relations. It all makes for a pretty dry blog. So today's topic is a little more fun: our little Misaki's preschool Christmas Party. 2-1/2 year old Misaki played the role of a mouse getting chased by their teacher in a cat costume. She was so cute! She was obviously a little frightened by being on stage in front of so many people, but, she was soooo cute!

One of our guests had mentioned I should quit putting stuff about me on the blog, and instead focus on Misaki 'cuz she's the real star of Kamesei. I'm not sure about that, but I will try to put more pictures of our kids on the blog in the future!

上山田保育園のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamiyamada Preschool's website.

旅館若旦那の仕事と言うのは、他の温泉地だったら分からないけれど、この戸倉上山田温泉の場合は自分の仕事の半分が宿の為じゃなくて、地域の為です。今日も他の旅館の方々とこの千曲市の市長等と東京へ宣伝して回りました。午前中はいくつかの大手旅行会社の４社に行って、戸倉上山田温泉の姨捨夜景ツアーや、マイ味噌造りなどの体験プログラムをＰＲしました。そして、夕方は旅行会社やメディア関係の８０人にこの戸倉上山田温泉の魅力を伝えました。

実は、今回のキャラバンは私にとって一石二鳥でした。金曜日の旅行会社・メディアのＰＲが終わってから、私が上野に泊まって、土曜日の朝はジャパニーズ・イン・グループのメンバーとよこすかの米軍基地のトラベル・フェアーに行きました。雨のせいで結局中止になったが、グループのメンバーと良い交流が出来ました。

泊まったのはグループのメンバーの勝太郎旅館でした。夜は近所の居酒屋に連れてくれて、盛り上がりました。初めてだったのに、常連の皆さんがすぐ、仲間に入れさせて頂きました。(やはり、下町は良いね！勝太郎さん、ご馳走様でした！）

I don't know about other onsen towns, but here in Togura Kamiyamada Onsen, for us innkeepers like me, half of our work is at our own inn, the other half is in support of the town. Today I went with some other innkeepers, Chikuma City's mayor and several other people to Tokyo to do some marketing for our town. In the morning, we made the rounds to the major travel agents to try to get them to feature our town's Obasute Night View Tour and other optional tours. In the evening, we entertained about 80 people from various travel agencies and media outlets.

For me, this trip was a "2 birds, 1 stone" deal. After the PR work in Tokyo on Friday, I spent the night in Ueno. Then Saturday morning, I went with several other members of the Japanese Inn Group to the U.S. Naval Station at Yokosuka to participate in a travel fair. Unfortunately, it got rained out, but I got to know some of the other JIG members better.

For Friday night, I stayed at Ryokan Katsutaro. The owner took me out to a nearby izakaya pub, where the locals immediately accepted me into their lively conversation. The area is part of Tokyo's "shitamachi", the older section of the city where people tend to be more friendly. I certainly found that to be the case! (Katsutaro-san, thank you for your hospitality!)

旅館勝太郎のＨＰはこちらClick here for the website for Ryokan Katsutaro.