信濃毎日新聞から「信毎ホームページ大賞」ブログ部門の表紙とトロフィーが届きました。今年はAward式は出来なかったようですが、このトロフィーを頂いて、嬉しいですね。
The mailman delivered a box from Shinano Mainichi Shinbun, our prefecture's largest newspaper. It contained the Award Certificate and Trophy for their Website Contest. They awarded their top Blog Division prize to this, the Kamesei Blog. Unfortunately there won't be an awards ceremony this year, but at least now I get to proudly display this cool trophy!
旅館の仕事をやれば、色々な方との出会いが出来ます。お客様一人ひとりとゆっくり話して知り合う事は無理ですけれども、時々その機会が出てきます。先日に泊まった方とよく話せました。姨捨夜景・伝説ツアーもご一緒に行かれました。亀清に戻ったら、｢一つな歌を聞かせたい｣と言われました。そしてロビーでおききしました：｢海行かば｣と言う軍歌でした。戦争のころ、欧米人が鬼だったと教えられたと。天皇が神様で政府がオールマイティーとのはどれだけ恐ろしいかと。そのころの日本の国と国民が今の北朝鮮の様でしょうとか。色々な深い話できました。そしてその軍歌を聴いたら、戦争の時代の雰囲気が物凄く感じました。
海行かばの歌詞を調べましたので下記の通りです。
As an innkeeper, we get to meet hundreds and hundreds of guests. It's not possible to get to know each and every one on an individual basis, but from time to time we make a connection. I made a particularly strong connection with one older gentleman the other day. We had gone on the Obasute Night View tour together and when we got back to Kamesei, he said had a song he wanted me to hear. So we listened to it together in our lobby: "Umi Yukaba" or, roughly translated, "Going Out to Sea". He explained the lyrics came from the Manyoshu, the most ancient collection of poems in Japan, dating back to AD 749. The song represents the military marching off to battle and to their deaths. We got to talking about so many things, how he was taught to think of Westerners as 'oni' (ogres) and how the people believed the emperor to be god and the government to be 'all-mighty' and how dangerous and illogical, unpredictable that could be, probably similar to what's going on in places like North Korea now.
I looked up the lyrics, and came up with the following:
海行かば
水漬く屍
山行かば
草生屍
大君の辺
にこそ死なめ
顧みはせじ
umi yukaba
mizuku kabane
yama yukaba
kusa musu kabane
okimi no hen
ni koso shiname
kaerimi wa seji
If I go away to sea,
I shall return a corpse awash;
If duty calls me to the mountain,
A verdant sward shall be my pall.
Thus for the sake of the Emperor,
I will not die peacefully at home.
More on "Umi Yukaba" at this link
Trying to Shikkui
２つ目の露天風呂の造り始まっている中で、ブロックの壁に日本の伝統的のしっくいを塗ろうと思っていました。地元の一番大きいホームセンターに行ったら１袋しかなかった。取り敢えず、買って来て、塗ってみました。後どこで購入できるか、直接メーカーへ連絡しました、大阪の家庭科学さん。そしたら、色々とご親切で、ええ関西弁で、教えて頂きました。まずはブロックにしっくいを濡れへんやと。ありゃま。変わりに白い色のモルタルを買いましたので今度はそれをやってみます。まあ、失敗しながら２つ目の露天風呂を頑張っています。
As previously mentioned, I've started working on building a second outdoor bath, this time outside the ladies bath. I wanted to use a traditional Japaneses wall plaster called 'shikkui' to decorate the concrete block walls. When I went to our area's largest home center store, they only had 1 bag in stock. So much for Japan maintaining its traditional building techniques. Anyways, I went ahead and bought their one and only bag and tried applying it to the wall. Then I contacted the manufacturer to find out where to buy more. He kindly informed my that you can't apply shikkui to concrete -- it sucks the water out too much. So instead, as per his advice, I bought some white-colored mortar and will try again. Trial and Error -- maybe that's the name I should call this 2nd bath! 🙂
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
しっくいの家庭科学社のHPはこちらClick here for the Shikkui manufacturer's website
