千歳の新しい床
亀清旅館の今年度の目標、客室改造、の次のプロジェクトは無事に出来ました。千歳aka「杏」と末広aka「紅玉」の２部屋のベランダは絨毯が引いてありました。秋にその２部屋の庭は庭師の岡田さんに作ってもらって、そしてコンクリートブロックの塀を壊して、代わりに木の塀を造って、取り付けました。その新しい庭をベランダの椅子から眺める時に、気の塀に合わせてベランダの床は絨毯じゃなくて、やはり木の板がいいナと思いました。
以前に書いたのですが、上田第三木材が長野県の赤松を利用した床材を作っています。私がその工場に買いに行ったので、貼り付けはやっと出来ました。町の大工さん、村越さんが道具を貸してくれて、やり方を親切に教えてくれました。エアーガンを使うのは初めてでした。まあ、そこそこうまく出来たと思います。この板で部屋の雰囲気は大分変わりました。社長も「明るくなった」と言ってくれました。
我々欧米人はどちらかと言うと、こんな木造の床材に憧れます。木の温もりで落ち着きます。尚且つ、地元の木材を使って、そして木こそは「和」の味がします。欧米と日本の両方の良い所を生かす。絨毯の代わりに木の板貼りはこの青い目の若旦那なりのお客様の為のおもてなしの１つです。
My current project for this year has been to renovate some of our guest rooms here at Kamesei Ryokan. I finally completed the next step in that project. Two of our guestrooms, Chitose aka "Anzu" and Suehiro aka "Kogyoku" had some homely carpet laid down in the veranda space in between the tatami mat main room and the garden. This past fall, we had our gardener, Okada-san, re-do the gardens for both rooms. In addition, I demolished the concrete block fence and made a nice wood one. In order for our guests to better enjoy viewing the new gardens, and to better match the wood fences, I decided to install wood flooring in those rooms' verandas.
As I previously mentioned, there is a local wood flooring manufacturer that uses Nagano-grown red pine. I went to their factory and purchased the flooring, and this week I finally had the chance to install it. Our local carepenter, Murakoshi-san, lent me his chop saw and air gun and showed me the installation techniques, and I had at it. It was my first time to use an air gun. The project turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself. Even our boss said the room feels a lot brighter with the new floor.
Us Westerners tend to appreciate wood floors more than carpet. The wood just lends a nice warmth to the room. And, the wood itself is from local trees, and Japanese construction places a high value on wood materials, too. So the new wood floors are the best of both worlds -- that's the role I like to play as an American innkeeper at a traditional Japanese ryokan.
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.
Installing the wood flooring with Misaki
