若若女将とお墓参りに行ってきます。

Our Misaki preparing to go the family grave to pay O-Bon respects.

亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website.

温泉の友達の家に呼んで頂いて、流しそうめんをやりました。こんな楽しい事！はまりました。

Some neighborhood friends invited us over for a lunch of 'Nagashi Somen'. They take somen noodles and slide them down a chute, and everyone tries to catch them with chopsticks. What a blast!

亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website

テレビ東京の三日間の撮影が今朝、終わりました。テレビの世界は楽しく見えるけれど、細かいです。スタッフの皆様に感心しています。これからの編集を宜しく！

The Tokyo TV crew finished their 3-day shoot this morning. The world of TV looks fun from the outside, but seeing how hard the staff worked really made me appreciate what goes into making the show. Now I just hope they do a good job of editing.

亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website

今週は千曲市会議員の選挙の応援活動をやっています。もう１人の若旦那のサポートです。私が始めて日本に来た時に、選挙車がうるさくて迷惑だと言う印象を受けました。まっさか私はこうやって乗るようになると思わなかった。。。
All this week I am helping out one of my fellow ryokan owners in his campaign for city council. When I first came to Japan, I thought these campaign sound trucks were obnoxiously loud. I had know idea that one day I would be riding in one!

選挙権が無いし、政治的な事を避けたい私はそれでも旅館仲間の市会議員の選挙手伝いで７階も呼ばれています。夏祭りも重なっている忙しい時期ですが、千曲市に戸倉上山田温泉の代表を是非応援したいと思っています。

I don't even have voting rights here, and personally try to stay away from politics, but I've been asked to help out with one of my fellow ryokan owner's election campaign for city council. We do need a representative of our onsen on the council, so I'm trying to help out as much as I can, even though the election coincides with preparation for our summer festival! When am I going to have time to clean our mineral baths? 🙂

亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website

信州は北海道からどれぐらい離れているか分かりませんが、今日は旅館組合からこの知らせが流れてきました。北海道のＧ８サミットに向かって、外人客に対して厳しくすると。「ようこそジャパン」と言いながら、テロの疑いを。言わせて頂けたら、八方美人くさい。
Nagano is a long way away from Hokkaido, but our Ryokan Assoc. faxed us this request to be more strict towards our guests from overseas in consideration of the up-coming Hokkaido G8 Summit. On one hand, we say 'Yokoso Japan'; on the other other we suspect guests are terrorists. Isn't that being a bit two-faced? For further info, including add'l comments by yours truly, see my senpai Debito-san's blog on the matter: http://www.debito.org/?p=1764

隣の町の坂城は贅沢と言えるぐらい綺麗な中学校があります。去年に始め、そして先日は2回目で行きました。2年生の為のキャリアの特別授業で呼ばれました。「仕事に熱心だ」と言う事で、私の仕事の経験を話しました。いつも言いますけど、この旅館の仕事と言うのはお客様に落ち着かせる時間の提供ができるとは嬉しいことだと。私はこういう仕事が出来て、本当に幸せだと思っとります。
その学生に伝えたアドバイスは仕事でも何をしても、最低限をやるのではなく、何かエクストラを考えること。最低5ページの論文を書く時に6ページも書くとか、お客さんを駅に迎える時、宿に行くだけではなく、城山のお寺さんと上からの眺めをついでに案内するなど。とにかく、その＋αが大事だと。
最後で聞かれた質問が面白かった：旅館の仕事は一日何時間ですか？私にとっては旅館の素晴らしいところが趣味を生かせる仕事です。例えば、子供を連れて自転車でサイクリングする時に、「これはお客さんにも案内できるよね」と考えたりします。この公演だってそうです。仕事外と言えば仕事外ですが、亀清旅館がこの地域にある限りで地域に貢献するのは当たり前です。
旅館の仕事を楽しんでいる、この青い目の若旦那です。
Our neighboring town's Middle School has beautiful woodwork throughout, and Sakaki is duly proud of it. I went there for the first time last year, and then again yesterday. It was to give a speech for their career class as someone who is intense about their job. One of the main points I wanted to get across was the importance of doing something extra in whatever you do. If your teacher tells you to write a minimum 5 page report, write 6. If you pick up guests at the station, don't just take them directly back to the inn, but show them the view from the temple above the town on the way. In otherwords, +α.
The question asked of me at the end was interesting: How many hours do I work a day. Well, it depends on how you look at it. For example, even going for a bike ride with my son is a chance to look at new things to suggest to our guests. This speech to the M.S. students could be considered separate from work. However, to the extent that our inn exists in this area, we have a responsibility to interact and contribute to the society, so even this speech is 'work'.
That's me, enjoying working as the blue-eyed ryokan proprietor.

日本の若旦那にやはり作務衣が一番会うよね。ただし、作務衣は２ｍの身長用のが基本的にない。私があちらこちらに調査しているけど、唯一サイズが合うのはＡｃｃｅｓｓ２１というＮＰＯです。信州の松本の法人でタイランドでの活動で作っています。
日本の作務衣に慣れてしまえば、久しぶりにネックタイを付けなきゃならないとうんときつく感じます。作務衣が一番楽で気持ちいいですね。

Innkeepers in Japan typically wear 'samue' traditional work clothes. The problem is, samue makers usually don't have my size (I'm 6'7"). I've looked all over the place, and the only one who can accomodate me is an NPO out of Matsumoto, Access・21, that makes them at a coop in Thailand. So I wear a traditional Japanese samue and at the same time, support relief work in Thailand. Pretty cool, eh?

亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website.
Access・21 Link

この土曜日で子供連れのお客様が多かった。夕食後は子供達の皆がロビーで集まって、アメリカから持ってきたポップコーンメーカーでポップコーンを焼きました。出来立てポップコーンは美味しいよね！
For this Saturday, we had several families with children as guests. So after dinner, I gathered all the kids in Kamesei's lobby, and brought out our popcorn maker from the States, and popped a bunch of popcorn for everyone. Freshly popped popcorn is the best!
亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website

亀清旅館のトイレ改造の工事で出て来た材木はゴミとして処分しないで、ロビーの薪ストーブの為の炊きつけとして使うようにしました。私が全部をこまかく切る作業しました。一日もかかちゃった！まあ、環境にもいいし。
Our bathroom remodel here at Kamesei Ryokan is creating a lot of wood waste. Rather than just dispose of it, I decided to keep it for kindling for the wood burning stove in our lobby. It took an entire day, but I cut it all up and stacked it. Lots of work, but I'm sure the environment appreciates it.

亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website.