To all of our friends and family, we wish we could be with you for Christmas. Instead, we offer you these pictures. We also wish you a blessed Christmas.

From Tyler, Mari, Andy, Kenny and Misaki.

夕べ、寝る前に空を見たら、星が綺麗に見えたから起きて外が雪景色になっているのを見て、驚きました。去年は初雪が12月26日；今年はその1週間半も早いの12月17日と言う事で、ホワイトクリスマスはちょっと期待しています。
亀清の白くなった中庭を見たら信州はやはり、雪景色が合います。お客様も、｢朝風呂は雪見になっていた！｣と喜んでいました。私は個人的に、日本の屋根の瓦と雪の合わせが好きです。
これだけ、雪景色が喜ばれている中で、この間はネット・雑誌の旅行会社のＹ社に｢露天風呂の雪景色写真を提供しましょうか？｣と聞いたら、｢うちのお客さんは雪道の運転は怖がるからなるべく雪の写真を出さないようにしている｣と断れました。何かポイントが違うなと思います。コンクリートだらけ東京に住んでいる人達がそのグレーから逃げて、雪国の信州の温泉宿に行きたくなるのではないですか？雪道の運転がいやだったら、電車と言う手もあるし。
皆様はどう思いますか？インタネットに雪景色の写真を出さない方が良いでしょうか？
まあ、雪景色といっても、戸倉上山田温泉は年々に雪が少なくなってきているけど、今年は多少多くなるような気がします。特に、ホワイトクリスマスを！
Last night before I went to bed, I looked out and saw lots of pretty stars in the sky. So I was surprised when I looked outside this morning and saw snow covering everything. Last year our first snowfall was 26-Dec, this year is almost 2 weeks earlier. This has me hopeful that we'll get a white Christmas!
Our naka-niwa garden looks so pretty when covered in snow, and our guests were excited about being able to bathe in our outdoor onsen bath with snow all around. I personally like the look of snow on Japanese kawara roof tiles.
With so many people enjoying the snowy scenery so much, I was surprised when our rep at Internet Travel Agency Y turned me down when I offered to send him a picture of our garden covered in snow. He said their customers don't like wintery driving so they avoid using pictures of snow. That strikes me as odd. It's my guess that there's lots of people living in Tokyo's concrete jungle that are tired of the grey winter and want to come up to Nagano and its snow country. I think they'd love to escape and stay at an onsen ryokan like ours.
I just hope this year we get more snow than the past few years. Especially for a White Christmas!

亀清の格好いい前島おじさんがこの藁馬を持ってきてくれました。通常はお正月に飾るらしいですけど、｢今度、作り方を教えてあげる｣と言ってくれました。我が子供達と一緒に作ってみたい。おじさんが84歳ぐらいです。歳ですから、私たちは今の内にこの伝統を学ばなきゃ。藁馬は信州だけですかな？それとも、日本全国的に作られていますか？
おじさんとの仲間が藁ででかい草履も作るのです。近くの知識時（aka十一面観音）の門に2つが飾ってあります。大草鞋を作るのに、大勢なメンバーが必要やし、数日をかけるらしいです。それと比較したら、10分で出来ちゃう藁馬は可愛もんです。でも、同じ伝統の流れだと考えたら、感心しますね。

Our cool Uncle Maejima brought us these three straw horses (wara-uma). Normally used as New Years decorations, he brought them early to show us, with the idea of teaching myself and our sons how to make them. Maejima-ojisan is getting up in age (I think he's 84 years old now), so it's important for us to learn this folkcraft tradition now while he can still show us.
Maejima-ojisan and his buddies sometimes get together to make giant straw sandals (waraji). A pair of them are displayed at the mon (entrance arch) to Chishikiji, our local temple. Those take a huge team of helpers working over several days. In comparison, these simple wara-uma that can be made in 10 minutes are cute little guys. But they are of the same tradition as the huge waraji.

亀清の庭の木は紅葉した葉っぱを全部、落としました。今度は、地面が赤く、茶色くなってきました。お客室の外や、渡り廊下のそばの坪庭など、所々に魅力的な風景になっています。今日は何箇所の写真を撮りましたのでここで提供いたします。

All the trees of Kamesei Ryokan's gardens have already dropped their leaves full of fall colors. So now the ground is blanketed in reds, oranges and browns. Everywhere from outside the guestrooms to in the tsubo-niwa pocket gardens along the watari-roka passageway, there are lovely spots of autumn magic. I stopped to take pictures of a few spots, and here they are.

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.

戸倉上山田温泉の周辺の山は一週間前ぐらいから緑から黄色、茶色・赤色に切り替えました。今度は亀清旅館の中庭や露天風呂の庭などの番。中庭のもみじが綺麗なオレンジ系な黄色になったし、１００年風呂の庭のそれぞれの木はさまざまな色になってきました。｢紅葉見｣風呂って感じです。お風呂の隣のイチョウの木は湯気せいか、色の変更が遅いです。変わったら、真黄色になります。
自然で恵まれている信州、庭が所々にある亀清旅館、紅葉の合う場所です。

The hills around Togura Kamiyamada Onsen started changing from green to yellow, brown and red last week. Now down here at Kamesei Ryokan's gardens, fall colors have finally arrived. The maple in our naka-niwa garden is starting to change to its orangeish yellow color. And the various trees in the garden of our 100-Year Bath outdoor bath are changing to various colors. The ginkgo tree next to the bath is slow to change, perhaps because of the warm onsen vapors coming off the bath. But when the leaves do change, they become a brilliant shade of yellow.
Nagano is blessed with beautiful nature, and Kamesei Ryokan is fortunate to have gardens throughout our inn. Fall colors are a special treat here.

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.

お客様の送迎の途中で、戸倉上山田温泉の上の善光寺別院に寄りました。お客様に上からの温泉街や千曲川の眺めを見せたいと思っていました。行ってみたら、お寺の入り口のイチョウの木の葉っぱが黄色くなっていて、見事に綺麗でした。提灯と灯篭とイチョウの紅葉・・・日本は美しい国ですね。

On the way back from picking some guests up at the station, I took them to the Zenkoji Branch Temple on the hill behind town. I had intended on showing them the view of Togura Kamiyamada Onsen and the Chikuma River valley from above. However, when we got there, we found the ginkgo tree at the entrance was in peak autumn colors -- the leaves were a brilliant yellow color. Something about the contrast of the fall leaves with the huge chochin lantern and the stone "toro" was one of those only-in-Japan special scenes.

急に寒くなりました。温度は昨日より１０℃ぐらい低くて、明日はまた１０度ぐらい上がる予定です。朝は車の窓の氷をかけなきゃいけなかった；今シーズンの初めて。お客さんを戸倉駅に連れて行く途中で千曲川を渡る橋から初雪の戸隠山が見えました。千曲川の周辺の山は今、紅葉になっています。冬はもうちょっと待って欲しいです!　

Today was all of the sudden a winter-like cold day. The temperature was a good 10 degrees celsius lower than yesterday, and is predicted to raise back up 10 degrees tomorrow. So although I had to scrape ice of the car's windshield this morning (the first time this season), regular Autumn weather will return tomorrow. As I crossed the Chikuma River this morning while taking some guests back to Togura Station, I could see Togakushi Mountain in the distance with its first dusting of snow. All of the hills around have turned brown and orange with fall colors, so I hope winter properly waits its turn!

近くの松代町を中心で、周辺の山芋の畑はみな、葉っぱがこんな色になってきています。収穫がそろそろ始まると言う事です。千曲川の川辺にところで山芋の畑があります。川辺の土が軟らかくて、深く伸びる山芋の育ちに最適だそうです。

どうでも良いですが、私にとって、この辺が山芋の産地と言うのは嬉しい事です。なぜなら、私のお料理の十八番がお好み焼きなので松代の山芋をたっぷり入れると、美味しいのです。是非、トライしてみてください。

The fields around nearby Matsushiro are full of vines turning yellow like these. Any idea what kind of crop this is? It's called "yama-imo", which translates as "mountain potato". It's kind of cross between a potato and a yam, with a poi-like texture. People commonly grate it into a slimy mess, and mix it in with things like okonomiyaki pizza pancakes (my specialty!).
Because yama-imo grow so deep into the ground, you need really deep, loose soil. And the soil around the river plain of the Chikuma River is apparently ideal. Seeing all these yama-imo plants starting to loose their leaves reminds me that the harvest will start soon, and makes me hungry for okonomiyaki!

かぼちゃのランタンに蝋燭の光は何となくいい雰囲気です。今日は息子達と近状のお兄ちゃんとハロウィーンの為にかぼちゃのランタンを作りました。お客様も喜んでいただいて、写真は沢山を撮っていました。

この青い目の若旦那のおもてなしの宿では、欧米の良い伝統も入れております。お客様がその伝統と触れ合っていただけて、私も嬉しいです。

There's something magical about a jack o'lantern with a candle inside. Today our sons and I and a neighbor guy carved these pumpkins and put them on display by the entrance to Kamesei. Several of our guests took pictures of the pumpkins, so apparently they enjoyed them too. I like being able to share some of fun Western traditions with our guests here at our traditional Japanese inn.

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.

りんご狩りはの人気度は年々に高くなっているのではないかと思います。今日も富山県からのグループが来はって、りんご狩りしたいと言っていました。亀清旅館が付き合っている宮下農園さん（Tel 026-275-3356)に連れて行ってきました。宮下農園の入り口にこの新しい看板があります。実は、私の作品です。以前にあった看板がちょっと錆びていたのでこの手作りのを上げました。横文字もちゃんと入っているし。ただ、絵はりんごじゃなくてトマトに見えるという声もあるからちょっと不安・・・

It seems like apple picking is getting more and more popular each year. There's something about being out in nature, plucking an apple off a tree and eating it right there. The freshness can't be beat! And being able to breathe in the fresh air, along with the earthy scent of the apple orchard. It all combines for a wonderful experience.
We had a group of guests today from Toyama Prefecture. They wanted to go apple-picking, so I took them to one of the farms we have a relationship with, Miyashita Orchard. They had this new sign at their entrance. It happens to be made by Yours Truly. I made sure to include some English on it, too. I kinda goofed up the apple picture, though. Some people say it looks like a tomato instead of an apple. What do you think?