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Cheering on the Brave Warriors

日本プロバスケの新しいチーム、信州Ｂｒａｖｅ　Ｗａｒｒｉｏｒｓの初ホームゲーム。場所は何と戸倉体育館。我が亀清旅館からちゃりんこで5分。身長２ｍの私よりでかいプロ選手の試合がこんなに近くて見れて、最高!

子供と達と友人を連れて、さっそく行きました。久しぶりにバスケの試合を見る事。応援しすぎて、喉痛くしちゃった。（我々アメ人の応援と個々の皆のがかなり違っていて、吃驚しました。まあ、私の方が本番かなと勝手に思っていて、とにかく一生懸命応援した!）

応援したお蔭（?）で、Ｂｒａｖｅ　Ｗａｒｒｉｏｒｓが勝ちました。次のホーム試合＠戸倉が12月3日・4日です。楽しみだ!

Pro Basketball has come to Togura Kamiyamada Onsen. The new Basketball-Japan Leauge "Shinshu Brave Warriors" had their first home game right here in our onsen town. Togura Gymnasium is a quick 5 minute bike ride from Kamesei Ryokan.

The kids and a buddy of mine rode our bikes down and cheered on the home team. It was so great to be able to watch these huge pro players (some were even taller than me -- and I'm 6'7" tall!) muscling there way through the game. There were more than a few viscious slam dunks -- and we took it all in from basically courtside seats. Awesome!

I cheared so much my throat hurt for 2 straight days. It soon became painfully apparent that cheering at hoops games in America is very different from in Japan. But I figured, basketball is from the States, I'm from the States, I've been to my share of hoop games in the States, heck, I've even played in my share of games in the States, so my cheering must be right and everyone else's wrong. So I kept cheering on like I would back at home. But then it hit me -- at the "Hey" song, I was the only one to pump my fist and shout "Hey!". Come on people, there's only one word to the song so it's not hard to learn the lyrics!

Anyways, perhaps in part due to my cheering, the home team won. Congratulations, Brave Warriors!

Next home game at Togura is December 3rd and 4th. Can't wait!

信州Brave Warriors

Onsen History Museum

旅館青年部の「温泉塾」勉強会＠上山田温泉株式会社の後半は今度、温泉資料館見学。

館長の滝沢先生がまた親切に案内して頂いて、戸倉上山田の位地、歴史、温泉の背景、その歴史を作った人達、色々と紹介・説明してくれました。

お陰様でその歴史が生きてくるし、私達旅館経営者としてその歴史の次のページを作っている事、良く分かりました。

実は、その説明を聞いたのは私の2回目でした。内容があまりにも奥深いからすべてを把握する為に何度も聞かないと駄目です。今回は大変お世話になりました。

As a continuation of the Onsen Jook x Kamiyamada Onsen Company study session, we next took a tour of the Onsen History Museum.

The curator, Takizawa-san, kindly explained about our onsen town's location and geology, the history behind the onsen and about the people who made that history. He really made the story come alive. And he made us innkeepers realize that we are writing the next page of that history.

Special thanks to Takizawa-sensei!

上山田温泉資料館 Kamiyamada Onsen History Museum

One of Kamiyamada's Onsen Wells

この2年間、私がこの戸倉上山田温泉旅館組合青年部の部長としての計画で月1回のペースで勉強会・地域連携を開く「温泉塾」で、今回は上山田温泉株式会社にお世話になって、上山田温泉の源泉巡りしました。

上山田温泉株式会社は源泉が18個を持っている。その内の3戸は休止。深さは３００～６００ｍ。源泉の井戸の穴からお湯が浮いてきて、２０～１００ｍの深さでパンプでそのお湯を引っ張り出す。
と言う制度を温泉会社の宮本さんが親切に教えてくれました。パンプのタイプ、どうやって温泉を温泉でブレンドして温度調整するかとか、色々説明して頂きました。

私達温泉にゃどの経営者としてその「温泉」が「命」だと言ってもおかしくないので、その奥深い中で少しでも把握して、非常に良かった。

宮本さん、有難うございました!　全部を手配してくれた雄山のＨｉｄｅｏさんにも感謝!

During my 2 year tenure as Togura Kamiyamada Onsen's Ryokan Junior Association top, I am having our members get together for a monthly study session. This time was to have the local onsen company take us around to our town's onsen wells.

Miyamoto-san from the onsen company kindly explained about how the 18 onsen wells work with their varying depths of 300 to 600 meters and the onsen water rising up to within 20 meters of the surface, from where it is pumped up and distributed to all of us onsen ryokans.

The onsen water is vital to our business, so it was very useful to get to know a bit about how the system works.

Special thanks to Miyamoto-san from the onsen company and Hideo-san from Ryokan Yuzan for arranging everything.

上山田温泉株式会社Kamiyamada Onsen Company

雄山グループYuzan Group

Onsen water distribution

Miyamoto-san explaining how it all works