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喧騒から離れて

地震・津波・原発の不安の中で…

昨日にも書きましたが、旅館は静けさを提供するのが重要だと。その為のプランを提供したいのでお知らせします：

リセットプラン：　若旦那と朝五時座禅

この時こそ、温泉宿に泊まって、心の修業はいかがでしょうか？お泊りになる日の次の朝５時に亀清のロビーで集合し、青い目の若旦那と一緒に開眼寺の座禅堂にて座禅を体験すると言うプランです。その後、亀清に戻り、朝食を召し上がって頂けます。

朝５時に頑張って起きて、開眼寺へ向かって、木造の温もりの座禅堂で小鳥の鳴き声や森の風の音だけ、つまり都会の喧騒から離れて静かなときと場所でご一緒に座禅をしませんか？

このプランではお料理が夕食も朝食もChef武井の手をかけた亀清旅館の代表の料理です。
お湯は上山田の温泉らしいお湯女湯にも男湯にもそれぞれ露天風呂が付いております。
お部屋は離れ風かお風呂前か２階山景色のどれかになります。

注意点：

＊座禅のやった事ない人でも大歓迎。若旦那が事前に１ポイント座禅レッスン致します。

＊座禅堂の場所はお寺さんなので参加者は志付けをお願いいたします。

詳しくは亀清のＨＰへ
The 3.11 earthquake and tsunami disaster and the ensuing radiation scare has taken a toll on all of our psyches. As per my previous entry, we here at Kamesei Ryokan are hoping to do our part by providing a quiet place for people to get back in touch with themselves. As part of this effort, we would like to introduce a new plan:

"Reset Plan" 5am Zen Meditation

Perhaps we all need to stop and make time for some meditation.

We here at Kamesei Ryokan would like to provide a relaxing stay at our onsen ryokan, where guests can enjoy our peaceful, traditional inn, the rejuvenating onsen baths, and our chef's tantalizing kaiseki-style dinner, followed by a trip to nearby Kaigen-ji Temple's zazen room for an early morning meditation session.

Kaigen-ji is a centuries-old temple with a modern all-wood zazen meditation hall in the forested hills above the Chikuma River here in the Nagano countryside. At 5am, the temple is silent and still, with only the sounds of birds chirping and the wind rustling in the nearby trees -- perfect for a quiet time of inner reflection.

Note:

Plan includes dinner in your guestroom as well as breakfast served back at our inn following the 5am zazen meditation. Our onsen baths are available 24 hours a day featuring 100% flow-through natural hot spring mineral water. Both the mens and womens baths have outdoor 'rotenburo' baths also.

Zazen meditation first-timers are welcome -- our proprietor will gladly explain the basics in English.

A amall donation for the temple would be appropriate.

For details, please see the Kamesei website.

亀清旅館の客室の冷蔵庫は今まで２４時間３６５日間で電源が付けっぱなしでした。以前からは気になっていたが、今の震災関係の節電の中で、スイッチを取り付けるチャンスだと思いました。先日に里帰りした時に、適応な物を見つけたので、買って帰りました。この２，３日日間に取り付ける作業をしました。

これで客室の冷蔵庫、全部にスイッチが付きました！掃除のバイトの人が、「えっ、こういう専用なスイッチがあるんだ！」と驚きました。いいえ、専用なスイッチじゃなくて、私が工夫して取り付けた訳。

冷蔵庫のご利用したいお客様はご自由にスイッチをオンにして、ご利用して頂けます。これで電気の無駄使いの一つを防ぐことが出来ました。

Up until now, the refrigerators in the guest rooms here at Kamesei Ryokan have been running 24 hours, 365 days a year. I had always thought that to be a wasteful use of energy. Now with the earthquake / tsunami / nuclear radiation problems resulting in a nationwide electricity shortage, I decided to take advantage of the situation and attach switches to all of our refrigerators. When I was in back home in the States, I picked up a suitable switch at a home center store, and over the past few days I worked to attach them to all of the refrigerators.

One of our cleaning ladies saw them and said, 'Wow, I didn't know there were switches for this.' There aren't -- I had gotten creative and made my own solution.

Now our guests have the option of switching on the fridges whenever they like. Meantime, they stay off, meaning an end to a waste of electricity!

New 'Color' here at Kamesei

亀清の客室「千歳」は去年から少し改造して、地元のあんずの里の記念として「杏」のテーマにしています。庭に杏の木も植えました。今日見たら、花が咲き始まりました。今まで亀清旅館にない色で、私は非常に嬉しいです。

宿つくりの中で、こういう「花」も必要。

注：森「あんずの里」のあんずまつりは４月２日に始まりました。しかし、低い温度に日々が続いていて、８日ぐらいからは花見ができる程度咲く見込みです。祭りは１６日までですが、花はもう少しのころ様な気がします。また写真を撮りに行って、ここで載せますので宜しくお願いします。

For Kamesei Ryokan's guestroom 'Chitose', last year we started doing a small make-over to a 'Anzu' (apricot) theme in honor of our local Anzu no Sato (Apricot Village) district. Part of the make-over was to plant an apricot tree in the room's private garden. When I checked on it yesterday, I was thrilled to see that the tree had started to bloom. Until we planted this tree, Kamesei never had this type of colorfulness.

Adding color like this is a major goal for the improvements we are making here at Kamesei.

NOTE: Mori's Apricot Village started this year's Apricot Blossom Festival on April 2nd, but the flowers are late this year due to continuing cold temperatures. The locals say the blossoms will be ready by Friday the 8th for viewing. The festival is scheduled to run through April 16th, but I'm guessing the blossoms will continue a bit past that. I will get some pictures and post them here regularly.

Thanks, Midori-san

里帰りから帰ってきたら、亀清の玄関に新しい花が植えてあって、驚きました。春先らしい明るい花で、素敵だなと思った（と、亀清の者として言うのはあれですけど…）

きっと、いない間に東京の従妹、みどりさんが来て、この作品を残してくれたかな？

これからは杏が咲くし、少しずつ温かくなるし、良い時期だな。

When I got back from my trip home to the States, I was happy to see new flowers in the pots at Kamesei Ryokan's entrance. Apparently while I was away, our cousin Midori-san from Tokyo came and made a little flower magic for our inn. Nice flowers for the start of Spring. And the apricot blossoms in our town are starting to bloom, the days are getting a bit warmer. Spring is definitely in the air!