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太陽様が起きる前に、ロビーやお風呂場を整理しました。露天風呂をチェックしたら、周りの庭に雪がまだ残っていて、東の空が段々と明るくなっていて、露天風呂から湯気が上がっていて、｢これは日本だ！｣と感心しました。

This morning, I woke up before the sun did and made my rounds around the lobby and baths. When I checked on the outdoor bath, its surrounding garden was still covered in snow, and the eastern sky was starting to get light, and steam was rising from the onsen bath -- quite a scene. And I thought to myself, this is what I came to Japan for...

日本建築の格好良い所の1つは雪見障子です。障子実態は格好いい（欧米では紙で壁を作る何って、考えられない！でも、その木の格子や後ろからのやわらかい光は渋い！）けど、｢雪見｣と言うポイントは素晴らしい。冬は寒いから暖房を付けて、障子を閉じたくなるけど、冬だからこそ外の雪景色を見たい。そこで、一石二鳥の雪見障子。格好良い！

夕べからこの戸倉上山田温泉で大雪が降りました。実は、雪を待っていました。というのは、亀清旅館の今年に改造した2部屋のパティオドアのガラスを曇りガラスだった。今までは大した庭じゃなかったから曇りで良かったかもしれない。しかし、中の障子は雪見です。意味ないじゃないか！とずっと思っていました。部屋を改造した時に、庭は綺麗に作りました。客室の中から庭を見えるようにガラスを透明に取り替えた。そして、今回の雪でお客様が障子を閉じながら、雪見と透明のドアを通して雪景色になった庭を楽しんで頂けました。雪見障子の本来の目的はやっと実現が出来ました。嬉しい！
Japanese carpentry always amazes me. One feature is particularly cool: the "yuki-mi" (snow-viewing) shoji screen doors. Shoji in and of themselves are cool -- the wood slats creating a warm contrast to the white rice paper (who in the West would've thought about making a wall out of paper!), while letting in a soft, translucent light. But the yuki-mi is the icing on the coolness cake. Allow me to explain: a traditional tatami-mat Japanese room usually has a "en-gawa" corridor between it and the outside wall. Shoji screens are used for the dividing wall. In the summer, one opens the screens to enjoy the view of the garden outside of the en-gawa. At night or when you want privacy, you close the shoji screens.
The problem is, in winter, people in the room want to close the shoji to keep the heat in, but you still want to see the garden. Hence, yuki-mi, which is a glass section of the shoji screen. The rice paper section in front lifts and is held in places by tiny side springs. So you have a barrier to keep in the heat, but you can see through it to the garden outside covered in snow. Pretty cool, eh?
Now, back to the story at hand. All of our guestrooms have a "veranda" in place of the en-gawa corridor. So there's the tatami room, the shoji screens, the veranda, full windows or glass patio doors, and (for the 1st floor rooms) a garden. This past October, we built new gardens for 2 of the rooms. Those rooms' patio doors had been made of obscure privacy glass. We changed them out to clear glass so guests could enjoy the new garden. With last night's snow, the guests in those rooms could keep the shoji closed, look through the yuki-mi glass sections and enjoy the view of the snow, all while staying warm. The yuki-mi shoji which had been there all along, but had been rendered useless by the privacy glass, finally got their chance to be utilized! A Cool Japan feature realized by this American innkeeper.