友達と信州そばEating Soba with Friends

August 8, 2008: Uncategorized
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Mikaちゃん、来てくれて有難うね！

信州と言えば、そば。しかし、実を言うと、信州のそばが他より美味しいかどうか、それより信州の自然の環境の中で食べるのは美味しいではないかと思います。今日は遠くから来た友人のご家族を連れて、この蕎麦屋さんに行って来ました。どっかな田舎の農家に見えるでしょう。実は、戸倉駅前の「萱」と言うレストランです。この渋い雰囲気の中で食べる信州そばが最高！
Nagano is famous for its soba (buckwheat noodles). However, to be honest, I'm not sure if Nagano's soba is better than anywhere else. What I can say is eating soba in Nagano's natural setting makes the noodles taste better. Today we had some friends come from afar, and we took them to this soba restaurant. It looks like the inside of some ancient farm house somewhere in the boonies, right? Actually, it's 'Kaya', a soba restaurant inside an old sake brewery in front of Togura Station. And eating noodles in this classic setting was fantastic!





仲良くで中庭を見るGazing at the Naka-Niwa garden together

August 8, 2008: Uncategorized
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我が若若女将と、お客様の斎脇さん達の長男が亀清旅館の中庭を楽しく見ていました。可愛い姿で庭の鯉や亀達を見ていました

Our daughter and the Saiwaki's son stopped to gaze at our Naka-Niwa garden together. They were so cute, watching the pond's koi and turtles swim around.

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





鶴亀がなじんできた。Our Turtle-Crane has come into shape

August 7, 2008: Uncategorized
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亀を見つけますか？

亀清旅館の露天風呂の庭に「亀」はいくつかあります。その１つはこの写真の中です。見えますでしょうか？大きい石が頭、そして手、足と尻尾の石も。体は青い植物で出来ている。縦に刺している石ともみじとススキが「鶴」のイメージです。その植物は去年の１０月に植えつけられたばかりなのに、もうなじんできたようです。鶴のススキは特にすごいおい！正確の名前はハチジョウシマススキです。もみじはベニシダレモミジ “タムケヤマ”です。
Kamesei Ryokan's open air bath has several 'turtles', one of which is in this picture. Can you find it? The large rock to the upper left is the head, then there are rocks for the front and back legs and the tail, and the body is made up of lots of green plants. The vertical rocks and Japanese maple and pampas grass symbolize a crane spreading its wings. The crane-turtle combination are a symbol of good fortune in Japan. Ours was planted last October, and the plants have really taken a liking to their new home.
(Scientific names for the maple and grass are:
Acer palmatum var. matsumurae cv. Ornatum
and
Miscanthus sinensis. condensatus Hack.)

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

ガーデナーの岡田さんのＨＰはこちらClick here for our Gardener, Okada-san, website





迷惑のお返し：スイカ This is what I get for inconviencing a farmer: a watermelon

August 6, 2008: Uncategorized
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Gift watermelon

日本のおもてなしの心はすごいです。私は一生をかけても「おもてなし」を完璧に出来ないと思います。
今日はいい例です。久しぶりにお昼の「田毎の月」の棚田を車で通ったら、畑で働いていた叔父さんのトラックが道をブロックしていました。遊びに来ていただけの私達が仕事している農協の方にトラックを移してもらうのはまずいと思いながら、おじさんが畑から降りて移動しに来てくれた。そして、「あっ、テレビで出たよね」と言ってくれて、トラックの後ろからスイカを出して、下さりました。まあ、感心しますよ。逆にアメリカだったら、トラックの後ろから何を出すか怖いですよ。
The Japanese people tend to be some of the most welcoming people in the world. Today was a great example. I took our van for a drive through the Obasute terraced rice paddies, and part-way through a farmer's truck was blocking the road. I didn't want to inconvenience the farmer, who was working, to move his truck for us, who were just playing. But he came down out of the field to move it for us. When he saw me, he said, "Oh, you were on TV!" And he went around to the back of his pickup and pulled out a ... watermelon, and gave it to us. How considerate! If this were the States instead, I'd be afraid to guess what he'd pull out of the back of his pick-up!





戸倉上山田温泉を見守っている天狗Giant Tengu Looking Over Togura Kamiayamda Onsen

August 5, 2008: Uncategorized
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Our Guardian (?) Tengu

戸倉駅の上に天狗公演があります。その看板天狗がこの人です。千曲川と戸倉上山田温泉を上から見守っているようです。今日はお客さんを駅からもお迎えのついでにご案内いたしました。
Above Togura Station is Tengu Park. This huge statue is the Tengu behind the name. He overlooks Chikuma River and Togura Kamiyamada Onsen as if he's protecting the area.
I took a group of guests there today on the way from picking them up at the station.

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





信州の夏の果実：ぶどうSummer Fruits are Here: Grapes

August 4, 2008: Uncategorized
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信州ぶどうーー美味しい！

信州は、秋のりんごで有名ですが、夏も美味しい果実が沢山あります。川中島の桃が出始まったし、ぶどうも始まっています。ぶどう狩りをしたい方がいらっしゃれば、知り合いの畑で出来るので喜んで紹介いたします。
Nagano is famous for its apples in the fall, but its summer fruits are delicious, too. The Kawanakajima peach season is just starting, as is the grape season. For anyone who wants to try doing grape U-Pick, a good friend of ours has lots of grape vines. We'd be happy to introduce him.

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





紗幸さんと戸倉上山田温泉の芸者のコラボレーションSayuki Colloboration w/ Togura Kamiyamada Onsen Geisha

August 4, 2008: Uncategorized
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Sayuki Symposium

戸倉上山田温泉の町興しの行事で浅草の芸者、紗幸さん（歴史上の初めての外国人芸者）と戸倉上山田温泉のコラボレーションが行いました。新しい芸者がなかなか少ないと言う問題と旅館側と芸者側の誤解に対して、昨日は若い女性三人が１日芸者体験をやり、今朝は紗幸さんと芸妓組合と旅館組合のシンポジウムでした。こういう話し合いの継続が出来るので私も全面的にサポートしております。温泉旅館の文化もそうですが、芸者文化も大事にしなければならない！そう言う気持ちで私が紗幸さんをこの温泉に紹介しました。
As part of our on-going projects to revitalize Togura Kamiyamada Onsen, Sayuki-san, a geisha from Asakusa (and Japan's first foreigner geisha) came to do a colloboration with our town's geisha guild. In order to address the problems of too few new geisha and the misconceptions between the innkeepers and the guild, yesterday had 3 young ladies try out being geisha for a day, and this morning we had a symposium with Sayuki-san, innkeepers, and the geisha guild. To me, it's important to work hard to protect the culture of Japan's onsen ryokans (which is one of the main reasons I came to Kamesei), but equally as important to maintain Japan's geisha culture, too. That's one of the reasons I introduced Sayuki-san to this onsen.



Sayuki being a role-model for the 3 trial geishas


Geisha parlor games





お風呂温度チェックChecking the Temperatures of the Baths

August 3, 2008: Uncategorized
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お風呂タイム！４１℃

夏で外の気温が大分高くなりました。そのせいか、亀清旅館のお風呂の温度もこのごろ、暑く感じています。窓を開けて空気を通していて、なるべく対応しております。でも、人それぞれなので悲しい事はこの間のお客さんが「暑くて結局は入れなかった」と言う残念なコメントが入りました。今日も外の温度が３０℃より上がっているので気になっていましたからお風呂の温度を計りました。結果は：
小さい内風呂：４１℃
大きい内風呂：４０℃
露天風呂：３９℃
他の温泉地の４５～４６℃と比較すればまだ入りやすい温度ではないかと思います。入る瞬間は暑く感じるかもしれませんが、入ってしまえば大丈夫と思います。特に、露天風呂ですね。皆様、どうぞ、お入りになってください！
With it being summer, the outside temperature is climbing. Maybe that's to blame for our onsen baths feeling a little hot. We try to cool the baths down a bit by keeping the windows open and letting air circulate. But we received an unfortunate comment back from one guest who said she never was able to get in because it felt so hot. Today's temperature is in the 30's (C), so with concern, I checked the baths' temperatures, with the following results:
Small Indoor Bath: 41C
Large Indoor Bath: 40C
Outdoor Bath: 39C
Those temperatures are a lot more reasonable to handle than the 45~46 C of some other onsens. Our baths may feel hot to the touch, but after you get in and soak, the temperature should feel soothing. I hope everyone can come and enjoy our baths!

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





流しそうめん初体験 First Time for 'Nagashi Somen'

August 2, 2008: Uncategorized
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Catch the noodles!

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





英字看板完成A new English Sign

August 2, 2008: Uncategorized
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cute new sign

先日に書いた様に亀清旅館は海外からの観光客の為のジャパニース・イン・グループに入りました。その条件の１つとしては日本語を読めない方は宿名が分かるように英語の看板を設置する事。なるほど。今日、この看板をやっと完成しましたので取り付けておきました。亀清の亀のマークも書きました。いかがでしょうか？
As previously mentioned, Kamesei Ryokan has become a member of the Japanese Inn Group. One of the requirements was to have the name of our inn posted out front for people who can't read Japanese. That certainly makes sense. I made this sign, complete with our turtle mark. How does it look?