満車？
今朝に亀清のロビーを見れば驚きました：ベビーカーは何と４つが駐車してありました。（まあ、１つは我が美咲ちゃんの）。やはり夏休みと言う事で子供連れのお客様が多い訳です。亀清の雰囲気はさらに「アットホーム」に。
I was a little surprised this morning when I looked at our lobby and saw 4 baby strollers parked. (Well, one of them is our Misaki's.) You can definitely tell it's summer vacation -- a lot of our guests are here with their children. Kamesei's 'at-home' feel is becoming even more so!
亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website
吹き戻し遊び
先週に泊まった森田様からこの川越の駄菓子を頂きました。我が娘が大喜び。森田さんが亀清旅館の伝統的な良さを気に入っていただいた様でこの伝統的な駄菓子を送っていただきました。有難うございました！
（注：他のお客さんから最近に言われましたが、「青い目の若旦那はいいけど、亀清の本当のスターは若若女将の美咲ちゃんだ！」と。その訳でもないですが、美咲ちゃんの写真をまた提供いたしますので宜しくお願い致します。）
We got a gift in the mail from a guest, Morita-san, who stayed at our inn last week. She sent us traditional 'dagashi' sweets and toys from Kawagoe. Our daughter Misaki enjoyed playing with the toys. Apparently Morita-san enjoyed Kamesei Ryokan's traditional feel enough to send us these traditional 'dagashi'.
(Note: One of our recent guests commented that it's nice Kamesei has this American innkeeper, but the real star is their daughter, Misaki. So, here is another picture of her!)
亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website
川越のおもちゃ
ＪＲのコネからお聞きしましたが、次の姨捨スイッチバック列車が１０月２４日（金）と２５日（土）に行うそうです。今回はお昼も夜（夜景！）もやるそうです。ＪＲのＨＰを見たが明細がまだ出ていないそうです。明細を手に入ればすぐにお知らせいたします。
My special contact at JR told me the next Obasute Switchback Special Train is scheduled for Friday and Saturday October 24th and 25th. This time, there will be afternoon AND evening (=Night View!) runs, and the train will be pulled by.... a steam engine! JR still doesn't have details on their website yet, but as soon as I get them I will present them here.
亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website
Misaki at the water fountain
今日はまた夏らしい暑い日です。亀清の浦にある中央公演に娘を連れて行きました。ブランコで遊んだけど滑り台が熱すぎた。遊び終わったら、水を飲んだ。これが一番楽しかったかもしれない。信州のお水が冷たくて美味しい！
Today is another hot summer day. I took our daughter to the park behind Kamesei. We played on the swings but the slide was too hot. Then we stopped for a drink at the park's drinking fountain. That was probably the funnest part.
亀清旅館のＨＰはこちらClick here for Kamesei Ryokan website
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!
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
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
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!
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
