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Can't beat the geisha!

夕べはＪＡＸＡ関係の海外からの研究者の小グループが亀清旅館に泊まってくれました。皆さんにとって長野の魅力は?
善光寺
地獄谷　(スノーモンキー）
戸隠の忍者
温泉
そして、
芸者さん。

そうです。松本城、上高地、木曽路などの件[宝物]に並べれるのは戸倉上山田温泉の芸者さん達。

今回の宴会の時に芸者さんを二人呼びました。原駒さんが三味線、玉子が踊り。
踊りを見せてから今度はお客さんの皆さんに炭拳を教えて、皆で踊りました。
最後は金毘羅さんと言う座敷ゲーム。「芸者さんに勝てないよ!」と言ったら、皆が一生懸命!　やはり、芸者さんは強い!

皆さんは本当の芸者さんに会えて、色々と質問を聞けて良かったけど、それより芸者さん達の芸で皆さんの盛り上がりを見ると、やはりプロだなと思いました。

戸倉上山田温泉の芸者さん達は長野県の宝物だな。

A group of researchers from overseas were in Japan on JAXA-related biz, and for the weekend they came up and spent the night here at Kamesei Ryokan.

What appealed to them the most about Nagano Prefecture?
Zenkoji Temple in Nagano City.
The snow monkeys in Jigokudani.
Togakushi and its ninjas.
Onsen.
and,
Geisha.

For the group's dinner banquet, we invited Harugoma-san, the veteran shamisen player, and Tamako-san, one of the best dancers, to provide real geisha entertainment to the guests.

First Tamako-san performed dances to a couple of songs with Harugoma-san accompanying on shamisen. (A song about leaves falling from a 'momiji' Japanese maple tree and the other song dedicated to that most important element of banquets: sake.)
Then Tamako showed the guests how to dance the common bon-odori dance 'tankobushi', and we all joined in, making fools of ourselves dancing around the banquet room.
And finally, the geisha challenged the guests to a game of 'konpira-san', a geisha parlor (read, "drinking") game. I told the visitors that it's impossible to beat the geisha at this game. That encouraged everyone to try even harder. The game starts out simply enough timed to the strumming of the shamisen, but when Harugoma-san picks up the pace, watch out!

The guests were naturally very curious about the geisha world, and appreciated being able to ask questions (with me there to help interpret). But more than that, seeing their faces as they enjoyed watching and then actually participating in the dances as well as the excitement of the parlor game, it reinforced for me that these geisha ladies are pros at entertaining guests.

Kamiyamada's geisha are truly one of Nagano Prefecture's treasures.

The Kamiyamada-Togura Geisha Guild's normal rates are normally 4,500 yen per half hour, minimum 2 hours. However, in this case we had the banquet start early, and the geisha came early prior to another banquet engagement and entertained for 45 minutes for a special price of 10,000 yen. Reservations can be made in advance through your Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen ryokan.

上山田戸倉温泉芸者寮のＨＰ
Kamiyamada Togura Geisha website.

Yayoi's bathroom getting torn apart -- prep for the remodel

亀清旅館は直す所が沢山ある中で、取り敢えずは我が宿のかなりひどい所から始まっております:客室のトイレ。去年は「松風」という客間のトイレを改造しまして、今年度は「弥生」の番です。

年に一部屋ずつでしたら12年もかかってしまい、こういう計画が良いかどうか不安です。なおかつ、取り敢えずはトイレだけの改造です。今回は設計士が「そろそろ客室の内装もやりたい」と言ってきました。しかし、弥生の狭いトイレを見て、「なるほど、トイレからだね」と賛成(泣きっ！）してくれました。

今回こそ、設計士に「内装のデザインは遊んでください」とお願いしました。かなり面白い計画が出来ました。また出来上がればその予想の写真をここで提供しますので、楽しみにしてください。

Here at Kamesei Ryokan, there are so many things we need to fix. For now, we are remodelling one guestroom's bathroom a year. Last year, it was 'Matsukaze'. This year it is 'Yayoi' 's turn.

At this pace, it will take us 12 years to remodel all of the guestrooms -- and that's just their bathrooms. When the architect came to discuss about Yayoi, he said "Sooner or later, you should think about redecorating the guestrooms." But then he looked at Yayoi and how sad its bathroom was, and said, "You're right -- gotta start with the bathrooms." Ouch!

Anyways, my only instructions to the architect regarding the remodel design was to get creative. And he certainly did. As the remodel takes shape, I will post pictures of the new bathroom here -- stay tuned!