Asakusa Diary - The Staff Blog

←How much is this?

"Five". We say at least twice a day.
Because this coin doesn't express in figures, it is difficult for our guests to figure out.
It seems that foreigners don't use small coins such as ones and fives
and that's why their purses look heavy all the time.

Some people say that they are pointless, but now you know how much it is,
don't hesitate to use them :)

Are you tired of the crowds or getting bored with tourist spots?
Then, why don't you make a little side trip to the west side of Tokyo?
You can see beautiful nature there.
This is Mt.Takao(高尾山）, 50mins from Shinjuku by train.

You can take this lift or...↓

this pretty cable car to the middle.

Look at this picture carefully.
Did you see one cherry blossom in the middle?
Finally, our sakura tree got one yesterday.
I guess they are going to be the full bloom in a week...

(English below)
¡Un luchador japonés está en la recepción!
Naoto trabajó con una máscara de la lucha libre que nos regalaron los dos mexicanos en la foto.
Parece fuerte, ¿no?

Muchos huéspedos nos traen regalos de sus países. Guardamos todos los regalos en el hostal. Nos recuerdan los tiempos divertidos que compartimos juntos. La oficina y la recepción estan llenas de los recuerdos de todo el mundo. ¡Gracias a todos!

(Español arriba)
Here's a Japanese luchador in the reception!
This is Naoto, working with a lucha mask that these two mexican guests gave us.
Looks strong, right?

There are many guests who bring us presents from their countries. We keep all of them as constant reminders of the memorable time we shared with those guests. I'm very happy to see our office and front desk getting full of souvenirs from all over the world. Thank you, everybody!

⇒⇒
Let's make carifornia roll! Put ingredients on rice.

⇒⇒?
roll, roll and roll... looks good!
　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　 Ta-da!!　

We had a Hanami ( cherry blossom viewing party) at Sumida park tonight
and Hiromi cooked California roll and Sangria for it.
Because she had a experience of workingat a Sushi restaurant in Canada,
her skill was brilliant!!

cozy living room is here!
Please feel at home :)

This is our new lounge☆★
It looks much cozier than before...don't you think so?↓↓

(English below)
Diego, Oracio y la novia de Oracio vinieron a Japón para pasar el examen del tercer dan (san dan) de Aikido. Son de Argentina. Se quedaron con nosotros cinco noches en Sakura Hostel y la semana pasada se fueron a un dojo de Aikido.

Japón es la meca de los artes marciales. Mucha gente viene a Japón de todo el mundo para practicar Aikido, Judo, Karate y otros martes marciales. No sólo practican las técnicas sino aprenden las filosofías.

Si les interesa practicar algun marte marcial cuando se quedan con nosotros, les ayudaría Naoto, un personal de Sakura Hostel quien practica jujutsu brasileño.

Diego y Oracio, ¡que tengan un buen tiempo en el dojo y pasen el examen!
¡Dejame en contacto con ustedes!

(español arriba)
Diego, Oracio and his girlfriend came to Japan to pass the third level exam (san dan) of Aikido. They stayed with us at our hostel for five nights and left for a dojo (training school) of Aikido last week.

Japan is the mecca of martial arts. A number of people come to Japan to learn martial arts such as Aikido, Judo and Karate. Not only techniques but also their philosophies are things to be learnt.

If you are interested in experiencing a training of those martial arts while you are staying with us, go ahead and talk to Naoto, one of our staff members. He practices Brazilian Jujutsu.

↑What are they doing??

MEN WORKING!!

Our living room furniture are going to changed from now.
I can see they are working for it from the reception.
I feel like I am a “Ｂｏｓｓ”　；）

I'll upload some pictures tomorrow♪
See you!

Finally, we got a miracle card, called Pasmo ;)
If you get this card, you can take almost all train lines and buses.
First of all, you need to pay 2,000yen (500yen is a deposit)
and then you can charge anytime at atations.
Once you get this card, it makes much easier to take trains.
More information is available here

Look at this cute elephants :)
I like them since I was a little child.
Actually, I met them in Sri Lanka but I prefer African elephants to India ones,
so I wanna go to Kenya to meet them in near future.

Do you have some advice for me?

Seth gave beautiful flowers to Tomoe.

↑Tomoe eats ice-cream with Clare.

It's Tomoe's birthday today and you gotta make some comments
on this weblog for her right now!!
Tomoe always helps me and I'm happy to work with her :)
I'll try to be a best 'mite' for her at Sakura hostel★
これからもよろしくね♪

We met a tall guy!
The tallest among those who have stayed with us.

I'm 160cm, nothing special.
Tsuyoshi is 185cm, the tallest among the Sakura staff.

Joshua is

205cm!!

Do you know what I imagine with this picture??

This...
↓↓↓↓
↓↓↓↓

One of our guest took me to this italian restaurant in Machida.
He knows the owner and the meals he serves are soooo yummy!
I'll definitely go there again with my family ;)
You can take your puppy, too.
http://torabinocafe.ninja-x.jp/

Few weeks ago, one guy visited our hostel and asked for interview with us.
He is a university student and told us that he is researching on the guesthouses.

Actually, most of Japanese don't know much about guesthouses.
On the other hand, it's getting familiar with young people who live in the cities.

I couldn't hear what they talked so, I'm waiting for his reports ;)

Once again, the name of our hostel is Sakura Hostel. Our sister hotel (Sakura Hotel) and sister companies (Sakura House and Sakuratei) also have "sakura" in their names.

Do you know what "sakura" is?
It's the national flower of Japan, the flower most loved by Japanese people for centuries.
In English, it's called cherry blossom.

Among the many species of cherry trees, Japan's most beloved one is Somei Yoshino (photo above). The color is almost white when you see a flower close. But when you are farthur from the tree, it looks light pink.

Spring is the season when you can see the flowers. The flower's life is very very short, only a week or two. If the flower lived longer, it wouldn't be loved this much. In the flower, Japanese people see the briefness and beauty of life,

Tokyo is expecting their early blooming this year due to the warm winter.
The flower forecast says the 18th of March is "the date" this year.

Hanami (flower viewing party) is another reason why Japanese love the flower this much. People go to parks, riverbanks, temples and shrines to have a party with foods and drinks under sakura trees. It never matters whether the real purpose is to view the flower or just to drink...

On Saturday, March 24th, we will have this hanami party with our guests. We will go to a riverbank close to the hostel. The sakura flowers are expected in full bloom around that date. Come and join us with your own food and drink!! >>>event calendar

We have Sakura trees in front of the gate.
Last week, Tsuyoshi found some buds and told me.
They look so pretty!
We are wondering whether it comes cherry blossomes in this spring.

I'll keep watching...

Do you know CIRQUE DU SOLEIL?
I just watched it on Wed. and I was sooo impressed!
I can't find a proper word to express it.

The players are much younger than me but their skill is very sophisticated.
I want you to watch it if you have time...

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/events/dralion/

The group of french people checked out this morning
and left some sweets for us.
They were very friendly and have nice smiles :)

They seemed they were interested in Japanese animation and fashion.
Please come back again with yummy sweets ;)

On my days off, I traveled to Kyoto and Hiroshima.
Have you been to those places? They are both worth a visit.

In Kyoto, I met a Swise guy who had stayed at Sakura Hotel, our sister hotel before. I went with him to one of the most popular shrines of Kyoto, "Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine" and the city's biggest neigborhood of Geisha called "Gion."

In Hiroshima, I stayed at J-Hoppers, which is the only one backpacker's hostel in Hiroshima. I was so happy to meet the owner of the hostel because he is one of the people who inspired me to start a hostel on my own and also because we hear lots of good things about his hostels from our guests.

On the 3rd of March is the Doll's festival, called Hinamatsuri in Japanese.
It is considered as a day for girls, most families with girls celebrate it for
praying their health and happiness.
My parents also celebrate it for me and my sister with dolls and special food every year.

There is an old superstition of dolls.
If you don't put away the dolls as soon as possible after hinamatsuri,
your marrige will be late,,,so scary!

At Sakura Hostel, only girls can have breakfast for free from today to the 3rd.
Sorry, boys ;)