Asakusa Diary - The Staff Blog

Since he found our weblog, he checks it almost (I hope) everyday.
When I saw him in the morning, he asked me "What's your weblog today?”

Have you arrived at your home safely?
All of Sakura staff are missing your big smile and jokes☆

I guess you are missing talking with Naoto about fighting;)
I'm waiting for your comment.

Normally, I'm working from the early morning.
Though I have breakfast before leaving my home,
I always get hungry before lunch time:(

So, I drink Milo with milk♪
It's much healthier than snacks and I can get Calcium
(and something good for me) from it★

I can't wait for lunch time...

Have you seen these guys before?
They work for our sister company, Sakura House, which runs monthly guesthouses all over Tokyo.
They belong to its maintenance team and travel from a house to another
by wagon everyday to brush up the quality of the houses, fix something broken,
supply household goods, etc.

You might have seen the guy on the left (Satoshi) somewhere on this blog
because he used to work for our hostel.
They dropped by the hostel the other day and I took their pic.

Satoshi and Mocchie, the guys we can turn to whenever we have a problem :)
Drop by here anytime and have a coffee break☆
Pretty girls (?) will make you feel relaxed ;)

Look at these beautiful flowers. They are cherry blossoms, the soul of Japanese. I feel happy to be Japanese every spring when I see the flowers all over the city. My mom says that she is counting how many more times she can see cherry blossoms in the rest of her life. (Well, she is not that old, though...)

Cherry blossoms are at the peak now in Tokyo. This weekend is the best timing to have cherry blossom viewing parties (hanami party).

Heeeeey! Who decided to do our hanami party NEXT weekend?? Yuri, was it you??

Finally, our Sakura (both Satsuki&May) bloomed♪

By the way, "Sakura Saku" has two meanings.
One is just "cherry has bloomed".
The other is " to pass the exam".

Our new school year will be began from April, so if you pass the entrance exam,
you can start your new year with cherry blossoms:)

In April, we have many guests from Thailand.
It's one of my favorite countries, so I'm very happy to meet them:)
I have best friend in Bangkok who I met in San Diego, USA five years ago
and we are still keep in touch with.

I visited her two years ago but I haven't seen her since then.
If you are coming from Thailand, could you please bring her with you??

They are from Bangkok and gave many souveniors to us!

Especially, banana chips are yummy!

We have two cherry trees next to the car parking.
Tsuyoshi found some of breaking buds this afternoon♪

It's been very warm these days, so they will come into bloom soon★

Tsuyoshi and I named them "Satsuki and May".　
Sounds familier?
If you touch them, you may get a good luck ;)

Please say hello to Satsuki and May when you arrive!

They are also waiting for your coming.

Finally, Tomo got her favorite snack from Mexican guest!!

Geraldo(the right) brought Sombrero(Mexican hut) and cacahuates japoneses(snacks) to us♪
I tried it and it's so yummy:)
Muchas Gracias, Geraldo san!

In Japan, we have cherry blossom forecast with the weather one.
According to it, cherry will come into bloom on 25th of Mar. (4days later!)
It means, the best time for cherry-blossom viewing will be
the end of Mar. to the early of Apr.

So, we are going to have Cherry Blossom Viewing Party on the 5th of Apr:D
Anyone who is staying with us and our sister hotels are welcomed!
Also tenents of Sakura House, too!
Just come and join us with some drinks or foods;)

Are you a dog person or a cat person?
Koji (night shift person) is very the cat person and every morning when I come here,
I find new screen saver on our desk top.
It's always cat's one like above↑and below↓.

I would say I'm a dog person because I have allergic to cats...
Most of staff here, especially cleaning staff, are cat persons.
As you know, I'm much more an elephant person, though;p

When you enter our entrance, you'll find many many pictures on your right.

Those are our guests from all over the world.
You may find your friends there:)

Also, we have two photo albums so far and anyone can take a look at our rounge.
All of them are our tresures and we also sometimes take a look
and talk about our guests.
Maybe, it's about you;)

If you are not asked for a picture from us during your stay,
please kindly tell us and let us take it before you leave♪

It's (March 17th) is Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland.
Have you ever heard about it?
I knew it this morning.

According to Wikipedia, it commemorates the death of Saint Patrick,
who promoted Christianity in the country in the early fifth century.
↓↓Saint Patrick.

It saids that people put something green on and celebrate it.

Ebi-chan holds green sake bottles, Tomo holds green tea and I hold green staple and scissors;)
I was wearing green shirt today by chance!

Anybody remembers him? He is one of our repeat Japanese customers.

Ko-san drop by the hostel yesterday to give Tomoe (Today is Tomoe's birthday☆) birthday presents. Look at this cute pink cake! Ko-san picked it for her because it is the color of "sakura."

Sorry, Yuri-chan. We ate it up while you were off :P We are keeping the wine unopened, though.

Meet our new cleaning staff!
Eirou has started working here from the last month.
I heard that he has a plan to go abroad to study English.
So, please talk to him anytime when you see him;)
It would be great☆

Actually, I don't know much about him yet but will figure out
at the welcome party for him in this month♪
I guess he is funny guy...↑↓：Ｐ

and Tomo got hay fever.
She will be suffering from it at least for a month.
I can understand how annoying it is because I used to have the same problem.
Do you have any pollen allergy season in your country?

I heard that some people who work at the airport in not only in Japan
but the other countries have hay fever.
Especially, countries which Japanese come and go frequently
because we accidentaly bring cedar pollen somehow...
We are sorry about that;P

Look at this picture!
Tsuyoshi is about to do dekoping to me...

He is always bullying me like this:(
You might have seen it during your stay here.

I hit back to him, though!!

Do you know we have three sister hotels in Tokyo?
Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro is one of them and it just opend dormitory rooms from today!

I took a picture before it's opend↓↓

It looked very nice and comfortable as you can see:)
If you have a chance to go around Ikebukuro area, let's try there,too!
...but please don't forget about our hostel ;P
We are also waiting for your coming♪

A famouse Japanease TV program titled "Gaia no yoake (The Dawn of Gaia)" wants someone to be on their program. They will deal with foreign travelers coming to Tokyo with their interests in Japanese anime, manga and games.

You have to;

(1) Be booked into Sakura Hostel Asaksua between March 16th and March 30th.
(2) Have a job in your own country.
(3) Come from Europe, Australia or New Zealand.
(4) Meet the TV crew and have an interview at your home or office before you come to Tokyo.
(5) Have interviews for a few days in Tokyo
(6) Be interested in Japanese otaku culture (anime, manga or games).

*Preferable if you are interested in the International Anime Fair taking place on March 29th and 30th at Tokyo Big Sight.

Sounds fun? If anyone is interested in this, please give us an email.

Last night, we had a good-bye party.
Miho(second right↑） had been worked at Sakura Hotel Jimbocho for about five years
and she took care of me when I was training there
before I started working here.

By coincidence, Miho and I was staying at the same apartment
when we were in San Diego though the times we were there is different.

She is going to Spain soon.
We'll miss her a lot but wish her happy life there；）
Hope to see you again someday☆★☆

Also, some of Sakura House staff are leaving.
I'll put more pictures again♪

Have you ever heard about or seen "Free Hugs" ?
I've seen it once on TV but not a real one.
At first, I thought it's strange...

But our guest(on this pisture above↑) told me that it was worthwhile activity.
He did Free hugs in front of Shibuya station during his stay.
Have you seen him there?

I guess as we get accustomed to do it, it's getting much fun.
If I see free hugs people somewhere, I wanna try;)

They are from Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador.
They got to know each other in Taiwan and came to Tokyo together.
In Taiwan, they are studying agriculture at the university.

I've never been to Latin America but I'm really interested in those countries.
I love their smiles:)
Do you have any information about Latin America?
Tomo san, give me a big holidays☆★☆

It is a day to hope for the well-being of girls.
Families with girls display a set of hina dolls at home
and eat some special foods together.

↑This is my lunch today♪
My mom always makes lunch box for me and this is called Chirashi-zushi.
It is a kind of Sushi for Hinamatsuri. Looks beautiful☆
Thank you mom;) It was sooo yummy!

Hideki san just came back from Phuket island, Thailand.
Now, he is training here and going to our sister hotel, Sakura Hotel Hatagaya in a week.

↑Hideki(left) and Koji(right)

Though he is new here, he knows about this field much more than me.
I should learn from him till he leaves here!

By the way, it's rare that Koji (night shift staff) appears on this weblog!

We got a new ash tray yesterday.
It's much more stable than the old one.
Tsuyoshi : "Let's try how good it is♪"
Yuri : "I want to be on my weblog today!"

CAUTION!! I don't smoke, am just pretending;P