Asakusa Diary - The Staff Blog

Do you have a sweet tooth?
Yes, I do!
I'll introduce some sweets available in this town♪
(More information→Click the pictures.)

Entry No.1
Agemanjyu!

Most of towns have their original Manjyu(bun with bean-jam filling), but Asakusa's one is fried.
These are available on the Nakamise street, 5mins from our hostel.
Be careful not to get burned;)

Entry No.2
Sweet potato!

I don't know why but there are many shops which sell a variety of foods
made from sweetpotatos.
My recommendation is the ice-cream.

Entry No.3
Awazenzai!

This is one of the specialities here from 1854.
It's grain of millet covered with beans paste.
Looks weired but should be yummy...I'll try it soon.

Entry No.4
Pudding!

I don't think this is not known by people yet but I love them!
They have about 10 different tastes such as coffee, green tea, caramel, black sesame and so on.
My favorite is the original custard one.

Actually, I have one more favorite sweet but I'll keep it secret:P
If you come and ask me, I can let you know♪

On Saturday, I visited Imperial palace with my friends.

Though I was born and raised in Tokyo, I've never been there,
so it was a good chance to me.
Actually, the place we went to was just the garden and not the palace the emperor lives in.

It's called the eastern gardens and open for public for free. (Closed on Monday&Friday)
You will enjoy beautiful trees and flowers in four seasons and can be relaxed.

Also, if you are the group, you can have the tour.
http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/index.html

From the gardens, Tokyo tower and some shopping malls are easily accessible on foot.
How about visiting there during the golden week?

Olympic torch has just arrived Japan today.
Then, it went to Nagano, where Olympic game was held in 1998, directly by bus.

Though the torch relay has some difficulties this time,
most of people are looking forward to watching it:)

I hope many Japanese players could enjoy themselves and get great results;)
Which sports are you interested in for this Olympics??

Do you do something good for the earth?
We do!
?We installed water-saving shower heads last year.
　
?There is a free item box that you can leave your belongings
such as shampoo, padlocks and so on.

?We are changing incandescent lamps to fluorescent bulbs.

Three times a day, we check the lights and shower rooms
whether somebody leave lights on or water running.
We think that there are much more things we can do for the earth.

Little things make a big difference in the future★
Save water, power and money!!

Once you come to Tokyo, you can't forget to visit Akihabara.
It's very famous as a electronic town and popular among the otaku(geek) people.
If you wanna know the reason for it, you should go there;)

In that town, new building was opened on the 17th of Apr.
It's called "AKIBA TOLIM"and is just in front of the station.
There are big model shop, many restaurants and cafes, book shop and cloth shop inside.
I haven't been there yet...but I think I will soon because there is Baskin Robbins, too;)

The Sanja Matsuri, one of the biggest event in Tokyo,
is hold on from the 16th of May for three days.
As it is very famous and historical festival, more than 2millions people are coming
from all over Japan.

Though we are almost fully booked during the Golden week, the next weekend is still available;)
Why don't you come to Asakusa for this exciting event and Design Festa?

Good news for you!
I just knew that from 29th of April, Yomiuri Land amusement park will hold
an interesting event for a week. (during golden week)

They will have food stalls that you can try many kinds of local dishes from all over the world.
For example, Pho(Vietnum), Curry(India), Piroshki(Russia), almond jelly(China) and so on...
more than 30variety of foods!

On the 3rd of May is India day and people from India can enter for free with your passport.
On the 4th is for Okinawa people, the 5th is for Brasilian and the 6th is for filipino♪
The location is about one hour from Sakura Hostel but it's worth visiting;)

Have you ever seen Yabusame?
It's a Japanese archery which is performed while riding a horse.
you might have seen in a Samurai movie;)

They shoot at this small targets with riding a horse!

Tomo thinks that it looks as difficult as taking pictures of them...

Jack, from south korea, has been working wiith us from this month.
We wanted to have someone who speaks Korean here, so he is very helpful:)
Of course, he uses English and Japanese, too.

I'm interested in Korean a little, and I started to learn one korean word a day from him.
Now, I can say "I don't speak Korean" in Korean:P

Here's a message from Jack to Korean guests☆

?????!! ?????? ?????? ??? ???? Jack?????.
????? ??????, Jack? ??? ?????????? ??? ?????.
????? ??? ??, ???? ??? ?? ?????.^*^
????? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ???.
???? ???? ????? ?? ???? ???? ?????.
?? ?????? ??????. ?? ?????? ???...^6^?

On 15th of April is the day when Tokyo Disney Land opened 25years ago.
We (me and Disney land) are almost the same age!
They have started a special program to celebrate the 25th anniversary.
For example, new parade called "Jubilation" and spring carnival at the Disney Sea♪

If you are a big fan of Disney, you should come!
If not, still you can enjoy yourself!
From Sakura Hostel to Tokyo Disney Land, it takes only 40mins by train:D

I had three days off and I spent half a day for watching this↓yesterday.

Have you ever watched “The OC” before?
It's the story about the life and social issues of upper classes in Orange County.
That city sounds familier to me because I was in San Diego.
They are very close each other, I guess.

I like the set of this drama as I can enjoy spacious beach and open sky in California.
Also, the musics are good♪

This weblog is part of my "job" but I enjoy posting almost everyday.
But sometimes, I'm stuck at a desk when I don't know what to write.

Then, Tomo helps me out of this situation.
She sends a text message with many topics for the weblog once in a while.

Most of them are about Sakura staff and it's very funny:P

Tsuyoshi also sometimes asks me whether I have something to post today
though he rarely reads it:( and gives me some subjects.

On the other hand, Naoto just says to me “isn't it hard to post a blog everyday?”

Anyway, as long as I'm working at Sakura, I'll keep on writing!!

Do you have tatoo on your body?
Or are you interested in getting tatoo?
Actually, I am.
I wanted to have tatoo when I was 13 years old.
I thought that a butterfly or an elephant on my back or shoulder would be cute!
But my parents didn't allow to get them, so I gave up:(

Now, I'm interested in henna and looking for any good studio for that.
Do you have any idea??

Are you interested in Arts?
If so, you may have heard about design festa in Tokyo.

Every twice a year, we have a big art event at Tokyo Big Sight.
I've been there before twice and it was so exciting though I don't know much about the arts.
You can find a lot of something weired and extraordinary people there;)

It will be held on 17&18th of May and the entrance fee is 1,000yen.
BUT, you can get a free ticket if you stay with us;)
Just come and ask us anytime♪

Click this picture for more info.↓↓

Because I've got an extremely good reaction the last time, I decided to post this blog.
We're still receiving some comments now for that.

Though this picture is from our calender in our office,
I took almost the same photo when I visited the zoo in Washington D.C.

We can share some of your favorite photos here:)

Last Saturday, we had cherry-viewing party at Sumida river park.
Not only our guests but also people who had stayed here before
and tenants of Sakura house came and joined us:)

When we started, about 40people were already there.

Can you find yourself on these pictures?

As time advances, more and more people came and
sakura staff felt happy to see old familiar faces:)

I hope you guys had a great time!

By the way, did you look up and see these beautiful cherry trees?

I did it;)

Mat Stern was our guest and he had a concert last Wednesday.↓↓

He speaks good Japanese, though sings in English:P
I had a great time at your concert♪
Hopefully, you come and see us before leaving!
I know you are in Japan until June;)

How about holding a concert here at Sakura Hostel??

Have you met him while you were staying here?
Shinji was the member of our cleaning staff and the youngest one here.
He is going to theU.S. from August as a exchange student.
It was his dream, so we are happy for him though it's little bit sad to say good-bye.

We had good-bye party last Sunday and gave him nice trunks as a gift.
I chose one (pink&red heart-print) and Naoto picked the other(dragon print) for him.

Good luck on your new experience and I hope you'll have a great time there!

It's pity that he can't drink (outside :P) there...he is only 19 years old now...

What is "Japanese food" for you??

If you only know sushi and tempura, you should try "ramen" next.
It's a bowl of noodles served in meat/fish-based broth with toppings such as an egg, seaweed, green onions, etc. It's one of the most popular Japanese dishes and is eaten more regularly by Japanese locals than sushi and tempura are. A bowl of ramen is usually cheap like 500 yen to 800 yen. Since it has a wide regional variety, it would be a good idea to try different ramen bowls in different cities while you are traveling in Japan.

There are some good ramen restaurants around our hostel. Our recommendation is URIMBO, located 5 min walk from the hostel. They served Hataka (an erea in southen Japan)-type ramen which is famous for a milky pork born based broth with thin noodles. This type is called tonkotsu, a favorite of mine.
URIMBO ramen

Try some ramen when you come to Japan. I'm sure you'll like it!

Last weekend, a legendary band, X JAPAN performed a live concert for the first time in ten years. Its 150,000 tickets got sold out in a blink of an eye, the news told us. I saw lots of X JAPAN fans with flashy make-up and bright hair in many places on Sunday on their way home after the live finished. Naoto was a lucky guy as usual and got a ticket from one of our guests. I haven't seen him after the live but believe he enjoyed it.

Is any of you a big fan of them?