Now it is 1:00 AM on February 18th.
We are having a heavy rain outside.
Today it had been almost cloudy here in Shirahama, but I took this photo.
Because the photos of blossoms would be better on cloudy day like today.
This is Kawazu Sakura, and it is already fully blooming.
I show you one another photo.....
Continue reading "2011/02/17 Sakura trees are fully blooming at Sakuraya!!" »
Today I found out a postcard in our post box.
It was from Paris in France.
They stayed at Sakuraya in April last year, and this time they have been back to Paris and sent us this postcard.
I have already put it on the board at the entrance of Sakuraya building like this.
Thank you for sending postcard from France!!
How have you been?
We had a lot of customers last year at Pension Sakuraya in Shimoda.
We appreciate it very much.
In Japan we, Japanese cereblate the new year's day on January every year.
It is considered by most Japanese to be one of the most important annual festivals and has been celebrated.
At Sakuraya we decorate the room and many places in the building with the flowers like this.
In all Japanese style rooms we put the flower pot with the seasonal flowers and the leaves.
Let us wish you and yours a happy and healthy New Year.
They came from Singapore and stayed at Sakuraya for 2 nights.
On the 1st day they arrived early to leave their luggages and went to Shimoda downtown.
On the 2nd day they went to Kawazu Seven Waterfalls, and Izu-kogen to go to Teddy Bear Musium.
On the last day they left their luggages at Shimoda station and went to Irozaki Cape.
When they had dinner and breakfast we were able to have a good talking and comunication.
Thank you for staying at Sakuraya, and see you again.
This afternoon a postman brought one thing.
When I saw it at first I knew it was something from foreign country.
I opend it soon and there were christmas present and card.
I checked the address out again, it was a present from Finland.
Oh, yes, I remember their name!
They stayed at Sakuraya for 9 nights from July 9th 2009.....
Continue reading "2010/12/18 Christmas Present from Finland" »
We were really surprised.
Have you ever seen this?
I haven't seen and read it because I live in Shimoda, not in Tokyo.
We got a parcel by mail in the morning the day before yesterday.
When I got it I didn't remember the name written on it and I didn't know what it was, and also I didn't understand why it was sent.
After opening it I found out a letter like this....
Continue reading "2010/05/27 An article about Pension Sakuraya on Tokyo Notice Board!!" »
Several days ago we got a postcard from Wien in Austria.
They stayed at Sakuraya at the beginning of last April.
They came to Japan for a wedding ceremony of their friends, which was held in Kobe.
How did you feel a Japanese wedding?
I think it was great experience for you.
By the way I have been to Wien when I was a student of university....
Today it was sunny in Shimoda again.
As it has been beautiful days during Golden Week all of our customers are very happy.
The weather forecast says it will be hotter here tomorrow.
By the way, before Golden Week we got a green parcel from abroad.
When I found out it in a post I didn't know who sent us it.
After I opened it, I knew it was a book of cooking recipe from Sweden....
A few days ago our guests who came from Italy and stayed at Sakuraya sent us an e-mail with a photo.
They stayed here for 4 nights from March 29th.
First of all their 2 years old child was a little shy with us, and said "La~ la~!".
I think it means "Go away!".
However he was not shy after 4 nights at all and come to the kitchen to see us.
He was sooooo cute!
We are looking forward to meeting you and your family again in the future.
We had an american family who stayed at Sakuraya on March 30th.
They stayed for only 1 night but they were very glad to stay and gave us this present.
This is called "Toffee-Ettes Cake" made by See's in California.
Here is a story from their web site below.
"Irresistible bite-size pieces of rich Danish butter toffee with whole almonds are smothered in See's creamy milk chocolate, then covered with bits of toasted almonds. Keep a canister on hand for unexpected guests or take one to the office."Of course it was a first time for us to eat it, but it was very delicious and we enjoyed this flavor!
I show you next one....
Continue reading "2010/04/01 Presents from American and German Family" »
This afternoon my wife gave me a letter.
There was a name of place "La Rochelle" and I rememberd a guest from France.
He was travelling in Japan by bycycle and came to Sakuraya alone on May 2008.
He stayed at Sakuraya for 4 nights then.
He said in this letter, " I have a dream to be back in your Pension Sakuraya someday with my wife and daughter".
Yes, we are looking forward to meeting you again.
"A Happy New Year" from Yamamoto family
In Japan most Japanese go to Shrine at the beginning of new year to pray our health, good future and something else.
Today we also went to Shirahama Shrine.We didn't have a strong wind and a little warm here in Shimoda.
There were some cars in the shrine's parking lot.
After praying we took a photo of ourselves in front of shrine building.
I think that we are very happy because we are keeping our health.
I show you a photo of my wife and me in the following page.
After our guests checked-out I was cleaning the guest rooms. And then my son came and said,
"What can I do today?"
When I clean the guest room my son usually comes and says so, because he doesn't go to pre-school on weekend and he has a lot of time.
"OK, could you help me to clean the bath?" I said.
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Today we got some presents from our guest who came from Germany and stayed at Sakuraya in last April.
She came to Japan for her private holiday and stayed at our Pension for 3 nights.
I didn't know who she was before checked-in, but I knew and was surprised at her job after talking with her.
She is working as a marketing and distribution at Bärenreiter, and she often comes to Asia for sales and marketing.
Actually, I am a member of chorus group in Shimoda, called "Shimoda Chor Freude", and we will have a 30th anniversary concert next April and now we are just practicing Mozart "Requiem".....
We usually pick plums from the plum tree after the middle of June, but the harvesting season is earlier than usual.
So I went to the plum tree to pick I found out this!
Have you ever seen it?
This is a nest of birds, but I don't know whose nest it is.
I was thinking there was nothing inside, and I put my hand into it.
Then my hand touched something there. ......
Continue reading "Whose home is this? - - in Sakuraya's garden" »
I sometimes find some kinds of animals around our Pension.
They are squirrel, racoon dog, wild boa and so on.
Today, when I was cleaning our guest room I found something walking on the road in front of our building.
Do you know that?
Yes, it's a monkey.
They sometimes come to our feild and eat vegetables and fruits because they can't get the foods in the mountain and may be hungry.
But there is no problem. Because they go into the forest immediatly when they find out us.
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We have this tree in our field and it is more than 20 years old.
Have you ever seen this fruit?
This fruit is called "Biwa" in Japanese and "Loquat" in English.
This fruit has big stones inside but it is very sweet.
We can eat it between the end of May and the middle of June.
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There are some kinds of cherry trees in our garden.
One of them is called "Kawazu Sakura", which blooms in Feburuary, but this tree is "Oshima Sakura".
Oshima Sakura blooms in the same season of the most famous Sakura in Japan, called "Someiyoshino".
I love the season which Sakura start to bloom, because Sakura tree has blossoms and a lot of pink buds, and it is very cute!
Continue reading "Cherry Tree has already started bloom in Sakuraya. 2009/04/01" »
Today it was almost cloudy but sometimes we had sunshine.
It was not cold but we had north-east wind, so we didn't feel to go to the beach.
By the way Kawazu Sakura (Cherry blossom) in our garden has fully bloomed at last.
We are very happy looking this tree in spite of cloudy today.
Yes, we love Sakura very much. .......
Continue reading "Kawazu Sakura has fully bloomed!!! 2009/02/04" »
Today it was rainy as yesterday.
When it rainy it frustrated me because I can't go anywhere to take pictures.
Anyway I went out to check out the outside condition and I found two green birds came to the cherry tree next to our building.
Do you know why they came? .......
Continue reading "Rain, Cherry blossom (Kawazu Sakura) and White eye" »
Thank you for staying at Sakuraya last year.
We are looking forward to meeting you this year again.
We wish you a happy new year!!
After busy season we usually clean all rooms, kitchen, bathing rooms and dinning room.
Yes, after busy season we are still busy.....
Today I moved the tables and chairs out and cleaned the floor.
Then my son, Yuuki came and said,
"Wao! this is my room to play, right?"
And he started to play with his toy car.
I heard that there are some cherry trees "Kawazu Sakura" which have cherry blossoms in Kawazu town now.
As the blooming was very late this winter they are still blooming.
This is a same kind of cherry tree which is in front of the entrance of Pension Sakuraya.
After blooming this tree already has a lof of cherry now. ....
As we have an English web pages of Pension Sakuraya we have a lot of customers from all over the world.
A couple of them who came from Taiwan and stayed at Sakuraya for 2 days in last November.
When we talked together one of them said,
"You have an Englsih web pages but don't have a Chinese one, right?"
"If you would like it it is possible to make it by myself. Would you like to have it?"
Now it is 1:00 am on 2008.
"A Happy New Year ! "
We have just finished our job and I am taking break in front of my desk.
I took this picture yesterday, I guess that there are a lot of people in this Shirahama shrine.
I hope your happy new year and everything is going well.
Every year we clean up all spaces in our building after summer, and we started to clean up the dining room today.
We have to move everything out of dining room to clean up, so it is very hard to do it.
I think it takes 2 or 3 days to finsh, but our guest will be able to have meals in beautiful dining room after that.
We got a letter from our guests who stayed at Sakuraya in last May.
They came to Japan from Singapore for the 1st time, arrived at Kansai Airport and came to Shimoda after Kyoto, Takayama, Mt. Fuji, Hakone and Tokyo.
As they don't speak Japanese well it was a little difficult to travel in the country side of Japan.....
Continue reading "A Letter with Photographs from Singapore !!" »
The busy Golden Week was finished this morning and Sakuraya became quite.
We could have a lot of guest during GW, thank you for staying everybody.
By the way I am showing 2 pictures which our guest sent us by E-mail.
This is a picture taken at the balcony. The new green leaves were shining as well....
It was rainny yesterday and the day before yesterday in Shimoda.
We are very sorry that our guest could not see a beautiful sea and have a good time in Shimoda .
But some of our guests went to Mt. Nesugatayama by the cable car and said,
"We couldn't see seven islands from the top but there were a lot of beautiful flowers there.".....
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