Snow! Snow!! Snow!!!

Hello～!! How's it going, everyone!!
I caught a cold and have cough now. hahaha～
But!!! Today is special, right? End of the year～！YES!!!:)
Most japanese go to shrines or temples to celebrate the new year!!

By the way, look at the picture!! It was snowy today.
...Long time time no snow in Kyoto!! So we got excited!!

Everyone!!!! Have a happy new year!!!
Looking forward to seeing you next year as well!!

Winter Special

Good evening, everyone!!!
How are you?

No Kimono
No Tea cheremony
No Open-Air Bath
is not KYOTO.

Enjoy your Kyoto stay!!!

Hiro

Hot Pod Party!!

We had a Hot Pod Party!!!
It was really good party. i had a great time with you guys.thanks!
Oh, definitely we will make this party again. Try Japanese traditional food with us!

Have a good weekend!

Hiro

Hot Pod Party in Nagomi Ryokan Yuu! 08/12/2010 start 6pm ～.

KONBANWA!!!　←Good evening in Japanese.
How you going,mate?
we will make a Hot Pod party on 8th.
lets have a Hot Pod with us.
It will be fun if you join us!

Date:08/12/2010
Stat:6pm
Close:when you drunk.
Drink:B.Y.O
We will divide the bill for the ingredients(Veges,meats,fishes,...etc)with everybody join this party.

We are waiting you in Nagomi-Ryokan Yuu!!!

See u soon. OYASUMI.←Good night!

Hiro

Common space!

hi,everyone!How are you?

this is the common space in Nagomi-Ryokan Yuu.
i took the photo when they were chatting.
when it's cold outside,it's better to drink a hot tea.it makes you warm.
There is free green tea and english tea in here.
Don't drink coffee at night time,you can't sleep after,you know.
Tea is better. hey you know? you can do tea ceremony in our hostel.
If you would like to do something special,why don't you try it!!

oh,tea is ready, i have to go. See you soon.

Have a good night!

Hiro

Christmas tree!!

Hi, how u going?
it was nice weather today.
yesterday we decorated Christmas tree!!!
what do u think about this tree?
I think its good idea.Look at Mizuki.
Its a harmony between Kimono n Christmas.

It's not easy to get this experience, so...

Why don't you come to kyoto and visit us?

Hi hi.Anyway,we might wearing special costume around Christmas.
I will take photo of them.

See you then!

Hot Pod Party!!

Hi,hows it going?

it's getting cold in kyoto.
i went to Kiyomizu temple last Sat.
If you wanna go there you need a warm jacket.
otherwise,you can't enjoy with beautiful views.
And after i went to hotpod restaurant!
It was awesome.But a bit expensive.

anyway i'm thinking something makes you warm in our hostel.
I know i can makes you warm with my smile.But probably not enough.
So...
Let's have a HotPod party!!!
i will let you know,when we will make this party.

Have a good day!

Hiro

We love Kyoto in winter!!

Hello～:)
There are a lot of place that you can enjoy the beuatiful lights in Kyoto!!
Look at these pictures!!
They are so great, aren't they?? =>
If you have chance to come over to Kyoto, I recomend you to wander around the city.
Most illumination are until 25th December.


Take care!!Have a nice day!!
See you soon!

How are you??
Autumn is very busy season for Kyoto.
We hear from our guests that color leaves or sceneries in many place are so great.Every guests seems to have wonderful time in Kyoto. And we are so glad to be able to share the time with them.The new year is coming soon. How was 2010 for you? good?not bad? :)
We hope your rest of this year will be great for you.

Actually, I prefer winter to autumn in Kyoto.
It's so cold but there are illumination in Kyoto city. And if you go to a suburb that is north part in Kyoto, we can see a lot of stars in the sky!!
That is so beuatiful!!

I will let you know some events soon!!
Thank you and see you soon!

Events in Kyoto!

Good evening! How are you?

Nowadays, it is gradually getting cool at Kyoto.
Finally, this long summer is over!!!

At autumn, there are a lot of events or festivals in Kyoto.
For example, Kyoto Jidai Matsuri, Nijo Castle Festival, Maple illumination festival and so on.

If you would like to know the detail of them, please look at the websites!!
http://www.kyotojoho.co.jp/english/index.html

Of course, we also have an event.
The next event at our hostel, is………..Halloween!!
We are still planning what we’re going to do.
If you have your stay at our place on 31st, please come with special costumes!!
I’ll let you know the detail soon!!

Good night!!

Tea Ceremony

Hello～!!:)
How is it going, everyone～?

When you come to Kyoto, you want to know Kyoto’s culture, right?
Kyoto has older and special culture than other cities.
We want to share the culture with our guests.
That’s why there are some special options at our place.

One of the most popular options is Tea Ceremony Experience.
You can know how to have a cup of tea with the formal way.
Of course, you can try Green tea.

The most good point of our Tea Ceremony is the price!!
Just 1500 yen/person!!(From 2 people)

Many guests said they had great experience.
When you stay at our guest house, why don’t you try it??

Have a nice day~~~~~!!!! :)

Tsukimi Events!!

Hello～!!!:)
How are you??

9/22, we had the event that I told you before, Tsukimi festival!!!

Many our guests joined the event!!
http://www.nagomi-kyoto.com/yuu/photo/photo-event-tsukimi.html

Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the moon at all… hahaha～
However, the party was so great and everyone seemed to have enjoyable time!!

The staffs also had great time!!
We are going to hold the next event!!
I’ll let you know soon!
Let’s share a great time with us next!!
Good night!!

Tsukimi Event is coming soon!!

Hi!!
How is it going?

We have a good news!!

Have you heard the word, Tsukimi?
Tsukimi is the festival for moon watching.
We have rice dumpling or chicken on the festival day in order to
celebrate the beauty of the moon!!

On 22nd September, we are going to hold the party at our hostel!
There are various foods such as dumplings, chicken and so on.
All you can eat! Only 500yen!
It will start at 6pm

If you have a plan to visit our place, let’s share a great time with us!!


Have a nice day!!.

Festival!!!

Hello!
How is it going?
There was a festival near here yesterday!!
The festival is mainly for children!
I heard that anyone can join this festival.
If you have a plan to come Kyoto next summer with your children,
let your children join it!!

We’re gonna let you know about this festival in our homepage.

Have a nice day!!:)

The typhoon was approching Kyoto!!

Hi!

How are you ??

Yesterday, the typhoon was approching Kyoto!!

However, there was no harm at Kyoto! :)

The typhoon seems to have damaged Kanto area, around Tokyo.

It is not so hot today, but will be hot from tomorrow again.

Is this cause of global warming??

I really miss winter now. lol

Nowadays, we have a lot of call or E-mail.

We guess many people are ready for autumn sightseeing at Kyoto!

We always welcome with smile and heart!! :)

Have a nice day!!

Thanks.

See you soon～♪

BBQ Party!

Yesterday we had our first BBQ Party at Nagomi-Ryokan Yuu!!! This year we were blessed with good weather. A lot of guests and staffs joined the party. Everyone looked very satisfied with a lot of delicious foods. All the participants enjoyed spending a cool early evening having BBQ and interacting with each other!

TANABATA festival!

We hold TANABATA fes in 7th of JUL.

According to traditional fairy tale ( find the Tanabata in Wikipedia)

We write wishes on the paper and decolated the bamboo with paper strips and ornaments.

We believed that the wishes may come ture some day.

Many guests wrote thier wishes and decolotaed the bamboo.

We also hold wooden craft events!

We made wooden guns and hit the target!!

We gave special paper crafts to our guests as prise!

The good Tanabata nights with guests...

We are planning lots more events...... !

Thank you for joing us!!

Nagomi-bar is opend!!

Finally The World Cup has Begun at 6/11!!
Our NAGOMI BAR are also Opened !!
DRINKS(300yen~), SNACKS(300yen~) and a 200-inch Screen for World Cup!

We just finished our 4th day at -Nagomi Bar- !
We had a great match and night. Thanks for all our guests who joined us ! As you can imagine, Japanese are going to be crazy because our national team won the first match and we are getting closer to the round of 16. As we promised, we will be following the whole World Cup at our Bar.

Hope to see you here in NAGOMI BAR!

Nagomi-no-wa weather forecast for this summer!!

Hello, everyone!

According to the weather forecast, this summer is going to be a cool one. Do you think this is bad? Actually, this is not just bad.
The summer in Kyoto is extremely hot because of the humidity. You cannot compare with the other cities in Japan. This is because Kyoto is surrounded by mountains except the south side, and warm air comes into Kyoto from there, then the sun heat it up, hear it up and heat it up…It is like being in a sauna all the day! :-S

So, having a cool summer is a good news in some points! There are lots of events going on then. Gion festival, the most famous festival in Kyoto, is in the middle of July. Also, there are lots of Japanese festivals (Matsuri) and fireworks during summer!! Let’s go out for these events wearing Yukata (Japanese traditional clothes) like we Japanese normally do. That would be the best memory of traveling in Kyoto. We have an activity, "Kimono-experience", which you can try to wear Kimono/Yukata. Check this web page for more detail!
http://www.nagomi-kyoto.com/yuu/kimono.html

We never know how the weather will be, but we are sure that you can enjoy Kyoto anyway, not depending on weather or season… ;-)

Looking forward to seeing you at our guesthouse!

Our guesthouse was broadcasted!!

After the long cold weather (It snowed in Tokyo in APRIL!!), It's been very hot in Kyoto...finally! It was more than 30 degrees yesterday.

We had a great "Golden Week", which is one of the longest public holidays in Japan, and there were lots of tourists came to Kyoto.

In the Golden Week, our guesthouse was broadcasted in a famous local programme called "Yo-i Don". Did you guys check it?!

In the programme, a famous singer walks around in various local areas in Kinki and stops by some unique places. And this time, it was Kyoto station area.

He stopped by our guesthouse and asked us some questions like, "What is this place?". Because it's unusual to see many English letters in Japan.

Basically, our owner talked about why she started the guesthouse, what our guesthouse aims for and so on. It's worth checking it out!!

From now on, there are still many events coming out.

Aoi Festival on 15th is one of them. This is one of the 3 biggest fastivals in Kyoto. This festival consists of a procession of beautifully decorated oxcarts attended by some 500-plus people dressed in Heian-period costume.

Come to our ryokan to enjoy Kyoto with our friendly staff.

We are waiting for your arrival!

Count Down to Spring !!

Hi! How are you everyone!?
It becomes warm in Kyoto these days. We are all excited about welcoming beautiful spring season.

There are lots of events in Spring. One of the main events "Higashiyama Hanatoro" has started on 13th March.


Lots more are coming soon!!
Check this → http://kaiwai.city.kyoto.jp/raku/modules/english/index.php

●Hanatoro(13th March- 22nd March)

As many as 2400 lanterns and ikebana flower arrangements give fantastic colour to a walkway from Shoren-in in the north through Maruyama Park and Yasaka-Jinja to kiyomizu-dera in the south.

Many things start in Spring. Flowers start bloom, schools start ( In Japan, generally )..etc, so we believe that Spring is the time to start new thisngs !!

What are we going to start in this Spring ??????????

We have decided to start breakfast service !!

Details will be showed in our website near future.... look forward to it(^^)

Winter event

“Winter Event”

In comparison with summer and fall, we feel a little lonely in the winter because there are fewer guests. It’s true that it gets really cold in Kyoto, and coming to a ryokan is a hard when it’s cold outside, but we have lots of events this winter, so if you have a chance, we hope that you would come!

So, let me explain about what we have planned!

On Sunday of this week (1-17), what else can I say; it’s the Sanju-sangendo long range archery. In Japan there is a tradition of archery, is called “Qu-do” in Japanese. The event shows what one

shoots the arrow head towards a target in the 120-meter long. During the event, it is free admission to the temple all the day, moreover, many foreigner tourists from all over the world visit to see Japanese female becoming 20 years old this year with wearing a Japanese traditional skirt, “Hakama”, giving the traditional archery performance.

In early February, there is another special event, is called “Setsubun”. The purpose of Setsubun is to wipe out an ogre around house and what people usually do is to throw a bunch of beans toward the ogre.

The event would be held the all over in Japan on the same day. I still remember that my brother and sister threw the beans toward my dad wearing a cloth looking like the ogre in the childhood. Those events leave in my great and happy memory. Setsubun is held in Japan on the 3^rd Feb every year. I hope you will enjoy every moment and share a cheerful experience with us.

Even though there are various popular events around here in winter season, I believe snow landscape is still the best of all winter events. All of the buildings around here would be completely blanketed by snow as if by magic it were a fantastic scenery. Its snowy shrine feels like my true happiness and fortune deeply in my heart.

Even if a cherry blossom would be a great seasonal scenery, the snowy landscape in Kyoto should be an unforgettable memory in your life after all. I hope you get a chance to come to see the best snowy landscape in Kyoto and please visit our place as well if you never seen before in your life.

“Seeing is believing”

New Year’s Eve in Japan Blog

The end of the year in Japan is a mysterious time.

After we celebrate Christmas Eve on the 24th of December, everyone cleans their houses (O-souji), workplaces and buildings, while being thankful we clean.

The 31st of Decemeber we call Oomisoka. This is where we go to temples and ring the big bells. This is a custom called, “Joya no Kane” (Ringing of the New Year’s Bells). The bells are very large, and are struck with a large wooden hammer.

The bells ring 108 times; they say that is the same amount of times as the sins of man, and if he listens to them all he will be cleansed of his sins, however every temple from about 9 PM to about 2 AM continues to ring their bells, so really no one can tell how many times they ring them. (Haha.)

In the new year, we visit shrines for “hatsumoude” which is the first visit to a shrine in the new year.

During that time, we write our goals that we wish to achieve in ink on paper.

This is called “Kakizome” or new year’s resolution.

This is something interesting I think,

Christmas -> Christianity

Joya no Kane -> Buddhism

Hatsumoude -> Shinto

So in the end of the year to the beginning of the New Year, we experience a lot of different religion’s customs.

The scenery of the streets changes from Christmas to the new year.

I’m sure those guests who were able to enjoy the New Year’s Eve in Japan experienced a lot of culture.

There are lots of events left in winter as well!

While looking forward to when the snow paints the temples and shrines white, let’s really enjoy winter in Kyoto together!

A Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

From everyone at our ryokan we wish you a happy new year!

So, as we passed Christmas and the end of the New Year approached, our ryokan was extremely busy.

We had many people from many different countries come to visit us, so I was really excited to spend the New Year’s Eve with everyone, but every day I had a lot of cleaning and laundry to do.

It’s too bad, I wanted to talk more to our guests, but communicating was hard to do.

Actually, I was really looking forward to spending Christmas, New Year’s and the New Year mochi making party together. Let me explain a little about making mochi. In Japan, at the end of the year we make mochi together. Mochi is rice that has been pounded into a sticky paste. We usually eat it on New Year’s Day. This year unfortunately, I didn’t have any time to do those things.

However, reflecting on this year, next year for 100% sure I will work towards satisfying my goals!

I hope that everyone continues to come to our ryokan!

Sushi Night !! 11th November

Happy New Year!

We held a sushi night on the 11th of November, so here's a little info about what we did at the party.

In essence, this was a "guests and staff make traditional hand rolled sushi (makizushi) and eat it!" kind of party.

We let each group make their makizushi as they would like, and then we had taste testing to to deterimine who made the best. Of course, that is to say, especially since everyone came from many countries around the world, each makizushi had its own distinct personalities!

The above plate of sushi was voted best in show. The name given to it is, "Mapleleaf." Its really pretty, isn't it?

This is a picture of everyone making their really loooong sushi together. Is it a huge success??!

We wish to express our thanks to everyone who participated in our sushi rolling contest and party! We hope that you had as much fun as we did and we were glad we made happy memories with you.

We would like to have more events in the future, so everyone please look forward to it!