Giant Strawberry

When I opened a parcel,

found two packs of strawberry.

What's that? How huuuge!

The giant one looks like a cockscomb. It tastes as delicious as the normal-sized one.

My daughter likes strawberry and eats it as soon as I give it to her. But she didn't eat the giant strawberry. I think she couldn't recognize what it is. What she did is pulling the calyx....

Ｔｈａｎｋ You for your nice feedback!

Hi It's Tomoko from Hiroshima hanahostel.
Recently, We received this feedback from a guest from Australia,

'Friendly English-speaking staff. Our room was very large and the hostel has excellent facilities. We really enjoyed our stay at Hana Hostel. Wish we had known about the J-Hoppers before we arrived. We would have booked more J-Hopper hostels. '

Thank you Thank you very much for such nice feed back!

Ｍany people are not aware that we have a chain of 6 hostels in Japan. Although they are either called J-hoppers hostel or Hana hostel, they all belong to the same company.

Some guest often ask us when they check in if Hana hostel and
J-hoppers are of the same group? And so we tell them `They are!

Please check out our hostels when you look for your accommodation on-line♪
We are very happy to help you make your trip as exciting and interesting as `hostely possible` Yey I just made up a new English word, Hostely.......!!

Setsubun Party

How is your February going?

Japanese custom has a lot of events through the year.
Now, February has a day of 'Setsubun'.
Setsubun, in short, is the day before of Spring begins. It is related to lunar calender. On that day, we throw beans to cleans away evils. Also we eat beans of the number of your age to have a good year.

After lunch break, team Hana went to shopping for the party.





We had two staff whom birthday were coming soon.
That's why we were going to make birthday cakes!!


Kyoto Hana staff and Kyoto J-Hoppers staff♪♪



Interacting with other guests are great!!!











Now, time to try to make rolled sushi!!
Put seaweed first, and put rice on it, and...



This was her first time to make rolled sushi!!





It is a custom that when you eat rolled shushi on Setsubun day, you have to face to the restrictive direction which changes every year, and you are not supposed to talk until you finish eating.



One of the biggest event for Sestubun party is throwing beans to ogres!!
Look, they have a fantastic Japanese ogre costume!!



Birthday boy, Ucchi--!!
Happy Birthday!!


Birthday girl, Naomi!!
She just got back from the Philippines!!
Happy Birthday!!



Everybody, say 'cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze'!!



Thank you very much for all guests and staff!!
I cannot wait for the next event!!

My sweet home :)

Hello, it's Yuko.

I have been moved into my new house about a month ago with my husband.
The new house used to be my family home and it is about 65 years old.
So it is actually not a NEW house but we renovated some places such as windows, walls and floors.

We repainted the wall and polished the floor. They look really clean now!

It does look really new to me after renovation.
I feel like I'm living in the different house to where I used to live.
Of cause I have got new furniture and a sweet brand new husband.
Probably, that's why! lol

Since we moved in, we couldn't get much sleep because our house is located right next to the JR train lines so we get many small earthquakes when train pass through. And it is very noisy like thunder rumbling above our head.　

It took us about 2 weeks to sleep with it and now we get good night sleep in the cozy house.
I'm planning to have a nice flower garden in the spring!
I have got a Daisy in the pot　：）
Which flower should I plant next?? Tulip, Marguerite, Pansy etc.... What is your favorite flower?

I would love to have colorful Japanese garden!!

Cruise Ship Artemis in Hiroshima

It's getting warm these days. However I was in bed for a few days with flu in early February.
I felt so important to wash hands and risen out. I had to take a　few days off from work. I have a fever of 39.3 degrees Celsius.


anyway I went to Hiroshima port to see a luxury liner "Artemis" on 13th of February which is cruising 98 days around the world from Southampton, UK.
Maximum passengers 1200,
500 crews,
and length 240 meters. I was born and raised in the city surrounded by mountains, so I was so excited to see the ship.






On that day, Oyster market was open in the park close to the port, so there were lots of passengers from the ship and ppl coming to ear oysters. In that market, for example you buy 1kg of raw oyster and charcoal for your own grill and you cook on your own. It seemed really yummy.

At 6pm on that day, she left for Korea for next destination.

I wish I could travel around the world with that huge cruise ship someday in the future.

Flower Journal

Hi it's Kumi.

Yesterday Satoko brought us some beautiful flowers.
We used to work together and she flew to Spain to
learn Spanish and came back a few month ago.

She is learning a flower arrangement.

Here are the flowers she arranged for us.



Tulip




Narcissus



Flowering quince


It is so nice to have beautiful flowers in the lobby.
Thank you Satoko!!




Please don't forget that Hana Hostel's "Hana" means
"Flower" in Japanese :)

survival

I found 2 criminals in our hostel LOL !!

It was coldest last week in Kyoto.

Even for me, it was not sure I could survive this winter but it must be more difficult for the people come from hot area like Australia, Brazil, Mexico and so on…

They(on the picture above) were from Australia is summer now,seasons are opposite to Japan.

It must be really really cold for them too.

It is getting warmer now, and Spring is coming!!
Do you know that Spring in japan will be full of beautiful pink or white cherry blossoms ? (it is amazingly beautiful. )
For cherry trees to bloom, they need to experience low temperatures during the winter.
I guess they must bloom beautifully this spring more than past years.
Come to Japan(KYOTO) and enjoy the cherry blossoms viewing!!

my favorite phrase in Japanese
”Spring comes after winter”　"fuyu no ato niwa haru ga kuru"

a blog

Bamboo Toilette


Wild eggplant. Do not eat even though it may look appealing


My brain

Peace out