Soccer Game, Beer, Sake, and Ramen

When there's a soccer game on TV. . .

Dozen, Ken, Nicholas, Steven and I commenced to imbibe in front of the TV.
TV fries one's brain.
But my eyes were gazing the patterns in the ivy.
The distance between the TV and I; in vain.

Unpasteurized sake is dank, especially when consumed fairly cold.
Dozen spilled the beer. . . Nicholas spilled a cup of sake. . got a little tipsy.
Grins on their faces, their eyes has enlightened.
Encountering the winged denizens of the past in the air; the gypsy

Unfinished story utters its price to pay
Frenzied one being oneself, fazed on its own way

Aomomiji

Hello everyone!!

It's Shizuka working at Kyoto Hana Hostel.
This is my first blog for Hana Journal.

I had been thinking what to write for my first blog...and...

Here is a question!

What are these plant called??



These are 'AOMOMIJI' (Green Maple leaves).
You can see a lot of these in many places in Kyoto around this time.

Recently, we had a guest from oversea who has seen this AOMOMIJI at front desk and said 'Why there is Marijuana?!'.
I was surprised by unexpected question.
But then, I started to think that there are thousands things that you have never seen in the world.

After that, I have been captured by AOMOMIJI. I got very interested in that, and started to look for them!!


Now...How many places do you know?

Do you know where is this??



This is in SANJUSANGENDO.
It is close to Kyoto station, you can even walk to here from Kyoto station.



How about this?





These are in Kiyomizu Temple!!
It was cloudy, but still very beautiful.

Meantime, I checked my luck.



It seems something good is going to happen to me soon!!


Well, I got the talking out of the way,
Now we get back to...








This is at Ryoanji temple as known as for garden arranged in the kare-sansui(dry-landscape) style.
It was raining, but these leaves looks happy and vivid green stood out against the cloudy sky.

Now, making a short trip to...




This is Byodoin temple which is famous for 10 yen coin.
It is printed on the Japanese 10 yen coin.
You can reach to Uji where the temple locates 17 minutes by JR rapid train.
Uji is also famous for green tea. You can enjoy green tea, green tea ice cream, and green tea soba (Japanese needle).



Here is my best recommended place!!





This is Genkoan which locates a little bit north of Golden pavilion (Kinkakuji temple).
There is no convenient access to the place so that there were not a lot of visiters.
It was very very nice and quiet. Their garden was beautiful.
It takes about 5minutes from Golden pavilion by taxi.
This place is smaller than Golden pavilion and Kiyomizu temple, however because of small, all the things are neat, clean, and nice.
I definitely recommend here!!

I still have a lot of spots for Aomomiji in kyoto to visit.
Hope to be able to visit and find out nicer places soon.

If you have any chance to visit Kyoto, why don't you visit these places to enjoy green colored maple leaves.
I am sure you will explore Kyoto more!!

Hiroshima Airport♪♪

Hi it's Kumi.
I heard that there's a big park next to the Hiroshima airport where
you can go near the runway.
So, the other day I went there!


On the way to the airport on the expressway,
there's my favorite rest area.



















They have a nice restaurant, a cafe, and a bakery named ANDERSEN.
This bakery is famous in Hiroshima, and you can find this bakery all
over in the city.

After that, we finally reached to the airport.
When I saw the airplane taking off, it made me so excited that I forgot
to take a picture! I only took a video. I thought I could take some
pictures next, but unfortunately, there are only few flights from
Hiroshima airport everyday.




















So we decided to go to the airport to get a special sandwich which
you can only get it at Hiroshima airport.

This is it.




















This sandwich is actually made from Sushi!
It's a sushi sandwich with Hiroshima beef cutlet inside.
It was OKAY.


There's another thing to see near the airport.
It's a Japanese garden named SANKEI-EN.




































They had so many carps!!




















If you have a chance to use Hiroshima airport, please visit these
places and try the sushi sandwich!

Let's head out!!

How's it going, everyone? I'm a staff member of Hiroshima Hana Hostel, Mamoru.

I quit a job here at the end of this month. I'm proud of what I could work at J-Hoppers (Hana Hostel) for about 2 years.

Thank you for everyone who have been to J-Hoppers Hiroshima and Hiroshima Hana Hostel!!

And thanks for all our staff members, Mouri-san, Tera-chan, Mikami-san, Kumi-chan, Mako-chin, Chika-chan, Katerin, Souda-san, Kon-san, Tei-san, Tsuru-san, Okamatsu-kun, and Iida-san!!

I think I have wandering nature. . . I rode across Japan, Australia, north and central America on bicycle. And now I'm planning to do a vagabond-style trip again. It's a question how to enjoy life to one's fullest satisfaction, but my singular purpose in life is to enjoy myself.

Many thanks for Hana Hostel and J-Hoppers!!

Local sweets

In Japan, each city has their own local sweets.
For example, as you know Hiroshima's local sweet is Momiji manju.

Do you know another way to enjoy Momiji manju?
Put them in the oven for about few minutes! But please don't burn it.

Also, you can fry them! You can try the fried Momiji manju in Miyajima.
It's amazingly delicious!

Talking about the local sweets, one of our staff went to Fukuoka and
gave us their local sweets called "Niwaka Senbei".
This " Niwaka Senbei" also has another way to enjoy before you eat.

Please check it out!


Like this...



and like this...

and then eat!

Flower Festival Hiroshima

Hello, it's Yuko.

I'm back here at Hiroshima Hana Hostel as a receptionist!!

I was away from Japan for eight months.
Where have I been?? I went to Canada, mostly B.C., for seven months and I worked at a resort hotel as a cleaner on a small Island off the west coast. I also went to England for six weeks to stay with my friend and to see the sights.

I'm very pleased to work at Hana Hostel and J-Hoppers again with my great collegues.
And it is really nice to meet all the guests that come from all over the world!!

When ever I travel to some places, I think of my home town "Hiroshima".
There is a lot of greenery and waterways in the city center.
And we have some festivals to enjoy in our peaceful city.

One of the festivals is on for three days from 2nd of May.
We call it 'The Flower Festival', and Heiwa-O-dori (Peace Blvd) is the main street it takes place on.








The beautiful flower tower at Peace memorial park

Hiroshima closes the main road off for the parade, and for people to walk on in the day time for the whole duration of the festival! The street is lined with stalls and venders selling local produce and lots of snacks and entertainment.Heiwa-O-dori (Peace Blvd) is also called 100 meter street. There are so many people walking on the road!!

The festival is one of the main events in Hiroshima's calender.
It's a great day out for all the family and a 'MUST SEE' for any visitor to Hiroshima city!!

BIG Takoyaki! (Octopus dumpling）& Kyuuri sticks! (Pickled cucumber)

Although I have been all around the world, and seen many great places. I am still very fond of my lovely little city. Any road I take will always lead back to Hiroshima.

Begining of a new life

Hi,there! It's Satoko.

As Tomoko wrote in the previous blog,I'm finishing job here in this April and leaving to Spain next month.

In September 2008,I started to work at J-Hoppers Hiroshima as a cleaner and worked there as a regular staff about 6 months from January 2009.After that,I transferred to Hana Hostel and worked there until the end of this April.It has been a real plesure to work at both J-Hoppers and Hana hostel.Also,I was very happy to meet people who are from different countries.

I would like to say thank you to all staff members of Hana Hostel and J-Hoppers.I was very lucky to be able to work with them! and I will never forget time I worked with them.

This watch is a gift from the staff members.
I will take the watch and set to the local time in Spain!

When I look at the watch,I will think of J-Hoppers and Hana Hostel.

Bon voyage Satochan!

One of our staff"Satoko"who has worked here for about 2 years is quitting this job and going to Spain to study Spanish.

She always work hard and made our every guests peaceful.
We are going to miss her....

I heard that she felt Spain is the place that she was looking for to stay when she traveled Spain last year.
That's so nice!!

I knew that learning foreign language is very hard but I knew that it will be great experience:)

We were so happy to meet Satochan and work together.
Ganbattene,Good Luck!!!!!!

Voices of the survivors of A-bomb

Hi there, I'm Mamoru, a staff member of Hana hostel. Today I'd like to tell you a sad story, but it's something what we - people in Hiroshima - need to tell you.

I was born and grew up in Hiroshima. My grand mother is one of the survivors of the A-bomb in Hiroshima in 1945. Her sister was killed by the bomb, even now her ashes have not been found. My grand mother was always crying whenever she talks about that.

I'm the 3rd A-bombed generation.

Since my parents were a two-earner couple, my grand mother reared me, tenderly, until I was 6 years old. I had heard some stories from her of how terrible the injures from the bomb were and how she survived them like a nursery song.

Now she is 90 years old and still living, but she can't tell the stories of A-bomb anymore, she developed dementa 5 years ago. She forgets everything - even her name - and now she spends her days in peace and quiet in an asylum.

Only a few people are living to tell the tales of the horrible A-bomb now.

Recently I have read an article in a local newspaper. That was about "Voices of the survivors of A-bomb is now in web site". I found that this is what I should up load in this blog to show history of Hiroshima.

The web site is VOSHN.com (Voices of the survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki).







In this website, you can listen 9 voices of survivors with English subtitles, and can watch 18 movies of survivors. In the movies survivors tell stories in English by themselves.

This website was created by Itou Akihiko who died at age 75 last March. He compiled over 1000 voices of survivors traveling with a 13kg sound recording machine and to over 21 prefectures from Aomori to Okinawa for 8 years starting in 1971. I think this website is made from his devotion to leave messages for posterity.

I wish you could feel something about history of Hiroshima from this website.

[Voices of the survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki]
VOSHN.com

SAKURA sakura SAKURA

Cherry blossoms are starting to bloom all over Hiroshima!!
Yesterday I went " Hanami " which means cherry blossom viewing
to CHU PEA park and KINTAI KYO(Iwakuni).

CHU PEA park is near Miyajima. You get off at the next station
after Miyajima, and it's about 10 min walk.
They have many types of cherry blossoms.

Actually, it wasn't fully bloomed.
But it was still beautiful.

This is a hanging cherry blossom. The whole picture of the hanging
cherry blossom is the first picture at the top.

After visiting this park, I went to Kintai-kyo in Iwakuni.
This place one of the major viewing spots in Japan.
Iwakuni is also a very nice place for a day trip.
Very easy access from Hana Hostel.

Please don't miss this beautiful season for cherry blossoms!