Shiny leaves

Hello.
We had mild autmnal weather today.
Some places in Niigata prefecture already got snow
in the past a few days due to a strong cold wave.
I wrapped myself up with a couple of extra tops.
Winter is approaching little by little, yet, certainly.

Leaves in Deyu area have changed the green coloures into
red, orange, and yellow.



One stunning view of Japanese maple tree with the roof of
Kehoji temple.



Looking down the ground, I found a pretty Japanese maple leaf
dropped. What a beautiful leaf! Only one leaf leads to a feeling of
autumn; lonesome.



I enjoyed looking the coloured leaves little while, sitting on
a step of the temple's front door with a lady who just got
from a public hotspring bath in the temple.

Destinations: your mouths and barrels

We have hung persimmons under the eaves of
our ryokan.



They will become delicious dried persimmons.
The skin are finly peeled and hung with a bamboo
pole.

The skin is not directly sent to a bin; it is spread on a
big sheet and are dried for some use.



When it gets colder, we prepare a kind of pickled vegetables
called "takuan", pickled Japanese daikon raddish. The skin
is added to enrich the taste.

Sasakami area in Agano City is famous for persimmons
and there is an association among farmers that especially glow
this fruit.

I like both hard and soft texture of the persimmons. Dried ones
are also attractive. I like having the dried persimmons with some
cheese. It's brilliant!

They are hard workers, aren't they? ---Giving us a lot of happiness
from fruit itself and the skin!

Colours of autumn

We had a cold raining day today, however, one of our guests
stayed last night gave me a lovely way of thinking. He travelled
by his motor bike, and told me he enjoys each weather; if it rains,
he enjoys driving in the rain. How lovely, the ways he thinks.

Steps of autumn have been approaching to Deyu Onsen.
Leaves have been changing their colours into red, orange and
yellow. I guess it's slightly earlier than normal for them to
get into colours.

(Sorry, these were taken last week...)
At Kehoji temple:





Those coloured leaves are harmonised with leaves
of evergreen trees, giving us a gorgeous and colourful
time prior to a monochrome world made by pure
white snow in winter.

Welcome back

I visited a lake that is about 7km away from Deyu

Onsen yesterday moring. This lake, Hyoko, is famous for

swans from Siberia for passing the coldness of winter.

They come every autumn, staying over winter in the Hyoko.

The first group of this season arrived 1st of October,

which was nine days earlier than last year, accoring to

information that I got from the administraltion office

at the lake. Don' surprise the number they will be.....

it's over 5,000! Acutually, it is counted up to 5,678 today.

I guess Hyoko is pretty famous among Siberian swans.

The swan lake has been registered as one of the Ramsar

Convention sites hich tries to susutain original ecologies

on waterlands since 30.Oct.08.

(Please see their website: http://www.ramsar.org/

for more details.)

Thre are totally 37 registered sites in Japan so far.

It is amazing to have such a lovely site nearby!

Heading to the lake from a car parking, I found

somethig widely spread on a big blue sheet.

These are a lot of crust for the swans when they are

at the lake. Oh, I should mind you that they are out

for rice fields surrounded by the lake at day time,

seeking leftovers of rice, their gorgeous meal.

The crust is packaged in these cute paper bags.

when I arrived, there weren't so many swans...

Oh well, I was a bit late for visiting. Lucky them,

they are really the early birds!

I should ask them tips for getting up early.

Yet, there are a huge number of ducks.

Some of them were having rest on a small pier.

Of course as it's the swan lake, the litter is also.....

a swan! Pretty isn't it?

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen. Please enjoy your

winter life.

Long time no see...

Hello.

I'm sorry....
I must admit that I was lazy not to update
our blog at all.

Summer is over, and it's autumn already. Oops.

OK, let me change the subject...

At dinner time, our guests have a lovely cup of
pudding. These days, we prepare this ↓




This is Yogurt mousse! The yogurt is local one,
and has got rich taste of freshness.
Apparently, my father also runs a sweet shop nearby,
and the paticier at the shop produces this delicious
afterwards.

I pretty enjoy seeing our guests' smiles after
dinner.

Bamboo basket: Traditional local craft

Imaita area, which is a next hamlet of our area, Deyu,

is famous for a handcraft.

Bamboo baskets! Take Kago in Japanese.

(Take=bamboo, Kago=basket)

They are so convenient and very useful.

I love these traditional handcrafts.

The big basket showed below has been used over

20 years. The more you use, the more it becomes

beautiful in colours.

The name of this basked is"Yumeji Kago"

Yumeji is a name of an famous illustlater

in an older time(Taisho period, back to

some 100 years ago) in Japan. He stayed in

Deyu spa for a certain time.

Old photo

Hello.

The photo below was taken in 1928, back to 81 years ago
when our present building was established.



Can you find people on the ground floor's roof?
They were special carpenters who mainly
built Buddism temples and Shinto shrines.

My great grand father and the leader of the
carpenters travelled many places to collect
their favourite timbers. The timbers used
for our building seem very strong, so after
over 80 years, it still remains "healthy".

The long time has essenced flavours to the
building.

Ume Power

It is a season of ume (Japanese plum).
We got the ume from our next door's beautiful garden.
My mother and I visited them and picked the gorgeous
fruit. We make umeboshi (pickled ume with salt and shiso leaves),
using the ume.



Ume plums are rippen around this season of a year,
which is also known as a raining season.
The raining season is called "tsuyu" that is written
"ume"(Japanese plum) and "ame" (rain).

Umeboshi gives great power to your body,
especially in summer, when you've got tiredness.

Hotaru; shiny bugs

Hello.

There are interesting bugs in rice fields
in Deyu onsen area around this season of a year.
That is fireflies (Hotaru)! They give out pretty soft
yellow green lights at night, making the area
so romantic. (Sorry no photos this time.
The best way is to see them directly through
your eyes!)

They seem to come places that have clean
fresh water. That's why they visit us.
I'm proud of our area with full of beautiful nature.

shoubu yu

We have got a special bath today;
On the Kodomono hi (The day for Children), we put
Shoubu (sweet flags) in baths, wishing good health.
It is also believed that the leaves work as a charm
for protecting yourself from bad diseases.
You will enjoy the aroma of the leaves that is a kind of
Japanese harb in our hot spring.

We only have this special bath once a year.
I would like you can try this some day.

It flowers!

Hello.

Our peony was almost ready for flowering.
This photo was taken two days ago.
I've been looking forward to seeing the flowers.



And,
today, which is two days later...



A lovely peony flower arrives!
I had a nice start for a day.
It gave me smiles. Thanks Miss:-)

Hello.

Japanese azaleas (Tsutsuji) are nearly in their bloom

in our garden.

I like the gradation of these azaleas,

from white to vivid pink.

This is one of my favourite flowers.

I don't know the name of this flower in English,

I'm afraid. Does anyone let me know?

(It's called "Ebine" in Japanese.)

You can find this flower in mountainside.

I enjoy finding different flowers in our garden

every day. They give me smiles.

I like this season; full of happiness.

New born green

Hello.

We had a nice shiny day today. The sun smiled

in our area of Deyu hot spring.

Leaves of trees here have now got new lives, making

layers of different tone of green. Isn't it lovely?

Would you like to visit Deyu spa and enjoy walking

in the newly born fresh green?

Flowers from our garden

Hello.
Flowers from our garden.
It's spring here!

a letter of cherryblossoms

Hello. We have received a letter of cherryblossoms today

in Deyu onsen.

This photo was taken on 06 April 09

And this photo was taken yesterday, 09 April 09

Spring has come.

1200 years

Hello. I'm going to introduce Deyu onsen today.

Deyu onsen, our hot spring, does have a long history.
It's been here more than 1,000 years!

Deyu onsen is located in at the west foot of the Gozu Range.
Deyu onsen is regarded as the oldest spa area in Niigata Prefecture.

An interesting legend has been left in Deyu onsen. According to
the existing oldest record at the Kehoji temple in Deyu, a buddism priest
called Kukai (also known as Kobodaishi, who established Shingonshu sect
in Heian period.) visited Deyu. When he tapped the ground with his stick
in 809, hot water started to spring out. The hotspring has flown out since then.

In 809..... that means, it is 1,200-year anniversary this year! Isn't it
a long history? 　

Onsen Ryokan

Hello. I'm going to talk about Onsen Ryokan today.

Onsen Ryokan is a type of accommodation, and it is quite
unique style of accommodation;


"Onsen" stands for "hot spring" and "ryokan" is translated in
"hotel", "Inn" ,or "guest house", I suppose. However, it is a little
bit difficult to translate the word "ryokan" into English, as it is
a unique culture of Japan. So, it would be a good idea to keep it
as it is called.



Basically, at ryokans, they serve 2 meals; dinner and breakfast.
Onsen ryokans have those meals plus hotspring.



A number of Japanese like going to hotsprings and stay
at onsen ryokans. I would say that onsen ryokans can be
a strong motive for travellers as their holiday distanations.



You will discover a lot of traditional culuter in onsen ryokans!
Please come and visit Seikokan!



Traditional Japanese architecture



Wooden bathtub with fresh pure hotspring





Home made meals with fresh local products.
(sorry the photo below was taken in autumn...)


My grandmother and my mother prepare meals
for our guests. The food? Yum yum yum.

Hello from Niigata, Japan

Hello. I'm starting my blog from today!

My family runs a small Japanese style guest house

in Niigata, Japan.

Locating to a mountainside, having a hot spring,

our guests enjoy their holidays here.

I'd like to let you know bits and pieces of Deyu

hot spring and our guest house, Seikokan.