2009年12月アーカイブ

Today is the last day of 2009.
A new year of 2010 will start within 7 hours.
Time comes and time goes by.

Let us enjoy meeting people.
We could be easily beyond the differences of social status or religious beliefs and world view and outlook on life.

Life is once.
Life is not 80 times average.

We are the people on earth that every single person have it's own value.
Every person has his/her owen value.
Let make a value meets other value.

The coastline is visible but not the border on this blue planet.
Let us enjoy wonderful encounter 2010.
We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.　　　

 
Part of celebrating the New Year in Japan means paying attention to the "firsts" (Hatsu in Japanese) of the year.

Hatsumoude for example is the first visit to a shrine in the New Year. Normally the locals would go to a shrine on New Year's eve judt before the start of the new year and pray for a good year. Be warned, there will be a lot of people going to shrines tonight, but it is also common to go to visit a shrine during the oshogatsu(New Year) holiday 1st - 3rd as well to try to avoid the huge crowds of the 31st.

Other "Firsts" include:

Hatsuhinode
THe first sunrise viewing of the year.

Hatsu-uri
The first shopping sales of the year.

Hatsugama
The first tea ceremony of the year.

and,

Hatsuyume
The first dream of the year, said to fortell a person's luck in the coming year.

With all these "firsts" traditions, I have decided to create my own:

Hatsumakku
The first Mcdonnalds Big Mac meal of the year.  To make it a proper first I would need to lne up before 12am tonight and take the first bite of the burger at excatly New Year's day. But since this might be quite impossible I would settle for eating the burger from the 1st - 3rd to make it a valid First.

If KFC in Japan has the market cornered during Christmas, I can see McDonnals having the oshogatsu holiday market share. Maybe I should approach the higher ups of the company with this wonderful idea!! Think about it Hatsumakku coupons etc....I can be a millionaire with this.....or not!.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New year's Eve and all the best in the coming one!! 

Ramblings from a hungry Australian addicted to Makku

Alex Auscarria

 It`s new year`s eve (we call Omisoka) today!!

As we work for guesthouse, we all are working as usual. 
But we can see it`s so different atmosphere in the city. People are preparing for the new year, like shopping and big cleaning. It`s really nice atmosphere that people looks so relaxed and happy.
 
As an traditional culture, or religious thing, For Omisoka, we eat Soba(buckweat noodles) for appreciate this year everything and also pray for the safety, healthy of new year and also for long life. So you can see that many Soba restaurant or supermarket sells a lots of Soba today if you walk around the city.

Also you can hear Joya-no-Kane just before midnight. It is huge bell in temple, and they ring 108 times. And people worship for the new year. So there are so many people in temples or shrines in midnight to pray which call Hatsumoude.

We do not have big fireworks like other country do(I heard some place do have fireworks in Japan too), I think because of it is the time to pray more than celebrate.

This year, we are planning to go to Hatsumoude with our guests to the shring on the Mitake Mountain on the 2nd. It must be good time!

Finally, I really would love to say thank you to everyone, our nice guests also staff. I could grow up myself with this job at guesthouse and also have fun memories.

I hope it will be nicer and beautiful year 2010 for everyone  and,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Mari

 今日はＴｏｓｈｉです。

私は人付き合いが好きな方では無く、結構一人で居るのが好きな方なんですが、必要に迫られればお付き合いもそつ無くこなしてしまう器用貧乏なところがあり社交的だと誤解されることもあるのですが、実際友人と呼ばれるものはいくらも居ません。

根がしつこく出来ているので、友人関係が出来るとマメにならざるを得ません。一度築いた関係は、飽きたからとか、ちょっと考えてたのと違うからとかで放棄出来ない性質で、がんばってしまいます。

仕事柄人と会う機会は多いし、この人と友達になったら楽しいかもなと思う人としばしばお会いするのですが、可能な限り接近を避けます。だって今居る両手で余る友人で、気持ちも体もいっぱいいっぱい。キャパが小さいんです。

そんな日々の中でも、止むを得ずと言うかお付き合いは増えてゆくのですが、最近そのうちの一人が亡くなりました。友人と言うよりは大先輩か先生みたいな人なのですが。本当はもっといろいろ教えて欲しい方でしたが、長く患った挙句に逝ってしまわれました。　まだまだご本人もしたいことが一杯あったろうし、私も数少ないお付き合いを大事にしたかったですが残念。

今日も本からの孫引きですが、次の言葉を。

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
and Wisdom always to know the difference.

カート・ボネガットＪｒ．「ローズウォーターさん、あなたに神のお恵みを」

ちなみに考え方は気に入ってますが、神様は信じてません。　神様と言う考え方を信じていない。
人の運命を司るものがあるとして、そりゃあ神様みたいなもんではないだろう。

Last week on the 24th, I decided to do the whole Japanese Christmas thing and took my girlfriend to a restaurant, normally it is common for couples to go to a French restaurant during Christmas eve, but I decided to be a little different and went to an Australian restaurant.
Some of you may ask (me including), what is an Australian restaurant, and since I am Australian I needed to find out.

Now, Australia is one of the youngest countries in the world and so its food culture is still been developed. Since Australia is home to many nationalities, there has been a growing trend of 'fusion' restaurants. In these restaurants the dishes consist of a mixture of different foods and ingredients of different parts of the world.

Salt is one such restaurant, owned by Australian chef Luke Mangan and located in Tokyo. As its name suggests it main theme is that of salt, namely pink salt from Australia's Murray River and is a fusion of Japanese tastes with western tastes.

It was the first time to go to a really fancy restaurant, and it was Australian, which I was quite proud of, as restaurants in Australia aren't  usually considered to be classy those of like Tokyo or Paris.

We were served a 6 course meal, and everything was extremely delicious, small and expensive, all the staples of a good and expensive restaurant.
The food was small but it was filling, by the end of the 4th course we were both grabbing our stomachaches and gasping for air and needed to take a break from eating. Sorry I didn't event think of taking any pictures as just by looking at the food it was gone in an instant.

The restaurant itself was decorated beautifully with pictures of the Australian outback hanging on the walls and a nice view out the Tokyo Station and surrounding buildings while the front of the restaurant is framed by two columns of pure pink rock salt. It is a sight to see.

Although, dinner can get very expensive, lunch tends to be  a little more reasonably priced. I would recommend to go to Salt so that you can see what Australia's  food cuisine is becoming like.
Australia's future food culture is becoming a promising one!!

Below is the site to Salt restaurant, many part are still under construction but you can get some important info from it.

http://www.pjgroup.jp/salt/


Ramblings from a hungry Australian,

Alex Auscarria

Merry Christmas from YADOYA Guesthouse!

This is our mascot called Tanudon.
He is always drinking Sake, even if it`s Christmas day. He must be really loving Japanese Sake like our one of Staff...

Hope everyone has nice Christmas day!!
Merry Christmas!

Well I was going to write a piece on Japanese drunks, but since my girlfriend has come to Tokyo and it is the merry season I have decided to leave that story for later.



I Wish all our guests to have a wonderful Christmas and a great New years.
May all your wishes and dream come true in this merry season.

Please do be careful with the cold, especially with that nasty flu around, and enjoy Christmas and New Years the Japanese way.

If you have a chance make sure you go and see some of the wonderful illumination in most big towns in Tokyo.


 


Alex Auscarria

 今日は。Ｔｏｓｈｉです。

野球とサッカーとアメフトを見るのが好きです。　
野球とアメフトは、短い一瞬の勝負の繰り返しでゲームが進行しますが、サッカーは違います。　流れの中で延々と駆け引きを繰り返して、ゴールを狙っていくゲームで、しかも1試合にそう何度も点は入らない。

それじゃあスポーツとしてつまらないだろうと思うのですが、これが面白い。
今一番面白いと思うのはアーセナルの試合ですね。
彼らは早いし、繋ぐし、攻めるから見ていてスペクタクルを感じて興奮します。
マンチェスターＵやチェルシーなんて同じプレミアリーグのなかで、アーセナルより強くて成績の良いチームも有るのですが、相手を崩して攻めるんじゃなくて、ガツーんと省略して強引に点を取っちゃう。　その点アーセナルは相手の裏をかき、予想を裏切る動きや速さでありゃりゃりゃとしているうちに点が入るわけです。　イングランドのチームなのに、監督フランス人だけど、南米みたいなサッカーでしかも速い。　見ててウォースゲーって感じです。

これを見ちゃうとＪリーグが見れない。　Ｊリーグだと誰かにパスが出た瞬間、画面に映っている10人ぐらいの内、６－７人は動いていないから、見ていてまったく別のスポーツに見える。
日本のアメフトの試合と、本場のＮＦＬ程の違いは無いけど。　まだまだ遠い感じがします。

それでも、好きなチームを応援して楽しんでいれば、良い事で、おらがチームを応援するのがサッカーのありかただけど。　ワールドカップでベスト４狙うとか言うとなんか頭来る。　まじめにやっている国を馬鹿にしてるような気がする。　でも絶対無理って事が無いのがトーナメントなので、なんかの間違いでも起きたらもっと頭に来るだろうな。

どうかまっとうな国がまっとうな実力を発揮しますように。
がんばれニッポン以外！！

いや、私だって言ってることに見合うサッカーをするようになれば応援するんですよ。

Christmas season has came!
We also celebrate Christmas like Europe or US. But I think there is big difference from Western countries.

There are only about 1% of Christian in Japan, most of people are not christian. So we do not have any culture or reason to celebrate Christmas. And of course Christmas day is not holiday like Europe or US.

But everyone celebrate Christmas now to have fun. It is like one of the festival for non-christian people to celebrate.

Mainly, Christmas in Japan is for the couples. The couple go for having dinner to the nice restaurant and have a romantic night together.  And for families to have Christmas party at home and having dinner and Christmas cake. And normally Christmas cake is  strawberry shortcake like this　↓.
  
This cake is very typical cake in Japan, and if you ask to draw cake to the children, I think many kids draw this kind of cake.

For Japanese people, new year is more important than Christmas. So you will find difference when you walk around the city during Christmas season if you come from Europe or US.

It is fun to find difference of culture.

In YADOYA Guesthouse, we do not have any special event for the Christmas, but we are going have Nabe party on the 20th with our guests. Please join us if you are interested in!
About Nabe Party↓
http://yadoya-guesthouse.cheap-accommodation-tokyo.com/?eid=1270090

Merry Christmas

Last Saturday I was invited to go to a very interesting event and Id like to tell you a little about it.
Every year with the coming of the new rice harvest, it is one of the only chances to taste the freshest  batch of sake.  As Japanese people love festivals, they have made a festival in order to celebrate the making of the freshest and newest sake of the year.

The Sake festival is held every year in the brewery house of the company called Seiryu, and came complete with yatai( little food stalls) performances and of course  the main event free sake tasting.


The entrance to The Seiryu brewery in Saitama



The busiest part of of the festival, sake tasting stall, luckily there was enough for everyone.


Behind the restaurants and Yatai, you can see the silos where the make and keep the sake.


Self Service sake? Yes please!!


This cask contained the the freshest sake just scooped up from the distillery silos. Cant get any more fresher that!

Performances included:

Some traditional folk songs fro Hokkaido played with Shamisens, I dont know why the lady is dressed as Santa claus, I guess to bring the Christmas spirit in everyone.

And:

An eisa dance performance from Okinawa.

There were other performances as well such as taiko( Japanese drums) and a local singer from Saitama, sang old songs.
But of course, we were mainly interested in the free sake.

All in all it was a great day, and I would suggest to check it out next year if you have the chance.
 

今日は。　Ｔｏｓｈｉです。

ゲストハウスに居ると、いろんな人に出会えます。本当に面白くて飽きません。　私自身も海外は１００回以上は経験しているのですが、具体的な目的の無い旅というのがしたことがなく、且つ多分好みで無いので、お客さんたちの心理は今ひとつわからないのですが、すばらしい人も多いです。反対に一般人の世界ではあまり見かけない人も多いです。

ここにはでっかい夢を持っている人が結構来ます。　夢を見ることは悪い事では無く、ささやかな夢も見ない人が多い中で、まだましだと思います。　でも、大きな夢をポカポカと暖めながらたゆたっている感じがするんですよね。　夢を実現するにはもうちょっとちまちました努力が必要なんじゃないって思う人が多いです。

中学生の頃、オールナイトニッポンかなんかのラジオで聞いた話を未だに教訓にしているのですが、ある人の実家がお店をやっているのですが、お店の１０ｍぐらい先にバス停があると、でバスを降りた客は店とは反対の方に流れていくと。　で、そこの父ちゃんだか爺ちゃんが、一念発起して毎晩毎晩バス停をちょびっーとづつ店の方に動かして行ったそうです。なんと何年か後、無事バス停は店のまん前に移動して売上げも伸びて満願成就したそうです。　一晩で１０ｍ動かしたら絶対ばれるけど、例えば５年なら一晩に動かすのは、わずか５ｍｍ程度です。　と言う話を人にもするんですが、あまり感心されない。　「ウサギとカメ」や「アリとキリギリス」なんかじゃ鼻でせせら笑われちゃう。　なんか良い話は無いかと思っていたのです。　

勤勉とはちょっと違う。勤勉には生産性が無いと言うか発展性が無い。昨日よりちょっとましな今日を続けて行く事が成功への近道だ見たいな話なんですが、最近近いかなと言う話を読みました。

中国の古典の「三略」と言う本の中にあるそうですが（残念ながら孫引きで原典は読んでません）。「若し能く微を守らば、すなわちその生を保たん」原典の解釈は幾らか幅が広いらしいのですが、その本では、こんな風に言ってます。

－微を守る、とは、小さなことをないがしろにしないということではないのか。細事にこだわると、小成はあっても大成はないといわれる。が、些細なことを無視することが大志のありようではあるまい。むしろ細事を積み重ねた上に大志をおくべきであろう。　今日を虚しく生きていながら、明日の飛躍を夢見ても、どうにもなるものではない。－

「風は山河より」宮城谷昌光著より

と読みながら激しく納得していたのですが、最近自分の成長も停滞してるなーと反省しました。
よし明日からは一日１０ｇやせよう。　２年で８ｋｇやせればほぼベストだ。

YADOYA Guesthouse Tokyo
One of the cheapest guesthouses in central Tokyo.
Please check our website for more details:
http://www.cheap-accommodation-tokyo.com/

Now, We can see a lots of drank people on the street in Tokyo.
Many of people drink and chat with friends and colleagues at the end of year, we call this Bounenkai.

Bounenkai means, if we translate literally,
"Gathering to forget everything which happened this year."

I already had some Bounenkai, and will have more and more Bounenkai till the end of year. Every year my liver is getting so tired in December by Bounenkai. And I am afraid of getting sick of alcohol...

But anyway,
Please look around the street or Izakaya(Japanese Bar) at night, you can find many Yopparai (drank people) by Bounenkai there. It is part of Japanese culture, so I think it is good to know that we are drinking to forget this year
 
I think we can do bounenkai and get so drank because of  it is so safe in Tokyo or Japan. We normally don`t have to worry about anything even if we got too drank and sleep on the train...someone will wake you up at the last stop

Why don`t you try bounenkai in Tokyo.
You may know part of Japan

YADOYA Guesthouse Tokyo
One of the cheapest guesthouses in central Tokyo.
Please check our website for more details:
http://www.cheap-accommodation-tokyo.com/

 Last Sunday I had the fortune, .. or is that misfortune, of taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2(JPLT2).  A test which measures your ability of the Japanese language. 
Of course with lack of study and preparation for it, it was natural that I found it hard.

Now I am almost quite certain that I didn't pass, but as the test is all multiple choice, there is a slim chance that I may have passed, here's hoping.

Having said that, it was an interesting and informative day for me as it was the first time taking a test in  Japan and also it was the first time I was inside a University.

One thing that came out of this day was that I realized that the actual exam int really that difficult, with the right preparation and time to study of course.

And so I have posted some useful links below which someone taking the test next year might find useful in preparing for the exam.

http://www.jees.or.jp/jlpt/en/index.htm

All the information you need on the JPLT


http://nihonhacks.com/japanese-language/past-jlpt-tests/

A great site with links to almost all the past exams to date, you can also find the listening part sound files.


http://www.jlptstudy.com/

A site dedicated to the Japanese proficiency test, for levels 4-2


Also if you have a Facebook account, have a look at the Kanji Box application.
A good application to help you learn the needed kanji for the exam.

One last note, next year they will be changing the format a little.
There will be 2 new levels introduced, so from the lowest level to highest it will be:  4, 3, 3.5, 2, 2.5 and 1.


Good luck with the exam next year!!

こんにちは、Ｔｏｓｈｉです。

坂の上の雲がドラマ化されました。
原作が産経新聞に連載された当時、自分は小学生で連載開始が小学校入学、連載終了が小学五年生ぐらいの筈です。　家が産経新聞だったので、何度か挿絵入りの新聞を見た記憶がありますし、父が連載の読者で単行本が出ると購入して居ましたので、4年生ぐらいから父の本棚から抜いて読み始め、追って毎朝の新聞も読んだものでした。

人が、自分がどうしたいとか言う個人的な都合だけでなく、自分の生まれた環境や社会の中でどう生きなければいけないかとか真剣に考えた時代の話で、自分もそうあらねばと思い込み、結局、青年海外協力隊なぞに行くまでになってしまうきっかけにもなっている小説です。

今の日本は、個人の尊重が進み社会との紐帯と言うものが無くなってしまっていて、その中で各個人の行動の規範やモラルを規定するものが無くなっている感じがします。

家の嫁さんは外人ですが、同じ個人尊重の社会でも彼らがなんとなく同じ価値観を共有しているように見えるのは、やっぱり神様が居るって言う考え方を共有して、かつ各個人神様と同じ契約を交わしてるからかなあ。

坂の上の雲の明治時代でも個人の都合と言うのは勿論有った筈ですが、それと時代の要請が面白いように合った幸せな時代でもあったのかなあ。　今の時代は女工哀史のような話や日清・日露の戦役で戦死するようなことの無い幸せな時代なのですが、自由と余裕はあっても希望がないですね。 

さてドラマですが、第一話をみてこのスピードであの長い物語を描くとＮＨＫの大河ドラマ風の筋書き説明風のドラマになっちゃうんじゃないかと心配しましたが、第二話をみてまあまあ秋山兄弟と正岡子規の3人に絞ればあの司馬遼太郎さんの雰囲気を描けるのかなと思うようになり期待しています。

感心しているのは、技術の進歩で、100年以上前の世界をリアリティーありそうに再現する為の技術が発展したことです。芝居の書割みたいなセットだと小説読んでいたほうがイメージが湧きますからね。　指輪物語もそうでしたが、原作を読んでいて見てもある程度満足出来て、かつイメージが増幅されるような映像化が出来ると良いですね。

もう何度か読んでいる坂の上の雲ですがまた読み返して、ドラマを見たいと思います。

YADOYA Guesthouse Tokyo
One of the cheapest guesthouses in central Tokyo.
Please check our website for more details:
http://www.cheap-accommodation-tokyo.com/

This is Mari with YADOYA Guesthouse.

I would like to recommend some places in Japan which is not too famous (like Kyoto, okinawa..)  especially for people from abroad.

I went to small Island called Hachijo Jima last month. This Island is one of the city of Tokyo, and we can go by ferry or airplane. It takes only less than 1hour from Haneda airport (Tokyo) by airplane and one night by ferry, then we can get to totaly different world from Tokyo city.

It was first time to been there for me and it was great relax time. 
I was thinking it is great place for people who want to see the nature and life of small Island in Japan, also I heard it is great place for diving.
For me, I loved Onsen(hot spring) there. There is even free Onsen

The milk Hachijo cow was really good!


View from airplane of Hachijo Island.

My friend recommended to go to Anchor pub which owned by Australian and Japanese couple. But unfortunately it was closed when I visited there. I should come back and try there next time. 

The owner of Anchor pub made great English website about Hachijo-Jima. So please check it and think about Hachijo-Jima for your next trip!

The Anchor Pub→　
http://www.hachijo.net/home.html
English site of Hachijo-Jima→　
http://www.hachijo.info/index.htm


YADOYA Guesthouse Tokyo
One of the cheapest guesthouses in central Tokyo.
Please check our website for more details:
http://www.cheap-accommodation-tokyo.com/