He is very friendly and
the food is absolutely delicious! As you can see in the picture, he has various
kind of Sake and Shochu (distilled spirit made from rice, barley, potato etc.),
but I like drinking beer there.
Many people go there alone to talk to the owner and other customers. The
owner speaks English a bit so please check out the place! And don’t forget
to check out our office too since it’s in the same building! (Junko)
December 5th
I was at JR Kyoto station last night and found something beautiful, so
I took a picture of it. Here’s the picture.
You can’t really tell the size of the Christmas tree in the picture but it’s pretty big. (It’s 22 meters tall.) I didn’t even know about this pretty tree before yesterday but I was just walking to
the station and my eyes just spotted it. It was like finding a treasure on a big treasure island of Kyoto Too bad I didn’t have anyone with me to tell me my mouth was open.(Junko)
December 6th
It’s suddenly very cold here in Kyoto (and Kansai). It was really windy
last night in Nara (that’s where I live). My apartment was shaking from
the wind. But when I checked the weather forecast on TV last night, they
said it was going to be a bit warmer and they didn’t say anything about
rain! So I went to bed happily thinking about nicer weather the next day…well,
it was raining in the morning. I got wet on the way to the train station.
It didn’t make me very happy. And right after I got to my office, it started
snowing pretty hard!!!
Here’s a picture of the first snow of the season.
I thought we were going to have a warm winter since it had been very warm
(even the maple leaves stayed green longer than usual!!) but I guess I
was as wrong as the weather forecast from last night! (Junko)
December 7th
Some of you might know “daikon”, and some of you might know that it’s
a Japanese word. Daikon is Japanese radish. It’s white and pretty long.
Japanese people love daikon especially in winter. There are many delicious
dishes of daikon. My favorite is “oden”. Oden is Japanese hotchpotch
boiled in kelp-based broth. It makes your body really warm from inside.
Hmmm…yum.
I am writing about daikon because there is an event today and tomorrow in Senbonshaka-do temple. They cook apotropaic daikon and celebrate the day Buddha achieved enlightenment. Of course you can eat deliciously cooked daikon there. To celebrate something important by eating great food…I love the idea.
Here’s a picture of daikon I found on the internet. (If we are not allowed to put this picture here, please contact us. We’ll remove it immediately.) Isn’t it cute? A daikon is crossing its legs! (Junko)
December 8th
Time goes by so fast. I got a funny e-mail from one of our clients today.
He said something was due November 17th…which is like 3 weeks ago and
he didn’t realize it. He soon wrote me back saying that he just realized
it was already December.
The day went by really fast for me too. I was working hard and when I looked up for some reason, the sun was going down and the sky was pink! So I took a picture. (Junko)
December 12th
It is an old custom in Japan to send out New Year’s Card but sending Christmas
cards is not that big here. So we have a bit more time for card writing
compare to the people from those Christmas card countries. However, we
are getting busy writing New Year’s cards by now and so does Kyoto Guesthouses
team. We are sending cards for the first time as Kyoto Guesthouses this
year! It’s very exciting! I just made a rough draft today and my boss
is checking it. I hope we can send out 100 times more cards next year!!!
(Junko)
December 13th
The kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese language) of the year was
announced yesterday at Kiyomizu temple. They choose a kanji every year
and a monk at Kiyomizu temple writes it on a big paper. They choose a kanji
that reflects the year the most. This year’s kanji was [愛]. It means love and is pronounced like [I]. They chose it because of the
Aichi expo. The theme for the expo was love. Also there were many tragic
incidents such as murder and if the criminals had received more love they
could have been stopped from happening. Therefore the kanji of the year
was [LOVE]. Hopefully next year’s kanji would be chosen for a positive
reason! (Junko)
December 14th
Yesterday, I was in Arashiyama. One of the most popular sightseeing spots
in Kyoto. The river and the bridges over the river are very beautiful.
In autumn, the leaves turn burning red. There must have been tons of people
a bit earlier but it wasn’t crowded at all yesterday when I was there.
Although it was a bit too quiet there during the day time, there must have been lots of people at night because of this.
They are having a lantern lightning up event there until this Sunday. They put lanterns everywhere!! I have never been there for this event yet but it looks sooooooo beautiful in the poster, doesn’t it? (Junko)
December 15th
I went to Ohara yesterday. Ohara is located in north part of Kyoto city. Far, far north. It takes about 75 minutes by bus from Kyoto station. Even though it still is the same city, the temperature drops quite a lot there compare to central area of Kyoto city. I talked to a nice old man from Senbei (Japanese rice cracker) store. He told me that they had 20 centimeters snow on the ground the week before.
It seems like someone made a snow hut. If you are a snow-lover, Ohara is a place to go in winter. There are several temples up there too. One of them is Sanzen-in temple. If you want to find out more about the temple, please go to the map on our site and find Sanzen-in temple. (It’s in the northeast part of the map) (Junko)
I found the trace of it.
December 19th
The weekend was so cold! It’s unbelievable. For those of you who have read the entries a while ago, it is understandable why I am so amazed with this cold weather. It had been really warm this autumn here in Japan and I kept writing how warm it was and how nice it was…and now this COLD!!! I feel betrayed. It snowed for most of the day here downtown Kyoto but the snow didn’t stay on the ground. (Junko)
December 21st
One of my best friends in the States wrote me an e-mail and told me that
she has just finished reading [Memoirs of a Geisha] for the second time
and it made her want to come to Kyoto even more than she did before. I
thought ‘That’s a great news for Kyoto!’ because the movie [SAYURI]
is showing right now!!! (or it will be showing soon in some countries)
Maybe tons of people would be interested in Kyoto thanks to that movie…but I find interesting how people from other countries would want to come to Kyoto after reading the book (or watching the movie) because many of the period films in Japan take place in Kyoto or Edo (Tokyo) and they don’t make me want to go to Tokyo. I guess it’s because Edo is not there anymore. Tokyo is such a big city now that maybe there aren’t many places left as they were in old-times. BUT Kyoto still has many places that are left as they were in old-times!!!!
What I am trying to say is…’Come to Kyoto, everyone! (No offence to Tokyo. Tokyo is a nice place too!!! Just not as good as Kyoto…okay, I should stop.) (Junko)
December 27th
It sure is December! We have been really, really busy and that’s my excuse for not writing entries for this news page for about a week. (Sorry boss!) And I hope someone except for my boss DID realize that December 21st entry was the last one I wrote, but I doubt it. Well, I have sad news today. You-you (the bar/restaurant downstairs from our office) had been closed down. It really bothers us. We loved that place and now it’s gone. I am sad for all of you who haven’t been there. It was such a nice place and he was such a nice owner!!! (See his picture on December 2nd entry) I wish him all the best with whatever he is going to do next! (Junko)
December 28th
We added a new ryokan on our web site yesterday! The ryokan is called Gion
Fukuzumi in southeast area. Please check out their page! They are in a
great location, right across from Chion-in temple. The people there were
very nice when I visited there.
Here’s another quick story for today. You-you’s owner gave us a great present today. Here’s a picture of it.
It is something to hang on the wall. Yes, Hanshin Tigers!!! Many people from Kansai area (including Kyoto and Osaka) are big fans of Tigers! Oh I almost forgot to write but it’s a professional baseball team. They won the
league championship this year. We are hanging it on the wall somewhere in the office, so we can be happy every time we look at it. Go Tigers!!! (Junko)
December 29th
I can’t believe 2005 is almost over! And I can’t believe our Oshogatsu
Yasumi (New Year holiday) is starting tomorrow. Although I enjoy working
here very much, holidays are always wonderful. So here’s an important
notice:
Our office will be closed from December 29th, 2005 to January 3rd, 2006. (JST) The e-mails or faxes that are sent during our New Year holiday will be replied after January 4th, 2006.
We wish you all the best this holiday season! I hope I have a lot to write here when I come back after the holiday. See you all next year! (Junko)
