I had a hard insect bite on the top of foot and it was terrible. Maze is cooler than Tokyo a little so I don’t feel like actual summer: August. 『IORI SHIROYAMA』 8 minutes’ walk from the center of Takayama This July, I stayed at a vacation rental lodge in Takayama, which is an old folk house. As you may know about Takayama, it’s now famous even for foreigners. After 8 minutes’ walk from the main street, you can find a Japanese old house like below. The name is 『IORI SHIROYAMA』and it’s located on the top of hill. It used to be a vacation home of private company and now […]
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Why Don’t You Taste Ayu (Sweetfish)? – The Most Precious & Unique Fish in The World
Have you ever seen the fish in below pictures? This is Ayu in Japanese and Sweetfish in English. It is one of the most popular freshwater fish in Japan but foreign people don’t know about it so much. Then, I’d like to tell you how special it is since my current place Maze is the best place to fish and eat it. Long history of Ayu in Japan as word origin says I like investigating any history like origin of a word. Ayu actually has a log history with Japanese people. Why is it called “Sweetfish” Before telling you about the word history of Ayu, I’d like to talk about […]
The Controversial Tourism Promotion Film in Sendai, Miyagi
4 months have been passed since the relocation from Tokyo. I got insect bite yesterday and now it’s swelling. I’d like to introduce you an issue regarding tourism promotion in Miyagi. The promotion movie made by the city office seems to be controversial. Danmitsu appears on the tourism promotion film I happened to find the article about the movie released on this July. It says some people criticized it. First, you should watch it!!(the movie deleted on 8/26) The actress is Danmitsu. She is popular in Japan as one of the most sexy women, especially popular among Japanese men. You watch it? It seems far too attractive for a tourism […]
Cooking Class for Foreign Tourists in Hida-Furukawa
I’ve joined in a cooking class for foreign tourists in Hida-Furukawa on this weekend. I’ll share the experience with you. Hida city is one of the stage of 『Your Name』 Hida-Furukawa is well known for where 『Your Name』 took place, which was a big hit in Japan. This is the first visit for me. It took about 90 minutes from Maze (15 minutes from Takayama by train). I really enjoyed the drive to Hida-Furukawa since it was far from traffic jam. It seems so retro-inspired and there is the city office nearby the station. Hida city is as large as Gero city (my current place) but the population is 24,000, […]
Ghibli Park Will Be Open in 2020s in Japan Starting by Totoro
I’ve never heard thunder as sharp and loud as last night in rural Japan before. That was much better than in Tokyo. Ghibli Park scheduled to open in Aichi expo site!! It was bad thunderstorm here on July 1st and the governor of Aichi prefecture announced they would establish Ghibli Park. This news speraded out overseas and now people are really excited about it. What is Ghibli Park? First of all, what is it? It’s gonna be a theme park based on Studio Ghibli. That means we can enjoy the world of Ghibli anime like Disney Land. All fans of Ghibli will be crazy about this, including me also. Though, […]
Super Unique Accommodation in Tokyo Drew on Italian Style
We have a distributed hotel in Japan. To my suprise, it’s located in the metropolitan city; Tokyo. I talked about Albergo Diffuso one day and I’ll share the Japanese one today. Albergo Diffuso: New Accommodation Style in Italy What’s hanare? It’s a regional integrated hotel at Yanaka, Taito in Tokyo. The concept is like below. HAGISO showed in the center of circle is the reception and the receptionist introduces the town including the information of restaurant and shop. It’s just same as Albergo Diffuso in terms of scattering outside after check-in!! Every place such as shop, cafe and public bath is a part of hotel so we can enjoy everything with […]
Albergo Diffuso: New Accommodation Style in Italy
What do you imagine when you hear accommodation? You might think of ryokan, hotel, tourist home or guest house… There are many accommodation styles today and I’ll show you unique one of them; Albergo Diffuso. (Just to say, ryokan is my favorite one.) What’s Albergo Diffuso? Albergo Diffuso was born in Italy, which is a new type of lodging. Each of word means like below. Therefore, it’s translated like scattered hotel. Generally, hotel is a building that provide some service but we use some buildings in Albergo Diffuso. We place the front at the center of village and utilize empty houses and rooms around there for accommodation. Then, tourists can […]
Load to Opening Farmers Lodging in Japan
Lodging service at private home is now controversial in not only the diet but nationwide. I’ll talk about Farmers Lodging similar to the lodging service. Have you ever heard farmers lodging? This topic is what I have been concerned about. Literally, it is “staying at farmer house”. Specifically, it means a tourism in rural areas. We can stay at farm or old folk house and enjoy life experience and interaction with local people in each place. It’s called as Green Tourism sometimes. Please refer to the below for your information. Vacation Rental Lists of Agriculture｜STAY JAPAN Type of farmers lodging There are majorly 2 farmers lodging types for the host. […]
E-Bike Tour with Super Friendly UK Guests and Happy Coincidence!
This time, E-bike tour with UK guests. I would like to share not only the tour but the amazing coincidence happening afterwards. They are from Southampton but the big sister living in Japan as a TV caster booked our bike tour since her brother wants to see more rural area with his girlfriend. They stayed at Takayama and took train for 40 minutes to join in the tour fortunately. From the first sight at the station, I guessed they would be so friendly and humorous guys. Actually, that was true! See it? As if they are not from UK! Maybe from US? haha. After some instructions, we started the tour as […]
Bike around with US Family to See the Life in Rural Japan
Today, I gonna share another memory with you. A customized e-bike tour with US family. They are from San Francisco and it is the first time for sons to come to Japan. That is why dad want them to see various parts of Japan, then picked Maze as the rural part. They stayed at Maruhachi Ryokan for 2 nights and joined in the e-bike tour on the 2nd day. Basically, our e-bike tour starts from the station but this time from the ryokan. It was the first trial tour actually. It took 4.5 hours and what we did is like below. Cycle around the rural village Visit a small shrine […]