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Hanami with YADOYA

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With the spring season just starting and the Sakura flowers about to bloom it is time again for the Japanese tradition of Hanami (cherry blossom viewing).

 It is a great time where friends, old and new, get together in parks under Sakura trees, relax while appreciating the beauty of the Sakura blossoms and celebrating the beginning of Spring by drinking, talking, singing, playing games and having a wonderful time.
 


We welcome all our guests and friends to come and join our Hanami party and celebrate this wonderful tradition with us.
  


Please bring your own drinks and food to share with the group.



When
:  Sunday 4th of April



Place:
Araiyakushi Park (Please see map and directions below)



Time:
13:00 – 17:00, you can come anytime between these times.



Meet at the office @ 13:00 or make your own way there after 13:00.


If you have any questions please ask us before Sunday 4th or


call: Alex at 080-4370-8015


 


Directions to Araiyakushi Park:




 
AraiYakushi Park is about 15 minute walk from Nakano station.


 


From Nakano Station, North Exit, walk along Nakano Road (中野通り) away from the station. 

 
As you walk along this road you will eventually see pink paper lanterns along the road and following them will lead you to Araiyakushi Park on the right of this road.

The park is quite small but there might be lots of people around, so our staff will be wearing bright orange Yadoya vests so you can find our location easier.
 
If you get lost please call Alex on 080-4370-8015.



In Japan it is a popular custom to visit a shrine in the fist few days of the new year to pray for a good year. This first visit to a shrine is reffered to as Hatsumoude. 

So to welcome the New year we orgainised a trip to Mitake, a small town about 1.5 hours by train west of Nakano on the 2nd of January.

Mitake is a small town in the Tokyo vicinity which is surrounded by mountains, of which Mt. Mitake is one of the tallest(929m). From the summit you are able to see a nice view of Tokyo city, if the weather is nice.


A view of Tokyo city form the Summit of Mt Mitake.



Mt. Mitake is also home to the Musashi-Mitake Shrine, a shrine which has been the center of mountain worship for around 2000 years. 


Musashi-Mitake Shrine

First we went to the shrine on the summit of the mountain for hatsumoude, prayed for a good year and bought some charms. There were a lot of different types of charms on sale for almost any kind of situation. There were even some for pets!!

From there, we went  to one of the local shops on the mountain for some lunch.

The curry udon was amazing!

The shop is owned by a little sweet old lady, Kazue san and she is famous for her delicious Oshiruko, a sweet red bean porridge with mochi.


The Oshiruko was so sweet and delicious.


After we thank Kazue san for her delicious Oshiruku, we took a picture together.

From there we decided to go and soak our tired bodies in a bath nearby.

 
The Entrance to the rest and bath house.

A long time ago this house was used by shinto priests in training who came from many parts of Japan to practice in the Musashi-Mitake Shrine.
But nowdays the house is open for any guests needing a couple of days rest and relax in their public bath.
These bath were quite interesiting as they put many herbs with medicinal properties in the bath water, making for a nice and relaxing bath.

After relaxing ourselves in the bath for a few hours, we came down the mountain and went to visit our friend Mr. Yoshimura who lives close to the station in a wonderful traditional Japanese house, said to be around 150years old.
Once there, he taught us how to make soba and we all took turns to help make the noodles. It was hard work but we leart a lot.





Once the soba was made we had dinner!
Yoshimura san also had a few of the neighbours and their children over his house, but there was plenty of food for everyone.



We also prepared suiton nabe, a type of hotpot with flour dumplings.
Once the broth was hot enough the children helped us put in the dumplings in the hot pot.


The children even prepared 'special' dumplings with a lot of pepper or other things and made their poor unknowing mother eat them! It was quite funny.

Once the children left we continued the festivities and Yoshimura san brought his home made Umeshu(plum liquor) and umeboshi(sour pickled plums)


A home made Umeboshi.

Being away from the heat of a big city,  the morning was really cold, however the sun was out and bright, so it was much warmer outside than inside.

Enjoying the wamth of the sunlight from the entrace of Yoshimura san's
house.

Yoshimura san is a very talented person from making soba to making umeshu and umeboshi and of course being a proffessional photographer.
Recently he started to repair broken ceramics using a traditional method which uses powdered gold so making them more valuable than before. And he gave us a short demonstration of how he works

 
Yoshimura san repairing a tea pot.


And a vase using powdered gold.


Later on, we helped Yoshimura san pick Yuzu from his backyard plantation. Yuzu is a type of Japanese citrus

A Yuzu tree.


And the yuzu fruit.

We took them down with a long bamboo stick tool.







The Fruits of our labor!

We made Yuzu tea and later Mari made some delicious yuzu jam.
 

It was a wonderful trip and we felt so relaxed once we returned to Nakano. It actually felt we had been away for more than one day.

If you have a chance, please visit Mitake. It is a peaceful country town which is still in Tokyo surrounded by beautiful mountains and rivers.

Tomato Nabe Pictures

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Again sorry for the late pictures, but then again better late than never right?!

Thank you for all the people who came on  to make a very special and memorable night and of course thank you to our freind and awesome cook, Tomo, and also Ryo and Sawa  who organaized the event. We eagarly await your next party guys!!

The tomato nabe was so delicious, it actually felt I was eating  something very Japanese and yet Italian at the same time. I would very much like to try a spicy version with tabasco sauce as some of our guest pointed out.

There was a lot of talking, drinking and even an arm wrestling competition!












 

Tomato Nabe Party!

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Tomato nabe party!
To help us get through this cold winter we
will have a very special nabe party for our guests, on the 20th of
December 
in our YadoCafe and we welcome all our guests and friends to join
us.
tomato nabe partytomato nabe party

Our friend, Tomo, who is a professional chef, will be preparing
Tomato nabe for us!!


Japanese Nabe, or hot pot, is a traditional
dish mainly served during winter, consisting of a mixture of different
vegetables and meats lightly cooked in the broth of a hot pot. Nabe is normally
eaten at the table from a communal hotpot with everyone gathering around the
table.


There are many kinds of nabe dishes. This
time around we will have tomato nabe. Tomato nabe is a new type of fusion dish consisting
of a mixture of Japanese and Italian flavors which has become very popular this
year.


Come and join us and enjoy eating lots of
delicious food in a warm and friendly atmosphere.


The party will be starting at 6:00PM (Food
will be served at 7pm) and finish at 10:00pm.

Price: 1200 yen (all you can eat)

 
Place: YADO Cafe
How to get to YADO Cafe? ↓
http://cafe.tokyo-information.jp/?cid=40485

Mizutaki Nabe/Takoyaki Party

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 On the 6th of November we shall be having a Mizutaki nabe and Takoyaki party in our YadoCafe and we welcome all our guests and friends to join us.



For those who dont know,
Mizutaki is a type of nabe(Japanese hot pot) which contains chicken and vegetables, and served with the dipping sauces,  ponzu, a citrus based sauce and gomadare, a sesami sauce.
While Takoyaki (literally fried octopus) is a dish made famous in Osaka are a type of Japanese dumplings made of batter, pieces of octopus and other vegetables ,taking the shape of balls served with mayonnaise and special sauce.
 
The party will start at 7:30, food will be served at 8:00pm, and finish at 10pm.
It is 1000 yen for all you can eat nabe and Takoyaki, so if you have some free time on that night please come and enjoy eating and meeting new people.
You can also try your hand at making some takoyaki if you dare!




A trip to Kichijoji

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 To say good bye to the silver week we decided to take a stroll to one of the most sought after towns to live in Tokyo. Kichijoji has been named numerous times as the most popular city in Tokyo and we went to investigate why.
It was lucky that it was a beautiful day and so We started off in Inokashira park, one of the main attractions of the town.
Since it was a holiday we encountered many families, couples enjoying the holiday and people walking their dogs.

We found a spot under some trees with a nice view of the lake and started our picnic.


Inokashira Park


Picnic time!!


We were getting attacked by a few caterpillars during the picnic!

The park is quite long and there is a nice pond in the middle making it
a great place to have a nice walk,a picnic or enjoy a boat ride with
your girlfriend or family. The park is also home to a small zoo with
some local Japanese animals a shrine


A view of the beautiful pond in the park



After the picnic we went around the park and visited the park's shrine
which is dedicated to a vengeful goddess of love. There is a myth that
any couples which take a bot in the pond will be broken up soon after.
To avoid this, the couple come to the shrine before having their
romantic boat ride.


Swan boats! How romantic!!


The shrine and its Jealous Goddess


A view of the pond from the shrine

Every weekend and holidays there is a art market, where musicians perform and art vendors so we were lucky to see many things on that day ranging from strange instruments to paintings of all kind.

















The park is so big and there so were many things to see that we for got what time it was and we didn't have a chance to visit the zoo as we planned.
Later we went to check out the small shopping district called Harmonica Yokocho.



The name comes from the shape of a that the small streets make together to form the district look similar to a harmonica . This shopping district that has over 100 little stores crammed together side by side or across from each other used to be a black market after the war, and it has been left like it is since that time.




Unfortunately, many of the shops were closed due to the holiday so we didn't get the full experience that Harmonica Yokocho had to offer.







Harmonica Yokocho is buried in the new malls of Kichijoji, so it is an interesting mix of old style shops and new shops and department stores.


The Shopping  side of Kichijoji.

All in all Kichijoji is an amazing town. It has everything one might want without having to leave the town itself, with lots of places to shop, a place to spend a relaxing day and a mixture of new and old, its no wonder people wish to live in this town, myself included !
      

We went Okurata area for Okutama Art Festival, hiking and Onsen!!



okutama art craft festival and hiking with YADOYA Guesthouse

Our friend Photographer Yoshimura`s house, Gallery "Naka". He is always welcome and his house is very quiet and peaceful.



okutama art craft festival and hiking with YADOYA Guesthouse

We had lunch at Earth Garden. They have nice food made from vege and fish which is from local farm.



okutama art craft festival and hiking with YADOYA Guesthouse

We walk from Shiromaru to Okutama!



okutama art craft festival and hiking with YADOYA Guesthouse

And we found beetle on the way. (It was already dry..)



okutama art craft festival and hiking with YADOYA Guesthouse

And also we found Wasabi farm! Wasabi grow only by pure water.



And then, we went to Onsen call "Moegino-yu".

It was almost first time for our guest to go into Onsen, so they are happy even it was bit crowded with people.

We were very relaxed and skin became very smooth!!



We are planning to have tour to Okutama area time by time for our guests to show we have nature landscape even in Tokyo. We would like people who come from abroad to have more chance to have experience of local Japan!

We are going to the Okutama area on the 21st of September!

The Okutama art festival is now open. So we will go and visit some artist`s exhibitions and also have a nice walk in the forest! And also we are going to Onsen at the end of tour!



okutama art craft festival and hiking with YADOYA Guesthouse



Please contact YADOYA guesthouse office to join this event!

Bon dance in Mitake

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On the 25th of July, we took some of our guests to the outskirts of Tokyo for so much needed countryside fresh air and some exciting cultural events.



Bon is a traditional event of Japan in summer. It is a time when people make offerings to their ancestors and pray for the happiness of their ancestors' souls in the next world. During this time the folk dance, Bon Odori, can be seen in cities, towns and villages all over Japan.



To celebrate the Bon season, our friend Yoshimura san, invited us to join in a local Bon dance festival in Mitake, the town he lives in. It is about 2 hours west of Tokyo.

We got to Mitake station a little after noon and met Yoshimura san in his house, a big and beautiful Japanese style house said to be over 100 years old, looking over the beautiful mountains of the Mitake area.





The beautiful view from Yoshimura san's house



He than took us on a tour to the local senior’s citizen house. There we got to see the facilities available for the elderly guests, and enjoys some small talk with many seniors. We even got to try out an motorized wheelchair!



From there we went to the local shrine where many people had gathered for that nights Obon festival. All the locals were so nice to us; they even let our 2 girls in the group borrow some yukatas to use for the festival.





An Australian girl and a Finnish girl looking good and ready for the festival



There was a lot of food, drink and of course dancing.

We all had a go to dance, at first it was hard to follow all the steps in each dance but we quickly got the hang of it. It was so much fun!





Eating good food and talking with the locals





The stage, or Yagura tower where people can dance





Our guest joined in the dancing too!





And some more dancing



Later, after the festival we went back to Yoshimura’s place and had some more food and drinks and talk about many things.





Yoshimura san(far left) our wonderful host and our guests enjoy eating and drinking in his house.





Some of the delicious food our fabulous host prepared for us.



Even though it was the middle of summer, inside the house it was really cool and so we could enjoy drinking and looking at the night sky and mountains very comfortably. As it got very late Yoshimura san set up the futons and we slept very well.



In the morning, Yoshimura san prepared for us a nice breakfast and then he took us to a small shrine nearby which had a Shishimai festival.





Shishimai (lion dance)



Shishimai (lion dance) is a type of dance where people dress up as lions and perform a dance. The costumes they wore were very colorful and there was some kind of story being told through their dances as the lions performed the dance.





The dancers had some beautiful and elaborate costumes



However it was really hot and soon it was time to go or die from the heat.





The dancers taking a break from the heat and dancing



We said our good byes to Yoshimura san and came back to Tokyo. It was funny because we had left Nakano only for 2 days but it felt like it was more like a week.

Summer Fireworks Festival

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On the 21st of July we organized a trip to see the Katsushika fireworks, one of the biggest fireworks in the Tokyo Edo river area. Unfortunately the weather was horrible on that day and it was thought that is was going to be canceled due to the rain, however the organizers of the festival decided to go on despite the rain. So, only 2 brave souls set out from YadoCafe to go and see the fireworks.

We went to our friend’s beautiful house which is located near the Edo River and had a clear view of the fireworks from the rooftop.

But, due to the rain, it was hard to see the fireworks display and soon it stated raining hard again, so we all went inside and had a nice BBQ dinner with our friend's family and friends.

We had our fill of delicious food and drinks and had a relaxing time talking about many interesting things.

So it ended being quite a nice night after all despite of the bad weather and no fireworks.