I really like this tree. It's really tall and some one had to climb pretty high just to prune back those branches.
I also quite enjoy the roads leading up to our Pension. Nature can be quite relaxing when you're finally out in it. 
This tranquil little lake is actually just a minute walk from our front door. It's not that big and you can't swim in it but it sure is nice to just take in and stand around. Especially when the fireflies show up.
This creek is just a few minutes away by foot. There are some small fish sometimes so it's kind of fun to sit back and try to count them.
Just some random flowers I saw on the side of the road. If any one knows the name of them please let me know.
Mt Asama is kind of hard to miss in Karuizawa and is almost always putting off a cloud of smoke. No eruptions yet since I've been here though. 
A rather nice view of the many tree filled mountains that surround us. Every way you look you see lush green tree covered hill tops. May certainly was a strange month for weather. We had boiling hot days, thunderstorms, random downpours and even a hailstorm!
June is at least staying consistent, albeit horribly so. It's been cold and wet making it kind of unpleasant to be outside. However, being the proud Pacific North Westerner I am, I'm not letting it so me from going out. Even if it is just to take out the garbage.
Well, another Golden Week has come and gone. This time around I survived a lot easier due to the fact that the 29th fell on a Tuesday, effectively making Golden Week only one long weekend instead of two.
Karuizawa is showing the signs of spring time now and not just with a lot of rain. Flowers are blooming and even the birds have built their nest in our bushes again; though I have to give our neighbour, Hotel Wellies, the lions share of the credit for that due to their constant diligence in maintaining a veritable smorgasbord of bird feed.
Things are slowing down again as we get ready for the best season this summer. I like to think of this time of year as the calm before the storm, because before I realize it, it will be almost unbearably hot out and we will be running at full capacity again.
It's been quite a while again. I haven't been the most busy person in the world but I've been running into a few obstacles when it comes to updating this blog.
The first one is that most of the pictures taken to be used here are on some one else camera and sometimes that can take a while to get them emailed to me. As most of what happens here would greatly benefit from photographic evidence, I have felt that not using pictures would be a disservice to those that read the blog.
Mostly however, the main obstacle preventing me from posting, is my desire to post original content. Being that every thing that I go see or do is as part of a group, coupled with the pictures scenario, it almost always appears on the main page first. I don't want to turn this blog into something that just reposts what has been seen on our main page.
With that in mind, please be patient with me as I try to find something that I can use for just the blog itself.
Thank you for your patience.
Bryan.
A quick update while I wait for my ride to work. Not much going on though. Had some guests yesterday where the husband was Spanish or Indian, I think Spanish, but it turns out he could speak five languages. I can barely speak one so needless to say I was quite impressed.
Lately our lunches have been more busy than our dinners, so it certainly does seem people are spreading the word. Either that or all the work Asuka does on the Facebook page is really paying off.
Getting closer and closer to the day when my mom comes for her visit, and running or of ideas of where to take her. Any one out there no any good, inexpensive places to take a tourist? Comment with some suggestions for the Tokyo, Karuizawa, Kyoto and Osaka area? That's most likely where we will be going.
As the title suggests, we have been quite busy over the holidays here. I take it to mean that word of the awesome Canadian guy has spread and everyone wants to come see and or laugh at him.
It's finally slowing down here now that the holidays are all over but like everywhere there are still a few stragglers that show up at the tail end of everything. But for the time being we have zero guests staying with us so we only have to be concerned with lunch now. That gives me almost two days off. Not quite but I'll take it.
On that note we here at Hoshinoko in Karuizawa wish you all had happy and safe holidays and we look forward to seeing you in 2014!
The other week my wife and I made a trip to Nagano City to renew my spousal visa. It's hard to believe that in two weeks I will have been in Japan for a whole year. Time never went by this fast in Canada that is for sure. Along the way we stopped at one of my favourite stores; Book-off. It's a discount store for used manga, books, cds, dvds and games. I always seem to find some old gems that I couldn't in Canada.
We also stopped by a temple where we went into a very dark hallway under ground and had to search for a door knob on the wall. If you touch it means good luck for you. It wasn't that hard to find what with the line up of tourists ahead of us, but it was still fun to wander in the pitch blackness.
On our walk back to the train station we also passed by the 1998 Nagano Olympic torch and a little podium they set up. I couldn't resist posing.
Well, the big news this week is that I decided to join the IAK curling team this season. It's strange for me because the only previous experience I have had with curling is switching the channel and saying, "where is the hockey game?".
But now I'm on a team of players with at least some experience, although there are other beginners. Thankfully I am not the only one bringing the team down.
We also missed the beginners league by a few months so we are in a competitive league this time around. Our first match was a 9-0 loss. I feel better about it after finding out one of their players was a former junior curling champion for all of Japan in 2012.
So once I figured that out, I decided that we needed to do some practicing. So far we (Asuka and I) have had two practice sessions and I am getting slightly better, though I have yet to understand how to correctly estimate how much power to use and I still haven't gotten my balance together for sliding across the ice. I'm so wobbly still!
Our next game is Tuesday night and I'm not sure but I think it might be against last year's Nagano championship team.
Never enough practice.
After work yesterday the wife and I met up with her friend Emi and her boyfriend for a trip to Komoro. We enjoyed dinner at a Chinese restaurant where I tried my very first lemon sour and some liquor from China. It was a weird taste, almost like a combination of tea and whisky but I found it enjoyable.
Later that night at the train station I found my kanji reading skills have slightly improved. At the ticket purchasing computer I was able to read the two selections for Karuizawa! Yay me!
Also, I was supposed to be practicing a few songs on guitar to play rhythm guitar with the IAK band at our upcoming Christmas party, but with work and the pension I really haven't had time, so I think I won't be playing with them this year.
Last week I went to one of the shougakkos (elementary schools) in town to talk to the English Club about Canada. Armed with Asuka's Canadian landscape picture book and an mp3 of our national anthem I arrived ready to talk. Needless to say I was woefully unprepared. After participating in a brief exercise to help them practice asking directions in English, I began to bombard them with as much unorganized information as I could throw at them.
I'm not sure which was more scary; the surprising accuracy of what I said, or how the children seemed to listen so enthusiastically, although they maybe only understood every third or fourth word I said.
Other than that, winter is beginning to show up here in Karuizawa. Each night after work the temperature had been hovering around zero degrees and we have even gotten some snow on top of Asamayama. (Asama Mountain, an active volcano.) No snow as of yet has stuck to the ground but I am sure it will soon.
This past weekend, we had ourselves some Canadian guests. Not just from Canada but from Whistler British Columbia. Only 30 minutes from my home town.
They had come to Japan as supervisors for a student exchange program with about ten students spending a week with host families and I apse just soaking up the culture of rich resort town of x Karuizawa.
The real surprise came when I found out that one of our guests' husband is a semi frequent customer at the store my mother works at. So they know each other somewhat well.
Other than the Canadian connection, Hoshinoko has just finished hosting some competitors for a rained out tennis tournament, and our lunch service has become quite popular lately. Often we find ourselves with around ten guests a day. Though lately we have been slow due to the typhoons (hurricanes) passing close to Japan. We don't get much effect here other than lots of rain, but it is enough to stop people from going out.
That's about it for me. Until next time, stay classy Internet.
September had a little bit of everything for me this year. Hoshinoko wasn't as busy as August, but to say that it was slow would not be right. We had guests from all over Japan. A few from Osaka, the usual contingent from Tokyo and even a curling team from Hokkaido. While they were here, it meant early morning breakfasts (see 6am) each day. But I like to think that our breakfasts helped contribute to the fact that they went undefeated all the way to the finals. (As I type they are on the ice playing for first place.)
Come the middle of October we actual have some guests coming from Whistler! (30 minutes up the road from my home town in Canada.) Definitely looking forward to that, as I don't often get to converse with the guests beyond; "please sit.", "please help yourself to coffee and tea." or "be careful the bread is hot." Needless to say my Japanese studies have taken a back seat to work.
Though sometimes, our guests can speak varying degrees of English, which makes me very happy. It also makes my in-laws happy because then I can better serve our guests.
September also marked my first experience with a typhoon. (or hurricane in North America). Though it didn't actually pass over my town, we did get quite a lot of rain and some heavy wind gusts. All in all, it wasn't that bad of an experience. Just a really wet one.
Today is also some sort of festival or bazaar just down the street from us. People were collecting various items from other countries to sell. I was made aware of this event by the rather loud fireworks being set off. It sounded like mortars going off they were so close!
On a closing note, I'd like to announce that we are now open for lunch! Almost every day! If you're in the area, so in for lunch between 11:30am till 2:00pm. Last order at 1:30. No reservations necessary, but if you call ahead, we will make sure we're ready for you. Cheapest lunch in town at 500¥ plus tax for hamburg steak with salads, rice and soup. Check our Facebook page to see when we're open or closed. #shamelessplug
Until next time, thanks for reading! Love to hear your comments.
Picture of our wonderful guests from a week or so ago. At first I thought they wanted me to take their picture.
Wow what a busy month July was, and August is even more so. Almost the entirety of July was spent working mornings at the pension and the rest of the day at the restaurant. Now that we are officially in to summer vacation it has become impossible for me to work at the restaurant now.
Everyday brings me new guests and new interesting people to talk to. Well, to try to talk to anyway. I have been so busy that any down time had been reserved for being too exhausted to so anything.
It is not all hard work though. The other day I was told that guests had said I have a refreshing smile. And once again a guest wanted to take a picture with me. This time though, I thought to ask him to send it to me.
Just today even, two things happened that I really enjoyed. One of our guests knew who I was because he told me that he reads my blog. (if you're seeing this please feel free to drop me a line) and then something completely random happened. I noticed the license plates of two of our guests and neighbour. I won't spill it for you so you will have to look but I will say that the one on the bottom is actually or neighbour and not a guest. But still! What are the odds that this happens?
About a week ago, a few of the local pension owners got together for lunch. We all enjoyed BBQ chicken, beef, seafood and veggies, as well as alcohol. I quite enjoyed the drinks, except the suntory whisky highball. (Seriously, who mixes whisky and soda?) But I really did enjoy the Korean Liquor the pension association boss shared with me. It was called Makkori and has the consistency of slightly thick sake. It was great and went well with all the BBQ chicken, beef and peppers I ate. At one point, a guy even went to the nearby creek and caught a fish in under 5 minutes! It was literally taken from the creek to the BBQ I'm under 3 minutes and I actually ate some of it!
It was nice meeting new people who do the same work as me and also nice catching up with some people I hadn't seen in a while. Plus, we could not have had a better location by the creek. I look forward to the next one.
Today Asuka and I joined other pension owners on a tour/curling lesson. We went to a literary museum and a historical museum and then we went curling for the last half of the day.
Asuka was only able to take pictures at the first museum, the historical one called Oiwakake. (I may have spelled that wrong.) Of all the pictures I like the one with the stone sign post. This stone was made in 1675. Pretty young for a country that is over 2000 years old, but really old compared to Canada.
Curling on the other hand, while fun, was kind of lame. We only got half a sheet of ice to play on, so even just sliding forward to throw the rock was difficult. But, at least I didn't fall down.
Also, I apologize for the sideways pictures. I can figure out why they won't straighten properly.
Once a month on a Tuesday we here at Hoshinoko Pension Hotel host a meeting of the International Association of Karuizawa (IAK). This past Tuesday was our turn. While everyone was chatting and having a good time, I, and a few others were watching Japan's soccer team try to qualify for next years world cup. I don't care for soccer ( or football, depending on where you're from ) but it wasn't as bad to watch when other people are there.
But the important thing happened after the game, when Asuka volunteered me to visit a classroom and speak to a group of children about Canadian culture. Now, anyone that knows me, knows that I hate to stand up in public and speak out loud, so this is kind of a nerve racking idea for me. Besides that, my idea of Canadian culture is kraft dinner, beer and hockey. Not sure how to talk about that for an hour and a bit.
Thankfully, the lady organizing the event is going to tell me what she would like me to talk about. Also thankfully, it's not until November.
So I learned something from my wife the other day that made me stop and think a moment. I even had to stifle a laugh for fear of making her upset with me. As it turns out, Japanese people don't have thumbs or toes.
The thumb thing I can understand, as many of us North Americans will say we have 10 fingers, where as I believe I have 8 fingers and two thumbs. ( if thumbs were fingers they would be called fingers and not thumbs. )
But what I don't understand, is how Japanese people refer to their toes. As Asuka explains it to me, the word for toes literally translates to "leg fingers". Seriously, leg fingers. I don't know what else to say except the name conjures up some pretty silly images.
So there you have it. The Japanese have 20 fingers, no thumbs and no toes. Awkward.
