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. 

Winter is coming

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.

It's a small world.

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 Doings and Goings On

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.

Summer busy season

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?

Pension Association BBQ

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.

Karuizawa Hotel Association outing

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.