Ikebukuro Diary

Did you already decide where to go for summer vacation?
I wanna go to somewhere small island in the south.
Do you have any recommendation?

This is Japanese 1,000 yen bill.
The person you can seeing on right side of the bill is 'Hideyo Noguchi'.
He is Japanese great doctor of Medical Science.

I don't know who create it, but Dr.Noguchi have turban like as Indian.
And some people have tried to make this before and....yes...I did :p
I was practice to make this....

And this is a movie for that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj2QRMcvwI0

Do you think it's art? and how people react when we going to pay
with turbaned Dr.Noguchi?
(well, I'm sorry Dr. Noguchi......if you don't like it....!)

A long time ago.......(?)
When I was high school student, I saw boys spinning their pen
with little awareness in the class.
I thought that was so cool , so I started to practice that in the class
and even after the class.
That was difficult for me, pen dropped on the floor and flew to somewhere.....

I found great video for pen spinner! That's amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYEIugXhdWY&feature=related
I just can two basic styles, and maybe I'm good at pen rolling :p
How about you??

What a beautiful day....
Good day for siesta.....?

I found this pic, how lovely...;)

We have informed to ask to cooperate 'YEN coin donation' before,
http://sakura-hotel-ikebukuro.com/blog/2009/09/yen_coin_donation_1.html

Then we would like to announce how much it raised now since we started.......
Okay,we are now counting......1,2,3...
Hoooo, this is like tower!

Here it is!
4,488 yen!!

We are going to donate this to WWF(World Wide Fund), http://www.wwf.org/
then they will decide to use those money for protect animals or enviroment.

This is really great thing, don't you think so?

Thank you very much for your cooperation and we continue this activity ;)

I remember playing with hand shadow when I was child.
Then,now I saw the video for Japanese singer group and they useing 'hand shadow
play' in their video.
I like this song and that drama of hand shadow.
I touched that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz0uPVrtoP4

This is from 'Gekidan Kakashi za'←the name of drama group
http://www.kakashiza.co.jp/index.html
There is another video I found, this is also great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeH6BwBjoi0&feature=related

How do you think?

Oneday I want to see this drama ;)

That was all panic! Everybody and everything was confused.
We had suddenly many guests from France, they could not fly for home.
Also, some are forced to cancel reservation and some are extend their stay and
some are returned here.

Volcano ash in Iceland seems have big effect to flight schedule and economy over the world.

How beautiful country Iceland is....I really hope we can see this beautiful land
and safety home for animals....
and of course I hope everybody get home in safely very soon.....
and....if you are the person who had to cancel your trip this time,
please don't feel down,
we and Japan, are waiting for you to come anytime ;)

If you come in some convenience store or electronics retail stores,
you will recognize and remenber their music or you will sing a tune without thinking.

♪Shop 99

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ10JcKPxKw&feature=PlayList&p=37DD1F94DFB98EC7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=16
'kyu' means nine anyway :p

♪Donki hote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM3t2ie6Yzc&feature=PlayList&p=58BD0811397A772C&index=0
I like this song, I sing 'don don don♪' when I go to this shop ;)

♪Yodobashi Camera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTJEbqQy4U

Some shops are selling their song, it's true.
I wonder any shops make their song in your country?

Recently I saw TV program showing that Japanese comedian 'Kanpei Hazama' running in Iran now.

It is incredible challenge!!
He decided to round the world on his own feet and to sail across the continental on a yacht.
The total distance is about 36,000km and it will takes two years.
Also, it turned out he has cancer but he still keep running and taking medication.
I just do hope he succeed this big challenge with his big smile and we see that on TV sometime ;)

You can see his track on the weblog↓
http://earthmarathon.ning.com/

I could not miss their performance, Mao Asada(Japan) and Kim Yuna(Korea).

It just finished their program and ranking is now....
2nd is Mao Asada and 1st is Kim Yuna!

Their skating were perfect and beautiful....
I heard they are good rival to keep up since long time
and I just can't believe they are only 19 years old.... : o

Well, we should keep an eye on their next program!!

Web blog is popular in Japan. Many people write blogs for their companies or have their own blogs.
As you already know, we have a web blog in our hotel
But our web blog has several rivals.
Let me introduce them.

The strongest rival is this↓.
Sakura Hostel Asakusa's web blog.
http://www.sakura-hostel.co.jp/blog/
They update it almost everyday. I am jearousy of many topics they have everyday.

Another rival is this.
Sakura House web blog.
http://www.sakura-house.com/blog/
Since Sakura House has many apartments and guest houses all over Tokyo, Their topics have a variety .
Mostly, they write about some particular towns. And it is very interesting because each town has different face.

Our sister hotel, Sakura Hotel Hatagaya also has a web blog.
http://www.sakura-hotel-hatagaya.com/blog/
They write about Japanese culture and life. Their topics are very interesting.

Is the web blog popular in your country? Or is this popular only in Japan?
If you have your web blog, please let us know. I would like to see it.

Actually I don't know much about 'Lunar New Year'.

We celebrate New Year's day on 1st of January but some
Asian counties has 'Lunar New Year' to celebrate in mid February.

I wondering how they celebrate for that?
How's in your country if you have?

The Vancouver Olympics started on 13th Feb today!

Their performance are amazing... :0
Let's watch TV and support them!
Why don't you drop at Sakura Cafe and watch this Olimpics game on the big screen ;)
And also we pray for their safety...

There was snowy landscape ;)
It was very cold and not much snow cover but beautiful.
I could enjoy to hear the sound of snow under my shoes.

It was not snowing long and melted already...
But if we have a heavy fall of snow next time, I want to play snow ball fight ;)

Well, it still cold outside, so please take care everybody!

Time goes very fast and we left only several days in January. But it is still cold in Tokyo.
This time, I will show you the ''must have item'' for cold winter.

1. Yutanpo
This is what I got in Berlin. We still have variety of different kinds of yutanpo in Japan.

I also like to see the Yutanpo cover. There are many different kinds of cute cover.
We put some hot water inside and keep it to next to our legs when sleeping. The warmness from
Yutanpo is different from the one from electric heater.

2. Hokaron
cheap and easy.

You can find it at any pharmacy store. Just shake it, then it will be warm. We usually keep it in the pockets of clothes or coat. Some hokaron has a seal in the backside. So we can seal in legs, back or whereever feel cold.

3. Wool sox

Maybe some of your coutnry have this kind of sox. So do Japan, we have it. This is what my grand mom made. It protects me from cold weather every winter. I feel grandmoms warmness.

If you have good idea for must have item of winter, please let me know.

Last year, we have 65,363people from 111countries.
Thank you very much.
Here is top 30 nationality ranking of guests who stayed Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro in 2009.
Hope your country is rank in.

No.30 Brazil
No.29 Poland
No.28 Argentina
No.27 Austlia
No.26 Belgium
No.25 Mexico
No.24 Portugal
No.23 Norway
No.22 Indonesia
No.21 China
No.20 Denmark
No.19 Finland
No.18 Swiss
No.17 Sweden
No.16 Korea
No.15 New Zealand
No.14 Malaysia
No.13 Holland
No.12 Taiwan
No.11 Germany
No.10 Hongkong
No.9 Italy
No.8 Canada
No.7 England
No.6 Thai
No.5 Spain
No.4 U.S.A
No.3 Singapore
No.2 France

And awards for nationality ranking of 2009 is

↓
↓↓
↓↓↓
↓↓↓↓
↓↓↓↓↓
↓↓↓↓↓↓
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

Australia!!
We had 7,091 guests from Australia last year!!
Conglaturation Aussie!!!

Can you imagine..............people traveling into the space...!

My dream is traveling all over the world...but to be honest maybe my real dream is a space trip ...!!
I've found one advertisement of 'GUINNESS' .
They were offering big presents for only three people for their
250 years anniversary.

The first prize is a 'travelling into space', the second one is a 'traveling
under the deep sea' and the third one is a 'private live music'.

I do wanted win the 'Traveling into space' !!
How fantastic it will be if I can see the earth from the space with my own eyes.....!!

I wondering who is such a lucky person....!!!???

If it's you, let me know how that trip please...!

Today, it is a last day in 2009.....

Now we would like to say ' BIG THANK YOU TO ALL!! '
We are very happy that many people traveling and staying with us ;)

Then, we hope you all have a great new year 2010 and
we do hope to see your smile in here, Ikebukuro ;)

Yoi otoshi wo (Have a good year)!!

PS: I'm eating 'Toshikoshi soba' (Japanese year-crossing noodle) ;)
Many Japanese people eating this traditional toshikoshi noodles
on New Year's Eve and wish for health and longevity in the year to come.

English newspapers are available at reception for 160yen.
We only have five of them a day.
Don't miss it.

By the way, model of this picture is Micheal who stayed in Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro about half a year.
He is the longest staying guest in our hotel.
Hi, Micheal, how are you doing? If you see this blog, please drop some comment.

The holiday season starts.
We have many beautiful illumination in all over Tokyo.

We decolated the christmas tree in our hotel !
How is it?

The model is Amy, from California. Thank you for being model☆

To say honesty, I wanna bigger one!!
Anybody?

well....
I will wish it to Santa Claus☆

This is my favorite shampoo.
Tamanohada

What I like with this shampoo is that they have good smell. I use fig scent now.
It is not really fig smell, but it has a breezy smell with a bit of rosewood smell.
Before I use fig scent, I used to use Rose scent. It　was also good and not really artificial scent.
It smelled like real rose.
Usually, the scent of shampoo disappeares quickly. However, the scent of tamanohada shapoo lasts long.
I can feel the scent even in the next day evening of shampoo. Maybe you think, the scent is too strong? That is what I thohght before using this shampoo. I worried about feeling bad because of the too strong smell.
But There was no problem. I was perfectly fine with that smell.

The shampoo is contained in a 500ml bottle. It is a little bit heavy for souvenior, but if you are interested in it, please try it. They also have round-shaped soaps and conditioner. That soap is very cute and good for gift.

They have several different kinds of flavor besides rose and fig. Find your favorite one.

**Tamanohada shampoo
http://www.tamanohada.co.jp/english/index.html
**Shop info
Timeless comfort (Markcity west in JR Shibuya station)

Today, we found yellow rose with lovely message in the guest room where they already check out.

Isn't it so lovely?
Can you see the message ''arigato'' ?
Thank you too.

Do you have any YEN COINS that won't be used anymore??

If you have some, please put them into this box↓

This is a 'YEN COIN donation box'
It's the box for the donation we recently have started ;)
Coins are not only a good souvenir when you are back from other countries but also they can be a good donation.

We looked up how they can tap , then we found that 'Unicef' is collecting them.
So we are thinking of giving the collected coins to 'Unicef'.
By the way, you also can donate them at the airport. They have a donation box there.

Or the other option is , there is an annual TV program called "24 Hour Television" which campaigns to raise funds.
We can mybe take the coins to them next summer!!

http://www.ntv.co.jp/24h/contents/english.html

I joined the farewell party for one of the staff at Asakusa.
http://www.sakura-hostel.co.jp/blog/
We have to say 'Good bye' sometimes, but we going to say 'Good luck'! instead ;)

This is a picture with team Asakusa ;)
Illuminated 'Sensoji (temple)' was beautiful....!

It's nice to visit Asakusa and they will welcome you!!

Something was flying busy and....then I recognized........ 'swallow'!
There was its nest and lovely faces were hanging out of there↓

They were waiting for the mother bird to feed them!

Can you recognize them?
OK, one more closer photo......!!

They will all fly by themselves very soon, I'm wishing for their safety ;)

We have informed you that we have been collecting caps of plastic bottles for the campaign to the save children.
http://sakura-hotel-ikebukuro.com/blog/2009/06/we_do_eco_do_we_idea_from_yosh_1.html
Everybody, all the cleaning staff cooperated in this campaign and now that caps are...........like this!
↓

Those caps used to be just trash to be thrown away.
But now they will be exchanged with vaccination and save the children,
Don't you think how great it is?

☆Cappee save the children☆

Do you know something about 'Aromatherapy'?
We just started useing it here in the hotel.
We can feel 'Aroma' from the top cover of the light right after drop some essential oils on there ;)

I had never been interested in it until I just happened to know what it is.
But now, I've been studying it and it often makes me surprize how great power it has!
Those are some kinds of oil made from 100% natural ingredients such as leaves, flowers, woods, seeds.....and so on.
It has been originally used as a medical remedy from antient period all over the world .
And it was originated in France.
Actually, it has great effects on our minds and bodies.

Now I have more than 20 kinds of essential oil .
If you have stress related or jet-lag problems,or something,
let me help you ;)

If somebody asks me 'what is your favorite phrase?' then I definitely say....
'Ichigo Ichie' which means 'meeting only once in a lifetime'.

It will never happen again as this moment at this place with these people.

I just realized that we are spending such a precious time at every moment
and that is what it means - 'Meeting only once in a lifetime'.

Don't you think so too?
Anyway, let's grab some beers and...
Cheers! to this moment ;)

Konnichiwa!

Do you know what '3R' is ?
It stands for 'Reduce' 'Reuse' 'Recycle'

And I really care of ECO.....

Recently our daily lives don't let us feel any inconvenience, and they have been
still changing to new and more convenient ones, I think.
And now there are so many products people just purchase and waste.

We often see and hear about climates, plants and animals in danger,
you know.

Well, we can do something even if it's a tiny tiny thing, it will be a big change ;)
What is the most important is knowing them, thinking about them
and then get started with what we can do little by little.

It's not difficult................YES, WE CAN ;)

As to me, I always take with me my own chopsticks ,tiny plastic spoon
and Eco bag.
And I can say 'No, thank you' when asked if I need them.

YES, I CAN ;)

and ?

YES, YOU CAN!

Do you do something for Eco?

Yoshikazu is collecting caps of plastic bottles.
One day, we found a plastic bag with some bottle caps in the staff room.
and then his message was there.....

Since March, he has been collecting plastic bottle caps.
He has been asking for them when someone finish his or her drinks , or even from the rubish bin at our hotel.
Why? Because the caps of plastic bottle will be medication if we collect it enough
and it can save life for the children, specially for the third world....
This is actually some campaign and it's just great!!
http://www.jcv-jp.org/english/

Now we have box for that, Kayoko made it (she might be great artist!) :)

It looks rabbit a little bit and his name is 'Cappee' !!
Please put the caps in this box before you throw it away :)

Thank you for your cooperation....Arigatou from bottom of our heart..... ;)

One more shot☆

One of our guests left cute balloon!
That character from anime 'Anpanman' and Anpanman is a hero among children.

Yoshikazu playing with Anpanman...he looks very very happy☆

Wow, Ninjya showed up in our hotel from Australia :D
Well, anybody knows about Ninjya???
Here, I found interesting link as below;
http://iganinja.jp/en/index.html

Maybe I want to be a Ninjya, because they are cool...they can running on surface and disappear with their peculiar technique...nobody recognize who I am.....
that's so cool....!!

Anyway look at his shoes,it's like a little bit Ninjya!
He got it because he really want to be??
This black shoes (?) is called Jika-Tabi known as footwear for workmen like construction workers, farmers and gardeners.
It just looks comfortable isn't it :)

Surprisingly, he has two pairs, so Yoshi has tried to be a Ninjya together!

Would you like to try it??
You can be a good Ninjya ;)

No. 3
Chocolate
No wonder, But I love chocolate. Especially,　my favorite chocolate is this↓

No.2
Cafe Latte
I wonder why the form of cafe latte makes me happy. It feels me relax and CHOI happy when I see a form of cafe latte.

No. 1
SMILE
If I see smile, I can be happy anytime, even if I am busy.
I am looking forward to meeting your smile☆.