Disguissing Santa Clause...

.... enabled them to get 1 day ski passes for Hakuba Goryu and Hakuba 47 for free today. I told the information to them yesterday, then they got the costumes.

I asked where they got Santa costume, they said Hakuba Goryu ski slope sold some.
Blah blah blah..in front of our place, very outstanding with Santa costume. People yelled a lot!

Informations described in Japanese don't reach foreign people because of the complicated "alphabet" kanjis which came from China more than thousand years ago.
It's one of important job for an innkeeper to make customers' day enjoyable.

Hayaokidori website

Hakuba Goryu, Hakuba 47 available all over now!

The subject line says it all, now entire Hakuba Goryu and Hakuba 47 ski slopes are available. Ready to go!

Gerande report (Japanese)

I have not hit the slopes yet this season, probably after the busy period around new year's day.

Hayaokidori website

Bonnet express "Hibari (Skylark)" arrived at Fukushima station.

I took this picture at Fukushima station when I traveled around Tohoku region with friends in 1977. Platform roof, overbridge etc show us some railroad structures of the good old days :-)

Hayaokidori website

Candles in the snow

I can enjoy this only in winter!
If you see this scenery when you are in Hakuba Goryu, you are absolutely in front of our place :-)

Hayaokidori website

Replacing a cleaning car.

Maybe I had used this cleaning car too much. It went dead. Now I got a new one to replace it. I just tried to overhaul it.

The reason why this cleaning car was dead is one of the hook to hang the pad below the floor was broken. It's a plastic one, so does not survive long :(


Cleaning requid seems to be stored in this parts. Have to check if it works to solder them when I have some time.



The old cleaning car parts are now in a box to be used in the future when some parts are needed to repair the new one.

Hayaokidori website

07-08 first snow removing

We got a bunch of snowfall after a long interval.

I saw this scenery early in the morning. Maybe a bit hard to say we got a bunch of snow with this picture though.





My wagon. Hum..... tyres are not enough visible..... lol





I have to drop the snow on my snowblower off first to start the work.



Rosemarries also got some snow.





What I call "Josetsu(snow removing) set". I need to have this when I remove snow.
When any bolt is gone, I have to screw there with new bolt.



Anyway I started removing snow with my snowblower. It went good for the first time but finally I did it!!!
When you crash big stones, bricks whatever hard, a lot often bolts that fix the shaft and auger wings are gone. You need to screw them with new bolts which sucks especially when it snows hard :(
The left side of this wing hold so much snow because a bolt was gone. When a bolt is gone, the wing does not work, so snow stays there.



I pull the key out of the snowblower when I need to stop its engine while I am at work to fix the bolts because if any strong windblow suddenly get branches off from trees to turn the engine on, I will be injured. I know I worry about it too much. But when I survived winter with the previous antique "buddy da snowblower", I had an accident that I stiched 5 at my index finger of my right hand. I thought everything stopped when I slide my right hand into the shooter to check something but a wing there still worked!!!! OUCH! Accidents always happen when you lack a tiny bit of attention. I might be a person whom anesthesia does not work good enough. When I was in a hospital to stitch the index finger, it hurt a lot. I don't want to experience it again. This might be tiresome to get the key off everytime, but I would choose to do it instead of having another accident.


Need to get the snow on the roof of our cars off. But I am not tall enough to reach the center roof :( Wish I were 180cms ( 5'11" ) tall! A lot often snow around the center roof stays there as it's hard for me to reach there to get them off.




It took 3.5 hours today to complete this snow removing job. It makes it easier to make a snowblower work later if you get the snow inside of the auger when you complete the job. As the snow on the roof didn't drop that much, that's why I just needed 3.5 hours today. If more snow on the roof dropped off, sometimes it needs entire day to remove all of them. Now the battle with snow just started for this season :o

When I drive a snowblower, I am always careful not to hurt others and myself. But snowblowers are very noisy and give us vibration when we drive them. This disables the driver to hear someone talking to the driver. Maybe that someone might slightly touch the back or hand of the driver to get his/her attention, but it surprises the driver too much while s/he is very nervous. This might be a bit selfimportant desire but if I could say, please get close to a snowblower driver when s/he is at work except when there's something urgent, so that everyone is safe from accidents with snowblowers.

Hayaokidori website

Giving some oil.

When I drove a long American steam locomotive in my layout, it made some noise as if it needed some oil. I made it upside down.





Oops, a cover is there. I have to unscrew some bolts to take it off. I don't like this kind of tiresome thing!!!! lol....





Anyway, I unscrewed the bolts to open the cover. There is a black gear there. It seems it's only one but looks like a plastic gear, not a metal gear. I gave a tiny bit of oil at it.





Whoah, each wheel could move sideways independently like this. This is perhaps like "independent suspension" for cars? Wonder how spokes work with this.





Tried to pull the wheel to the opposite direction. This is why even long foreign locomotives can turn curves of small radius. Japanese locomotive do not have this kind of wheel set. They are reall fixed, can not move this way at all. That is probably one reasons why Japanese modelers have to give up to make fixed layouts if it's HO scale because not so many Japanese houses have enough big rooms for it.

Hayaokidori website

Miyabi (Graceful)

After I renovated the walls, it looks a bit boring because I didn't hang anything there. So I just tried to hang some of our cultural things - Kimono, Haori and Kimono belts made from Japanese silk.

Hum.... Kimonos for women are much beautiful than ones for men.
Usually kimonos for men are dark in color for example chestnut color, dark navy blue etc. A lot more colors are used for women. I believe firmly that kimonos were created for women!







Haori. We say "haoru" to wear something additional not to get cold. But that something additional is only for upper body. If it's troucers, jeans or one-piece clothes, we never say "haoru" to wear it.






Kimono belts. I am not sure how much this kind of our particular cultural clothes are displayed good though, maybe I had better observe how people are interested in them. Probably some people from other culture would ask something about kimono, haori and Japanese silk.

Hayaokidori website

Maintaining a snowblower for winter in Hakuba

I am not a mechanic person at all, so just doing some filing and re-painting job the other day for winter. I ask a factory to repair any mechanical stuff.

When we paint something, it should be warmer than 5C to do the work good. Otherwise you can not paint good enough. I painted a little bit thick.
These wings part were originally painted in black, but as I sprayed red inside of the auger last year, wings also got painted a bit red. I am planning to paint them black again but I am really not good at doing any sensitive works so who knows how it will go lol....

Hayaokidori website

Oil price

Oil price has been more and more day by day recently. Finally kerocine cost may be 100 yen per litre soon. Just checked the price back in spring 2004 - it was 43 yen per litre, grrrrr already more than double!!!
Our heating system is simple, a boiler works to make hot water to circulate it entire house. There are heaters in each and every room, they have radiators and fans inside. The hot water runs around to heat the radiators then the fans work to push the hot air forward to make the rooms warm. No ventilating needed as no fire is there.


This does not smell at all, very comfortable, I like it.

But!

It costs a lot, I know why - because the boiler works 24 hours a day to keep the hot water circulating entire house to an exact temperture.
I might see some nightmare if oil price goes higher :(

Hayaokidori website

Scheduled snowfalls?

Weather forcast said it would be snowy today and it is.

It seems that the maximum temperture for today was +2C, the minimum was -1C. I think the minimum temperture usually goes a lot lower at this time of the year so soon before snow starts falling, we feel a bit strong headache but don't feel that way yet this year.

Hayaokidori website

Minami Oomachi station

A tiny station called "Minami Oomachi" located just 1 next of Shinano Oomachi. I know some people say train stations have to be a lot bigger, not like this. But in Japan train stations are often like this especially in countryside.

This is Matsumoto direction.


Shinano Oomachi direction.


Some broad steps. Actually there is a factory of a company at the opposite side of a main route just infront of the station. I guess probably a lot of people commuted there by train before.


400 yen for Kamishiro where we are located.


You have to reach a station enough earlier than the train arrives there in Nagano prefecture because not so many services available here. Otherwise you have to wait for next train for a long time!!

Hayaokidori website

Painting walls and ceiling

When I cleaned the passage way by a vacuum cleaner back in this previous October, I felt it a bit necessary to paint walls along the passage way and ceiling so I just did it.


They say it's rare to find walls and ceilings painted in white if it's an accommodation because if it's white there, easier to find when it gets dirty or dusty. I did a lot of painting job this year - roof, ceiling and walls. So that's all for this year. Some people here say it's not good if one did everything at a time because no happines comes in. So I will do the rest later....

Hayaokidori website

Daikon

Harvested some daikon in our tiny farm.

Hum.... looks funny in shape lol.... I guess perhaps they grow avoiding some stones if they meet any on the way to grow more under ground. Probably those kinds shapes are not acceptable in markets to sell but anyway they are what we grow, so at least it's safe to eat them because we don't use any dangerous medicine.

Hayaokidori website

My blower

To blow fallen conifer leaves pinched inbetween stones in my garden.

The problem is some small stones are also blowed lol....
I just would like to blow leaves only though :(
Weather forcast says it will be snowy the day after tomorrow, so I need to blow the leaves before that.

Hayaokidori website

Driving down Sanosaka in the snow.

It snowed today here in Hakuba, I needed to go to Omachi city by car. When I came back, it still snowed. Needed to drive down Sanosaka in the snow which was a little bit nervous thing. Soon after I got out of Sanosaka tunnel after Lake Aoki.

The Route 148 curves a lot here and it's a long downhill. So when I drive down here in the snow, I really need to be careful not to slip. Even if your car was a 4 Wheels Drive one with a set of stadless tyres, it is not useful if once it start slipping. Some accidents happen here in winter. When you come to Hakuba in winter by car, be careful to drive here.

Hayaokidori website

Hakuba Goryu ski slopes will open on Nov.23th 2007 due to a bunch of cold waves!

A bunch of cold waves have come, I felt it very cold when my feet and head was getting colder and colder.
Hakuba Goryu ski slope Alps daira gerande will be available from Nov.23rd 2007! Hakuba Goryu daily report (Japanese : just enjoy their pictures)
Special offer from Hayaokidori : Early ski pass packages

Hakuba Goryu ski slopes from North-East direction. The right side is Iimori gerande, there is a quad lift there which takes you to its top. The left one is Toomi gerande with Night ski equipments. Champion-expert course gets in Toomi gerande with that steep angle. Champion-dynamic and Grand-prix courses are located at the upper side of Champion-expert. I try Champion and Grand-prix sometimes when it's not crowded and well pressed conditon. Once Champ-expert couse gets like a mogul course, it's hard to expect it being a well pressed slope again.





Hakuba Goryu ski slopes from East direction. The long corse from the top is Grand-prix, Champion-dynamic and Champion-expert (Top to bottom). The Champion-expert has 35 angle steepness in maximum. If it's 35 in ski slopes, it almost looks like a cliff when you see the bottom from the top :o


Hakuba Goryu ski slopes from South-East direction. I see scenery there from this direction because I sometimes take a walk around here. Anyway, time flies so fast especially when you live in a location where you can feel the four seasons very clearly.

Hayaokidori website

Broadleaves and conifers

Broadleaves are easy to collect, we just need to use a broom. But conifers are different. Especailly if it's a gravel garden like our place, conifers get inbetween small stones. Brooms don't work good there, we need to use bloewrs which are like big hair-dryers.

Hayaokidori website

Not rain fall

Larch tree leaves fall down the trees and ride the wind when it's windy. It looks as if it rains. You can see this only at this time of the year.

Hayaokidori website

Green soybeans

Green soybeans. We Japanese often boil them and spread salt and call them "Edamame". Edamame is good with beer. When you get in a beer house or a beer hall whatever in Japan, you often find people order this edamame thing a lot.

But a lot of people don't know the fact that this is soybean! Because we use different words for "green" soybean and "dried" soybean. Edamame is a word for "green" soybean but we call "dried" soybean Daizu. No relational sounds at all. So if they don't see the process how green soybeans are dried to be "dried" soybeans ( Daizu ), they usually don't know the green soybeans and dried soybeans are same stuff. Maybe this misunderstandings does not happen among English speaking people because they use "soybean" for both.

A bunch of soybeans are getting dried little by little.

Completely dried , some "Daizu" show up.

Hayaokidori website

Cold rain

Haven't updated my blog for a while, being too lazy :(

It has been raining here in Hakuba for a couple of days, it snows at the upper ski slopes as you see. Stay tuned!!

Hayaokidori website

English names

There are many difficult linkages for me to learn abbreviations for English names.

Abbreviations -- Original names
Mary --- Elizabeth
Bob --- Robert
Dick --- Richard

I can find the Bob and Dick in my dictionary but can not find the Mary part. Actually I've learned it from an American guest the other day. I felt this earth almost went round the opposite when he told it to me! :o

I asked him"How can I notice Mary = Elizabeth!? "
He just laughed and said " No idea, some people just say that way".


If it's Eliza, it's easy and no problem. If it's Beth, still okay but..... why Mary! Grrr

There are some other interesting combinations around. Jay is for Jason, Jim is for James. When J for Jim is replaced into T ( Tim ), it's for Timothy.
Chris could be both for Christopher and Christine, Christina.
Steph could be Steve and Stephanie.

I know English is complicated because it's not my mother tongue. Wonder this kind of things are not tough for English speaking people or not ....

Hayaokidori website

First snow and autumn foliage

A distant view of the symbolic Hakuba 3 mountains with the first snow. Please click the picture to see the thumbnail!






I took those autumn foliage pictures early in the morning today when I walked around. They look clearer early in the morning. Please click each picture to see the thumbnails, so beautiful.

Hayaokidori website.

Harvested sweet potatoes 2007

Have to take them out very gently or they break in two.






All potatoes we harvested this year. The green things are sweet potato runners. When people in the generation survived the WW2 find this sweet potato runners, they cook them telling younger generations that they ate them at that time because not enough things around to eat - especially in big cities where not enough farms were around.


A dish of fried sweet potato runners. Nothing special in taste, but I guess even this kind of things must have been very important thing to fill stomaches if there were not enough things to eat. Lately people seem to have better opinions for it becuase they have much dietary fiber.



Daikon - the Japanese raddish. What should I cook with it for tonight?

Hayaokidori website