Mt. Fuji

I was born in the central part of Shizuoka.
Mt. Fuji was always there, and so indeed I feel it's beautiful and great, but it's not so special seeing the mountain.

I saw Mt. Fuji on my way back to Tokyo from one day trip to my home town today to visit my grandma at a hospital. Actually, yesterday was her birthday, and now she is 97 years old now!
She took the cure at a hospital and bounced back a couple of times so far. But, this time the situation looked like a bit different. Actually, on the birthday of grandma, all the relatives there including my mother, uncles and my brother and I were feeling that she have lived a full life without mentioning so.

This morning, before visiting her again, we got a good news that she became conscious and began to have food again. We know that it's not so long when she leaves this life, but anyway all the descendants of her hope to have some more happy days with her. Especially, I hope she can celebrate the summer festival with her two great grand daughters this year.
Of course, one is my daughter. :)

Thus, I saw Mt. Fuji with a deep emotion today.

Osaka Groumet?

Today, I was sent to Osaka in order to do a kind of trouble shooting work.
It's a damn all-night work :( , but it's not the point of this entry.

It's my second visit to Osaka, and there were some discoveries for me.
For example, in Osaka there are good and cheaper plate menu restaurants than Tokyo. :)
The below is a photo of tonight dinner.
Well, the plate has a hamburger stake, a cream croquette, some pieces of fried chickens and a boiled sausage. It seems to be more than 1600K calories! :o

In addition, free for another bowls of rice.
Anyway, I had a happy dinner time tonight. :o

The below picture is a barbecue restaurant I saw on my way to the destination.
The red signboard says "情熱ホルモン" (Jo-netsu Hormon) in Japanese which roughly means "A Passion Barbecue." :o



If it was not before the work, I must have had a happy dinner with beer at the restaurant. But, unfortunately it's not... :(

Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant, NY

I wrote several times about the Tokyo branch of Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant, and I love the bar veeery much. :)

Today, finally I had a chance to go to the head quarter in New York. :)



Oysters were good, but the catfish plate I had was too well-done and actually it was a mistake. :(
According to a Japanese guy with me there who lives in New York, the Shinagawa branch is better, and now I'm feeling he is correct...

New York

Haha, I got a chance visiting New York. :)



I'll be at this conference in June.

It's more than 3 years ago when I went abroad, and I lost the chance attending at Xen Summit 2007 Fall last year. I'm really looking forward going there. :)

BTW, I want to go to also VMworld 2008 held at Las Vegas.
But, I need to negotiate with my boss. :(

Karuizawa Manpei Hotel

We made a trip to Karuizawa and stayed at Manpei Hotel in Karuizawa, Nagano where is very famous for also foreign people.

This is a part of our travel series visiting classic hotels in Japan, and Manpei Hotel is the third one. The first one was Nikko Kanaya Hotel, and the second one was Fujiya Hotel.

My wife seems to love Manpei Hotel best because there is a big outlet mall close to the Hotel. Of course, this time she enjoyed shopping. For example, getting shoes of Prada etc... :o
In this October, our baby will be born, and I guess we cannot have time visiting other classic hotels for years. Thus, I wanted my wife to enjoy this trip, and I believe she did a lot. :)

Sano Premium Outlets

Today, we went to Sano Premium Outlets in Sano city, Tochigi.



As you can see in the above pictures and articles about Gotemba Premium Outlets I wrote before several times, buildings are similar to each other. Of course this is because they belong to the same chain.



The above pictures explain the primary reason why we went there.
Especially, the above left one, Combi store is only Sano Premium Outlets.
Yes, we need to get ready for the upcoming baby in two month. My wife seemed to be satisfied with shopping there. :o)

BTW, Godiva was also there in Sano, and of course we enjoyed Chocolixir. :o

Lalique Museum, Hakone

Hakone area is also known that there are many museums.

For example,

• The Hakone Open-Air Museum
  
• The Museum of The Little Prince in Hakone
• Meissen Museum
  
• Lalique Museum, Hakone

and so many other ones.

This time, we chose the Lalique Museum because the weather was not good, and most of the museums in Hakone are open-air style.
Lalique Museum, on the contrary, is an usual indoor museum, and my wife loves jewelries very much, so we chose Lalique Museum.



Compared to other museums in Hakone area, they seem to have enough funds and keep their facilities in good repair. In this sense, they also have a good (but expensive!) restaurant in the site like the pictures at the bottom of this entry.

My wife's favorite is "Winter Landscape Brooch."



As for my favorite, I couldn't find a picture of that in the catalogue which we bought at the museum shop. But, it's a perfume bottle named something like "Four Suns" in Japanese.
Although is a small perfume bottle made of white frosted glass, its shape consists of four curved surfaces and each of them has a slight bulge which looks like a embedded lense and reflects light. Amazingly, because of the structure, bulges of the bottle looks like shining like four suns without any electricity.
It was really beautiful. :)

A Magician

Fujiya Hotel has a special room named "Magic Room" in the lobby area where guests can enjoy a magic show. :)



I'm not sure if we can enjoy the show every day, but anyway I and my wife enjoyed the magician's a bit verbose magic show. :o

The magician asked me to hand him my marriage ring, and we were surprised the ring moved instantly to his pocket. Besides, the ring was held in his key holder. :o
I'm still wondering what the trick is...

Fujiya Hotel

Fujiya Hotel is the most popular classic hotel in Japan founded about 130 years ago.
It's like Nikko Kanaya Hotel, and visitors can enjoy good harmony of Western and Eastern architectural culture.



The hotel is also well known in Japan because it's along the course of Hakone Ekiden which takes place on Jan. 2nd and 3rd every year.



To tell the truth, I like Nikko Kanaya Hotel better because Kanaya Hotel preserves the original buildings more. But, because of its good location, I mean convenient access to Tokyo, apparently Fujiya Hotel has more visitors including both domestic and foreign people.

The above right picture is the tea lounge in their main building.
John Lennon also visited the hotel and had a cup of tea at the lounge.



The above right is the Flower Palace built in 1939, and the building seems to be a cultural heritage registered to the agency for cultural affairs Japan.

The above left is the main building and there is a revolving door in front of it like other classic hotels.

BTW, there are several classic hotels in Japan.

1. Nikko Kanaya Hotel
2. Fujiya Hotel, Hakone
3. Karuizawa Manpei Hotel
4. Nara Hotel
5. Tokyo Station Hotel
6. Hotel New Grand

Our next target is Karuizawa Manpei Hotel.
Because there is a shopping mall near the hotel. :o

Nikko Kanaya Hotel

Nikko Kanaya Hotel is the oldest western style hotel in Japan which was founded in 1873.
Of course, there are many other western style hostels in Japan, but it's "classic" and unique.
First of all, its guest room size is "standard" western size. I mean the rooms are very much bigger and the ceilings are higher than standard Japanese hotels. Actually, in terms of room size, even a high class Japanese hotel looks like a business hotel.
The second point is that buildings of Kanaya Hotel are wooden constructions with more than 130 years history. So, you can enjoy mixture of old good western style and old good Japanese style constructions.

1) Main building

Left half is the main building.

2) Annex building


We stayed at this building.
The former emperor Hirohito also stayed at this building.
BTW, this building doesn't have elevators. :o

3) New Building


4) Guest room

Right side is a steam radiator, the only heating facility. :o
Yes, this week end, it was veeeeeeeeeeeeery cold in Nikko.
But, I like it. :)

BTW, there is one more famous classic western style hotel in Japan.
Fujiya Hotel in Hakone area.
I didn't know Kanaya Hotel people helped starting up Fujiya Hotel.

Seoul

March 13, 2005

Now, I'm in Seoul, Korea to attend at this conference held at this hotel.

It's minus 3 degree in Celcius in Seoul and very cold. :(