April 2012 Archives

Have you been to Nakano(中野)?

This is very famous as a town of Japanese subculture.

Nakano is located 3km north west of Shinjuku.

You can get to Nakano from Hatagaya by train via Shinjuku,or by Keio bus directly.

It takes only 15min from Hatagaya.

Nakano Broadway is well known as an otaku building (several floors of manga, anime, idol,music, toy shops).

There are plenty of Izakaya,Japanese pubs and restaurants,and famous ramen restauramts.

You do not have to be afraid of a scam or an overcharge here compared to a famous nightlife district Kabukicho in Shinjuku.

I recommend you Nakano if you visit Tokyo next time.

A single bus ticket from Hatagaya to Nakano is 200yen.

 Full of local pubs,Izakaya,ramen restaurants in alleys.

 Nakano main street.

An old house reminds me Showa era.

SMB are Mr. Yamamuro on mandoline and Mr. Kimura on guitar. They played many popular songs and evergreens, like Yesterday by the Beatles, Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto, famous songs from Ghibli movies, American folksongs (Home Sweet Home) and many more.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the music.

During the second set our former staff Maiko, who is now working at Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro joined them for a couple of songs. They used to play together when she was still in highschool she told us. I was really impressed by her performance. I didn't know she could play so well.

At the end all three performers received flowers from the owner of the flowershop nearby. What a nice surprise! 

We all had a great time listening to many familiar tunes. I am sure we will be seeing SMB again at Sakura Hotel Hatagaya. I can't wait!

Thank you so much and see you again. (^O^)/

We had Fantastic Mandolin Event !!

Did you enjoy??

See you next Event!

Recently, the main meeting point near Shibuya station is, in front of Hachiko statue(picture), Q-flont, and 109 building.

From today, it will be changed, in front of 「Hikarie」 because today Hikarie has opened(close to Shibuya station).

This building is strong for earthquake,

and when the emergency problem  occured,  people can stay in a planetarium hall space.

Not only for shopping cloths for 20-40 years old shoppers.

Excellent building!!

This is 'Hikarie'↓

Today I was working in Sakura Cafe Hatagaya, so I couldn't go there to looking for something good, but in the near future, I'll go there, and report with this blog page♪

From 28th April to 6th May, is called 'Golden Week' in Japan.

People usually have a long day off, in case of many holidays in this week.

☆So have a good Golden Week!☆

Golden Week (Japan's huge national holidays ) is almost here in Japan !

 　 Children's day is one of the Golden week's national holidays, 

on which we celebrate  children's health and wish they will grow good !

 ↓↓↓ Here is the photo of seasonal tradition of Children's Day.

( These beautiful decorations are more than 40 years old...! )

Come and visit us to see more Japanese traditional things...

and enjoy a cup of coffee here at Sakura Cafe Hatagaya.

♪♪ We are 24 hours OPEN for you ♪♪

April 23^rd is the day of beer and local beer in Japan and Germany.

It came from the fact that German Beer Purity Law was established on the date in 1516.

Do you know which country won first place for the eighteen consecutive year in the ranking of per-capita beer consumption in 2010?

The answer is Czech (131.7 liters about 2.9 times as much as Japan).

I went to Ryokojin Exhibition in Kagurazaka.Ryokojin used to be a famous backpakers magazine in 1990's,but it ceased publication last year.I of couse subscribed to the magazine for a long time.

Their writers' and  illustrators' works are on display there.

I show you some of them on this post.

Dear MUSIC LOVER

Good news!

We have Mandolin live on April 28th.

Hatagaya staff like to eat all the time.

Specially GIRLS!! 

Today we got 160 g candies from our kindly guest!!

Yummy, yummy!

CANDY WANTED!!!

17^th April is the death anniversary of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the founder and first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan.

jp127 / unclekage

It is said that he died after he ate Tenpura and had a stomachache.

Though it is impossible to know whether it is true or not, it is an interesting anecdote without a doubt.

江戸博物館 / Joshua Rappeneker

We got invitation from Mr.and Mrs Honma san 

who live near Hatagaya Hotel again!

They have Japanese tea Party at their own place,

and the hosts gave us many attractions.

We went there every year,so I look forward seeing them again.

They have small concert.

Or guests also join them 

We tried Japanese tea and Chinese tea!

   And wearing Kimono!

Every time we enjoyed this party a lot.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful hospitality♪

Do you have any plan to be in Tokyo on April 29th, May 2nd or May 3rd 2012?

If so, how about visiting Meiji Jingu?

The grand festival of Meiji Jingu in spring will be held.

You have a chance to watch traditional arts of Japan such as Noh and court dance and music dedicated to the god of the shrine.

It's free of charge.

【Access】 from Sakura Hotel Hatagaya

Keio new line        Hatagaya→Shinjuku

JR Yamanote line  Shinjuku →Harajyuku

about 1 minute walk from Omotesandou Exit of Harajyuku station

My friends just arrived at Sakura Hotel Hatagaya from Italy!

Daniela and Francesca

Welcome back!!

They are Cosplayer!

That's lovely costume...

 They will go to Hello kitty's cosplay party on Saturday.

Would you like to see more pictures???>>http://jfspixelstudios.com/

Also If you would like to go "Karaoke" together,

You should come to Sakura Cafe!！

日本の歌も上手ですよ！

Hello !!

My name is Makiko Matsumoto, I'm new staff here at Sakura Hotel Hatagaya!

（Now I'm writing this from Miwa's account.)

I love traveling, eating, talking with people !

I'm looking forward to meeting people from around the world!

Here are the photos I took in New York this March.

 【Central Park】 SAKURA is already bloomed. Some people enjoyed eating lunch watching sakura, like HANAMI in Japan !

After the musical "RENT".   It was very moving.　Have you ever seen it?

Let me talk about New York more next time...!

See you again!

This is the fifth guest interview at Sakura Café Hatagaya!

The interviewees this time are Mr. Eyal Tendler and Ms. Sabrina Piotrowsky.

They both live in Vanuatu. They are the first guests at our hotel from that country!

They told us that the road in Japan is well paved and clean compared to Vanuatu.

As Vanuatu is a developing country, pavement is not perfect yet.

On Sunday, all the stores close at 5pm in Vanuatu. 

They were surprised to see the stores still open and busy at 11pm in Tokyo. 

They said it is more peaceful in Vanuatu. They also told us that people in Vanuatu are very religious.

They told us they do not see many Japanese tourists in their country, though there are a lot of them in New Caledonia, the country next to Vanuatu. 

According to them, it is a nice country for sightseeing, though it might be hard to live in...

If you are planning to travel somewhere, why don't you go to Vanuatu? 

You will find beautiful beaches! You have to be ready to see big insects (such as cockroaches and centipedes) though!

This is a group of students from Berlin who are in Tokyo on exchange.

And this guest has been staying on and off with us for a while now. Seems he and our staff Ai couldn't decide whether it was warm or cold today. ;)

There are even more German speaking guests staying with us right now, so I speak more German than English or Japanese all day. Fun times!

I hope you all have a wonderful stay in Japan! (^O^)/ 

 100,000 LED illumination lamps used to resemble fireflies will be released in the Sumida River around 18:30 on May 6^th 2012.

The Sumida River is not so clean that we cannot observe real fireflies. The event will be held to evoke a desire for a clean river.

Released LED illumination lamps will be collected after the event, of course.

Two days ago, I went to watch Tokyo Sky Tree with my friend.

Before watching it, we ate good Sushi restaurant near Oshiage station.

I really love Sushi, you know?? :)

 After we finished lunch time, we went to watch Tokyo Sky Tree.

I wanted to take a best-shot picture for you, but I couldn' t do that.

The tower was sooo high, so it's too wide to take one shot.

This day,  Ai(Hatagaya staff) and Maiko(Ikebukuro staff) went to walk in Asakusa, and they said that they could take the miracle shot!!

So soon, she'll write the blog:)

This is a charactor, Oshinari-Kun, (conbination word of Oshiage's Oshi, and Narihirabashi's Nari, a boy).

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

During walking around the sky tree, we found a quite lovely flower shop with a cafeterria.

Looks soooo good!!

 So we enter here, and eat cakes and drinks inside.

 There was also a terrace seat, as like Sakura Cafe Hatagaya:)

By the way, my frined is living near Oshiage station, so from her house, we can watch the Tokyo Sky Tree from the window like this;

In this week end, you can watch the full-blooming of Sakura tree, near Sky tree around Oshiage, Asakusa, and Tokyo Sky Tree stations.

Enjoy the Hanami (=watching cherry blossom). 

【Access info from Sakura Hotel/Cafe Hatagaya】

  Towerd Oshiage押上 Station.

Hatagaya sta.→→Bakuro-Yokoyama Sta.（walk）・・・Higashi-Nihonbashi sta.→→→Oshiage sta. 　About 35 min. / 380 yen.

Did you try our Welsh cake? Monthly Welsh cake is.....

「Green tea」 

A little bit bitter and clear Green.

One of my favorite welshcake flavor

Usually This is a limited sale at Sakura Cafe Hatagaya...

However you can enjoy.....

7th April(SAT)　

「Regas Festival in Shinjuku」

Note: You can go this festival only 15min from shinjuku station!

We will prepare World beer,World tea

We are waiting for you!

Have you eaten Sakura before?

Here is our new menu, Sakura Tea Latte!

Sakura is blooming in Tokyo now.

It should be in full bloom in next few days.

Grab this Sakura Tea Latte and go to see the cherry blossoms!

It is available at Sakura Cafe Hatagaya only.

Don't miss it!!

 

We have Hanami Party under the cherry trees along Sumida River on April 10th.

Hanami , which means cherry blossom viewing, is a Japanese seasonal event in spring.

?  Day : 2012/ Apr / 10(Tue) from PM 03:00 to PM 06:00

?  Fee : JPY 0 (Tax included)

Viewing very beautiful cherry blossoms, we enjoy drinking, eating, talking, etc....

It's FREE of charge, but you have to take potluck.

Please don't forget to bring your own food and beverages.
Meet in the lobby of Sakura Hostel at 3:00 PM, and let's head to Sumida Park together.

******************************************************************************
Date : April 10th ( THU )
Meeting Place & Time : Sakura Hostel Asakusa at 3:00 PM
******************************************************************************

*This event is only for guests who are staying at Sakura Hostel/Sakura Hotel/Sakura House.

Google released 8-bit "Dragon Quest" map on 1st April.

You can see Tokyo Sky Tree in the map.

This is a map of Europe.You may find a dragon in this map.