NISHIYAMA RYOKAN Established in 1953

Konnichiwa!!, we are students from Shugakuin Junior High School. Ishi Natsuho, Yoneda Miyu, Takahara Haruka. We are here for the challenge experience program of our school. Us students go and experience many different kind of work in Kyoto city. We are helping NISHIYAMA RYOKAN from last week Wednesdady until tomorrow. We are enjoying work at NISHIYAMA RYOKAN ^^

Tomorrow, there will be a festival called Shimogoryou Festival will be held in Teramachi Street, between Nijo St and Marutamachi St. The Mikoshi (portable shrine) used in this festival is said to be the biggest in Kyoto festivals. There are only set up of foods and play stands today. It will be filled with full of ppl tomorrow.

Every Spring and Autumn time, the society for the preservation of Kyoto historic culture helds exhibition of nondisclosure cultural property in Kyoto. Reizei family is the descendent of aristocrat from Heian period AD794-1185/1192. Their house itself is cultural property of Kyoto as well as they keep many important cultural property. The entrance. Sacred Kitchen. Nowdays it's used to steam rice to make rice cake in the New Year. There are nice gardens in the house too. There are displays for Children's Day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children ) There are nice gardens too.

The day before yesterday it was very hot. During the day I can just walk with a shirt and jeans. But yesterday and today, it's back to winter and needs winter jacket and muffler to go outside... According to the weather forecast, the golden week (the long holiday in Japan) will be very unstable weather :( Well, at least tempretures finally become "2digits" in the morning... http://www.accuweather.com/world-index-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&locCode=ASIJPJA022KYOTO&metric=1 Hope Spring comes soon!! >

Because the weather is not stable in Kyoto this Spring, Sakura is still blooming in many places. Usually when Sakura bloom, the weather gets warmer then the flowers end, but this spring the weather gets hot in one day then get back to winter in next day... Perhaps its something to do with global warming. But thanks to that, we can still enjoy the flowers! (However its little bit cold to enjoy the picnic under the tree...)

On 1st of April, we held Tea Tasting in our Ryokan. Usually we do Tea Ceremony (Green Tea) in our Lobby, but this time it's little different. This time we focused on Teas drinked in Japanese daily life. These are also classified as Green Tea but slightly different from whats used in Tea Ceremony. Also there are many kinds of Tea in this category and guests who joined us were enjoying different taste and fragrances of Teas.

Just recently, the Sakura tree planted in Church opposite of our Ryokan are started to bloom. According to forecast next week will be the good week to see Sakura in Kyoto. The life of Sakura flowers are not that long, but that's why the flower looks so beautiful. Now is the time to come to Kyoto! Our rooms are getting full very quickly. We look forward to all of the guests coming to NISHIYAMA RYOKAN.