Hijiori Fun Night

I'm very happy to say that finally the guests are coming back to my hometown, Hijiori Onsen. April and May was terrible with very few guests and we all feared for the future of Hijiori, but this month, it seems that there are more "Okyaku san" than last two month. 

Hijiori is putting a lot of effort to entertain our guests! From June to August, we have some kind of events every weekend. These are a few examples.

The first pictures are from "Mukashi Gatari" "Folk Tale telling" about 2 weeks ago. This building is an old post office. It was built in Taisho period, in the early 1900s. It's such a charming little building. Inside the post office, we had a story telling night. Mr. Kumagai, local folklorist told us a few short stories about Hijiori, and some funny stories from old times. All the guests seemed to love it!

And these pictures are from last Saturday when we had "Okami's Dance"! "Okami" is the female Ryokan owner, and in Japanese Ryokan, Okami are the "faces" of Ryokan. We call them "Okami-san" with respect. 

In Hijiori, we have 22 Okamisan in each Ryokan. They have "Okami's group" and they practice dancing every month. Last Saturday, they danced in front of the old post office. I was really happy to see so many guests! There must have been more than 100 audience. All smiling and happy (with the Sake we served for free??)

After Okami's dance, they invited the audience to join and dance together. It was such a fun night!

This Saturday, July 2nd, we'll have a special concert by a pro-keyboard player. Next weekend, another Folk tale night... 

Here is the Hijiori event calender (Sorry all in Japanese)

http://hijiori.jp/cal/cal.html