Friend or Vermin?

Talking to the village chief the other day, I heard that people here in Arisaka get frequent visits from herds of deer. They come down from the forest, to forage and it seems they are not too scared of humans.

Locals don't enjoy them too much - they make dirt on the streets and eat produce from the fields.

According to him, other wildlife also includes Tanuki (Japanese badger, Bears (very occasionally) but fortunately no monkeys.

If you as one of our guests have a chance to see them, please send us a photo!

Children Play Area

If you experiment a little bit with your route when walking to michi-no-eki, you may find a little unkept path leading up the ridge . After about 2 minutes, you can walk on a better kept path, and enjoy a nice view on the village on the other side of the valey (Tateiwa) and the hills beyond.

This is a little resting place that can be used to just take a break, or have a snack.



If you turn down left a little behind this place, you reach the big roller slide. This is brilliant for kids and papas!





Unless you want to receive a thorough massage of your buttocks, I recommend using a piece of card board, to sit on.

At the end of this slide there is a Children's play area, including a big Jungle Gym,


And once you and the little angels have exhausted themselves, you just pop into the Onsen which is conveniently located at the same site, overseeing the play area.

Bigger kids will also find a Basketball Court here, and a larger flat, grass covered area ideally suited to play frisbee.

First Picnic

This is a late posting of the first picnic this year in the beginning of April.

The sun shone so warm in front of the house, that we decided to have sandwiches outside. Kana and Troy prepared them with their special recipe, and I wish they'd share it with us.



Each Sandwich was individually marked with Cheese cut-outs to indicate its owner.



Mmmmm - Yummy!

Afterwards I fell asleep, and it was difficult to get any work done...

Spring Postcard from Inaka

Finally spring has arrived in Arisaka. Of course it is still colder than Tokyo, and sometimes snow falls instead of rain, but overall you can feel nature waking up around the house.





The Ume tree in front of the house has started to sport some blossoms, and I was able to have the first outside picnic on Friday. It was nice sunny, warm so that I fell asleep.

Karuizawa Designer and Artist exhibits at Arisaka House

To celebrate the spring opening of our house in Arisaka, a designer and artist Toshiro Takakuwa(and friend of inaka home) has kindly given us a selection of his artwork for exhibition.



He created the one on the left, inspiring a feeling of clean water, while the other three are a series depicting the earth. Please check his website avecth for more information and his bio. He also wrote a nice blog entry about us, which you can read here.

We have placed one picture in the living room, one in the kitchen and one for each bed room.









I hope you will all enjoy them during your visit!