Long Absence, and a busy season

Hi, this is the first post for a long time. I am happy to say one of the reasons for the long break was a high occupancy of our Arisaka house, so that I had not many opportunities to visit it myself.

But this is great for us, and I think we have won many new friends to Inaka Home. Please let me share some feedback from guests.

The most important thing though - remember that Autumn is a really different season of wonderful beauty. So you should visit again in Golden and Red season!


Paola & Jonathan Mannaro:

"We found the kitchen to be very well equipped, and absolutely nothing
was missing, we also used the washing machine and that was perfect too.
Everything was in good working order and we were delighted with the
luxury of the beds, the bedding and of course the sound system.

You had a fun choice of LPs and we listened to all of them as well as some
CDs of our own. We had not expected Madness in Arisaka, but they were right
there !

SO – thank you very much for making the house so comfortable and homely
it was one of the most relaxing holidays we have ever had !"



Glen Maxwell-Heron:

"Just a quick note to let you know that the weekend went well at the Arisaka House. You were right - the bedrooms do warm up very quickly and the kerosene heaters are very effective at heating the main space. It is a great location and the directions are certainly sufficient to find it.

As I say, we all really enjoyed our stay and will try to get back there again."

Ryo Sato:

"It was obsolutely fun trip to there!
Me and my mates enjoyed having BBQ and swiming in a waterfall:-)"


Michael Arnold & Hitomi

"just wanted to say thanks for letting us rent the Arisaka house -- we had a wonderful time! It was tough to come back to work today. Hopefully we can rent it for a few days again in the fall."

Auto Camper expedition

Yours truly has been enlisted recently to help the Japanese "Auto Camper" magazine (by Yaesu Publishing) test a Camping Vehicle on loan from the maker. They were very interested to my opinion about usability, and asked me a lot of questions about Camping in Europe. My friend Damon also took part in this test and represented the United States.

After picking up Damon from Tama Plaza, we headed out to a day camping site in the nearby mountains. Damon and I took turns driving the machine.



At the camp site we each started preparing our respective country's signature dishes.




In case of Damon: Cheese Burgers. In my case German Potatoes Salad(Kartoffelsalad), and Sausages. The result was lovely as you can see!



We had a great day out!



To get all the Details, please buy the July Issue of the Auto Camper Magazine at a bookshop.

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...