Our Garden Is going Crazy.

With the sun coming out every day and shining down on the plants, the garden is looking very happy indeed. But with the flowers, come the little critters that like to get everywhere.

 I really do not mind all the insects(except the mosquitoes, which don't really have that many friends other than hungry spiders), in fact, they are quite interesting.

                                      

It seems like in the UK, all our bugs are not that interesting. But then that is probably because I have been looking at them since I was a small boy. So when I see all Japan's creepy crawlies, I'm quite fascinated.



                                                    

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Fun night in Kyoto?

Hi there who are surfing on J-hoppers staff blog.
It has been pretty warm these days here in Kyoto.
All of us are afraid of cleaning the hostel with the humid hot summer coming.
If you see us with a towel on our neck in the hostel, that's us!

On the other hand, we have started a hostel event since last week.
 

We welcomed new event staff  Isabella-chan, from Hongkong.
She is so good at cooking. Also, she could speak Chinese, Japanese and English fluently.

We are trying to make fun plans for the guests such us cooking together, trying to make something traditional and more.

Last week, we had Takoyaki (octopus pancake balls) and Gyoza(dumpling) party.
It was pretty fun cooking and chatting all together.

If you have no idea what you do, we'll be sure to let you know.

We have some other staff to lead you out.


Left: Cleaning staff Abe-chan Right: Night staff Ao-san
They are also welcome you to join :)

We'll try to have such fun events twice a week.
Please check the event calender on our web site.

We'll update the detail soon!

Let's have fun together !

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Small reunion in Osaka & Kyoto

Hello there!

This is Masa from J-Hoppers Hiroshima.

We have been having such a beautiful weather in May and it made me want to go traveling again. In the perfect timing, I got a plan to visit Osaka! Yahoo!

I used to live in Canada and I was working up on a ski hill called Big White in BC for a ski season. Some of the Japanese Big White crew and I found a good day to meet up and to have a small reunion in Osaka. It has been 4 years since I saw them last, so I was really excited.

On the first day, we went to have Osaka style okonomiyaki!
I always eat Hiroshima style one, so I was little bit surprise how different it was! but okonomiyaki is always good and yummy.

We went to Kyoto on the second day.

We walked through Gion area.

We also walked through so many students...
then finally arrived at Kiyomizu temple!

Then we went back to Osaka and visited Umeda Sky Building.

 

The city was colored pink by sunset.

It was such a beautiful view...

During the 2 days, we kept talking to catch up on everything we missed last 4 years.
They all are having interesting lives and always inspire me.

Hope we can get together again sometime soon!

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LCC!!

I went back to my hometown, Sapporo by "Peach".

It is the new LCC ( low cost carrier ) airlines  in Japan that

based at Kansai International Airport.

The flight costs between 4,790-14,790 to Sapporo.

It is getting cheaper if you make a reservation  as soon as possible.

There is no check-in desk.

You need to check-in by yourself with your booking receipt.
(It is better to print out your booking information)
There are PC's for it.

This is the air frame.
I liked it, looks cute!!

The seat was bit cramped, but not so bad.

You can flight to Sapporo, Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Kagoshima by "Peach"!!

They also have international flight to Seoul and Hong kong!!


Have a save trip!!


Peach official website

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Bright Lights, Big City

It was the Christmas season;
there should have been sounds of never ending reindeer songs and bad looking Santa dolls in the town.
However, I was in Esfahan, Iran,
the jewel of ancient Persia and one of the finest cities in the Islamic world.


When I entered the dorm at Amir Kabir Hotel, he was still sleeping on the hard mattress bed.
Settle down stuffs and thinking about extending Visa lying on the bed, his eyes opened and looked at me.
- Are you Japanese?
- Yes. And you?
- Netherlands, I lived in Kanagawa before. Do you know Matsushita Seikei Juku?
- No.

It is our first conversation. We became a travel company then.


The exquisite blue mosaic tiles of Islamic buildings amused our eyes while getting lost in the bazaar.
We drank a cup of tea and had chat in the teahouses at the end of the day.
We were together only for a few days, however shared many things between us.
But still I thought we wouldn’t meet again like many other else when he left Esfahan.


The time went by…


A couple days ago I got a mail from him and it said he is coming to Kyoto and would love to stay J-Hoppers guesthouse.
When he showed up the lobby, the sweet memories came back to my mind.
Now he is working for a Newspaper of Netherlands and writes the articles about Japanese politics, cultures and of course, that huge earthquake in Tohoku.

in esfahan

in kyoto

Have we changed?


It is maybe one of the best things for traveling to reunion somewhere in the world.

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Preserved flower arrangement

Preserved flower arrangement

I have been trying preserved flower arrangement!
I made photo frames and some stuff with preserved flower:D
You don't need to water them and they last 2 or 3years.

This is a photo frame that I made first time, I put a picture with my girls in Guam.

This is a present for my friend's mom for mom's day:D
She was pretty surprised that I  made this, she likes it anyway!

This is a present for Ranna who are staff of J hoppers Osaka since she just got married!
It must mach to a picture with Kimono!
She had a Japanese style wedding! Must be sweet:D

Preserved flower can make some simple stuff lovely and brilliant!
It must be great for gifts to your friends or wedding!!!
you can make stuff only one in this world!!!

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Presents for your stay ;)

Hi, how are you doing?

We give you a stamp for each night at any J-Hoppers or Hana Hostel.
You will get a discount or a special present on every 4th night.
 It does not have an expiry date.

Presents are mostly handmade. You can not buy in other places.
We hope you like our presents!

Keiko, one of the staff , makes drawstring bags as presents!
They will be nice presents for your trip.
They are very lovely so famous among the ladies.

If you buy them, it might be over 500yen!

 ←She is Keiko, a powerful and pretty girl :)




Keiko hopes your Japanese travel becomes unforgettable.
Please correct stamps to get them!
Thanks :)

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Melbourne

Golden Week holidays has just started in Japan and it gets really busy at J-Hoppesr Hiroshima this coming a week. I took early holidays and went to Melbourne, Australia last week.

Chika used to live in Australia and she has been to Melbourne as well. She always told me how much she liked it and the good stories of the city. So it made me excited even more.

I fell in love with the city as soon as I arrived. It was such a cool city with beautiful architecture, lots of arts and very international atmosphere.

 

 "You will feel like you were in the Harry Potter movie in the library!"
As Chika said, it was an old and beautiful library.

 

I always love visiting markets in different countries.

Queen Victoria Market was one of the biggest markets I've ever been!

 

There were cool graffiti everywhere in town.

I went to Lorne for the weekend. 

Lorne is a small seaside town located along the famous Great Ocean Road. (2 hour drive from Melbourne) It was in autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, but there were still some surfers on the beaches. :)

And I saw wild koalas and kangaroos!

And one more thing that I have to tell you about ...

J-Hoppers Hiroshima's best friend, Paul !!!!

He loves Japan and every time he comes to Japan, he visits us. It was soooo good to see him in his hometown finally! He was fun and energetic as always!

 

He took me to his work and made YUMMY Australian style coffee for me!

Thanks for the lovely day Paul! I will see you in Japan next time! :)

I had such a great trip to Melbourne.
I would like to thank all the J-Hoppers Hiroshima team as well for letting me take a vacation in this busy season. Thank you very much guys! xx
 

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