November 2008Archive

 Hotel Kanronomori are putting on 3 special Buffet Dinners as part of our 5th Anniversary Celebrations.  We will have live entertainment in the Hotel each night with several different entertainers providing the entertainment for the evenings. 

Reduced prices for Ashifumi Massages in the Hotel  on these nights.

FREE entrance to the Onsen for all guests who come to the Hotel for the Buffet Dinner.

The cost per Adult is 3000 yen and the cost per child is 2000 yen.

Reservations in advance are reccomended, a highly reccomended night out for you and the family.

A lot of the visitors to the district do not know this but Mount Annupuri was used as a testing area in the past for the Zero sen fighter planes, a fuselage was mounted on top of the mountain high above Hirafu and an electric motor was used to force the sub zero winds onto the wings of the planes to test them for freezing and to allow modification of design to prevent freezing from occuring.

In the Kutchan museum there is a 'Zero Sen' plane fuselage that is heavily beaten up and holy, this fuselage was original the testing plane from the top of the mountain at the end of the war the fuselage was dismantled and thrown off the top of the mountain, where it came to its final resting place, most of the plane was cut up by locals in search of metals (scarce) to use for different utensils around the home.

The holes in the fuselage come from ski stocks which have proded into the remaining fuselage over the years before it was recovered and put in the museum on display.

The communication cable that was used to communicate with the bottom of the mountain and the mounting foundations, chimneys etc all still exist up on top of Annupuri, next time you come skiing or go for a walk in summer be sure to check it out.

       We have had a fantastic summer here in Niseko, the weather has been brilliant and the greenery around the district really refreshing and energizing, if you have only visited the district in winter next time make a serious effort to visit again in summer it is certain to please.

This Spring there was an initiative started by a local pumpkin farmer, the local community and some of the local residents from oversea's.  The idea of the project was to bring the community together and get everyone working together as one. 

The Japanese farming community is an aging community and as such many of the neighbours of the farmers have either moved out of the district in search of a quieter lifestyle or have moved to smaller blocks that they can handle better, without knowing who their neighbours are and what their specialities are there was a large void opening up in everyones life, the pumpkin project was an idea to bring the community back together and had an amazing effect on the whole area.

Starting in Spring the farmers and volunteers both Japanese and International came together and worked on Iwasaki farm planting out pumpkins, right throughout the year different events were held and at diffferent times of the year the group of volunteers came together for sessions tending the fields and at harvest time the group all sorts of events were held at the local community centre on State Highway 5. 

The pumpkins were spread around the district, there were a large amount around the Niseko Station and a everywhere in the district you see pumpkins and taste foods made from pumpkin in a celebration of the fall.

There was a large Halloween event held at Annupuri and over 150 people turned out for this event.  All of the children dressed up in costumes and 'trick or treated' in the pension village, the main organisors of the Halloween Party, Annupuri Village and the team of community volunteers put together the most amazing 'Ghost House' and the spread afterwards was incredible, next year this event is the event to watch for in the local event calender.

We were given 150 pumpkins to display around the Hotel, which was fantastic.  The 31st of OCtober came and an eager team of staff, local high school volunteers all came together and carved a multitude of different faces on the pumpkins in the rain and bitterly cold conditions, the end result -SPECTACULAR!  

We are lucky to have such a spetacular community and live in such a spectacular place.