"Ikoi-no Mura" in Niseko !

 by Yukio Ebisu

This is a fantabulous room in Niseko Hotel "Ikoi-no-Mura" which means "the Village of Comfort" in Japanese. The price is so reasonable in spite of the luxurious contents , interiors and design. Would you try it ? If you would like to make a reservation via me, something nice may accompany with your stay;)
The details are at http://www.niseko-ikoi.com/
in Japanese and at
http://www.niseko-ikoi.com/en/index.html
in English.

 On the other hand, Niseko Village on the eastern hillside called "Higashiyama", the old and tasteful appearance and atmosphere are expressed with the building and exteriors  as well as the interiors. Among of all, "Taishou Glass Museum" is equipped with the signs of information on the merchandise written in English. I feel the current stream and necessity to welcome the guests from overseas with kind hospitality.

At four thirty in the morning before the race !

by Kazu

It was so calm early in the morning
on "Kojima island. Seagulls gave us the sign of the start to fight. The flat surface of the beach filled with small round stones should not be ravaged by my jogging around because it was just for drying kelp.

Then, the PA system broke out and announced that the kelp-picking should be started at five thirty. Yes, the picking time was limited and that was the agreemment in the Fisherman's Association of Akkeshi Town.

Can you find the trace of the flattened surface ? I had to walk on the surface so calmly and carefully.

This is the females side of our accommodations. They seemed to be still sleeping.

At four forty-five.

 At five.

White boats were beginning to set up on the start line on the sea for the race to get the best point to pick up the best quality kelp near "Kojima Island " !

At the end of the day !

by Kazu

This was the end of the first day on the small island "Kojima". Turning off the fire of the grill, we calmly gazed at the setting sun that brightened up the exciting day on the beach.

The next day would be started with the hard work to carry and dry the kelp.

As I described before, there was no curtains on the window. This is my room side.

The room was just for one person and was cluttered with foods for emergency and drinks for me.

 Some dead insects were under the window but I did not care. I cleaned up the room before BBQ outside.

I made sure that we could use the bathroom in Mr. Ishizaki's house before going to bed.

Then the hard day started early in the morning at around four thirty. I jogged around the beach but the island was so small to explore. Daikoku Island could be seen clearly and seemed like floating in the air.  

The beauties on the small island !

by Kazu

Salt & pepper, salad oil, sugar and enough utensils were prepared for the residents on the island. It seemed a little bit too much for normal life of the residents but some kinds of event might be arranged in the community center.

Two fridges were available in the building but we used the one on the right side and filled it with foods and drinks for approximately a week just in case of extended stay on the island due to bad weather.

This was the room for ladies. They started to clean up the room and made it comfortable for the stay but the windows had no curtain
to hide them from outside.

 Just one channel was available on the boob tube in the room. The portraits of the leader of the community were displayed on the wall.

This was my room. Some boxes were left at the corners. A stove was laid but I was not sure if it worked or not. Anyway I didn't need it during our stay on the island.

It was beautiful, yes, absolutely the moment was one of the most beautiful,  beautiful seconds in my life. I hoped the ladies would remember the moment in some points in their lives and visit Hokkaido again.
The first day on the small island was being wrapped up with the perfect BBQ and situation.  

The accommodations on the small island !

by Kazu

The beach of the small island was covered filled with clean small round stones to dry the kelp with sunshine there.
If somebody made the place ragged, the person had to make it flat for the drying procedure. That's the manner of the residents.

Some wood logs with lopes were placed on the beach to draw up the boat with the winch.
It had been very fine from the start of our stay in Akkeshi Town and so was it on the day.

Mr. Ishizuka carried our luggage to the community center without talking with us but he was ready enough to receive us all.

Daikoku Island could be seen clearly from "Kojima". The temperature was hot enough for me to dive into the ocean.

The utensils and the equipment were prepared much better than we expected beforehand. Even if it would be raining, we would be able to cook in the community center of the island.
Perfect !

Landing on the small island !

by Kazu

Leaving the small port of Tokotan Area in Akkeshi Town, we were going across the best point for kelp picking and heading to the small island where only thirteen people, 6 households lived from June to October.
 

This small island had had a ballgame ground on top of the hill decades ago but the island got smaller gradually carved by winds and waves.

The landing area of the small island were protected by concrete blocks to calm the wave.

We moved the luggage from the boat and the kelp-carrier to convey to our small small accommodations on the island. That had been the elementary school of the island until decades ago and was used as the community center.
This dog below was named "Kinako" which meant soy-beans powder. She kept barking in so high tension during our stay on this island that she vomited after she came back to her house with Mr. Ishizuka's daughter.

It was the time to "Rock'n Roll" !

by Kazu

What do you think the packages on the photo above were  ? Some of them were packed in the IKEA bags for easy lugging around.
One of the ladies were showing her readiness and high expectation to the mission with the pose.

Yes, we jumped in the fisherman's boat with the luggage and headed to the small island offshore of Akkeshi Town to help one of the kelp-pickers who stayed on the island from June to October just for the fishery.

Mr. Ishizuka was the fisherman who provided us with bathing and lecture with good exercise of drying kelp.

The civil clerks of Akkeshi Town kindly gave us a ride and supports to ship the luggage for three day stay on the island.

Two of them Mr. Yoshida and Ms. Sato kindly fully attended to our pilgrimage in the town and they also learned on their town themselves in the attending, I think.

Mr. Ishizauka talked almost nothing on the boat. He was typical shy but authentic Japanese fisherman. He kindly receive us in spite of his hard work everyday.
The island we would stay could be seen from the boat but that was much smaller than we had expected.
To be continued.