Ukiyoe and Nihonbashi bridge

We are displaying an Ukiyoe at the lobby until November 8th.

Hotel Niwa Tokyo is one of the venue for Ukiyoe stamp rally of Edo Art Expo "Japan Beauty from Edo-Tokyo" held in Nihonbashi area.

Japanese Cuisine "YUKURI" is participating in sweets rally, also promoted by Edo Art Expo.
YUKURI's recommendation for this saeson is "Anmitsu" with sweet pumpkin paste and vanilla icecream.

Nihonbashi bridge is very famous since Edo era, it was wooden bridge built in 1603 which was a starting point of Japan's main road such as Tokaido and Nakasendo.

In 1911 Meiji era, the wooden bridge was rebuilt to stone bridge which is still standing today.

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The Kanda Antiquarian Book Festival 2011

The Kanda Antiquarian Book Festival has begun yesterday. The festival is held every autumn and this is the 52^nd annual for it. 

It is said that Kanda-Jimbocho is world’s largest antiquarian bookshop area.

More than 100 bookshops participate to the festival and many bookworms come from all over the world.

You can find enormous range of antique books such as Japanese literature, academic books, photography books, magazines, and so on.

A Ukiyoe (Japanese woodblock prints) sells for only around 300JPY, of course it’s a copy, but it’ll be a nice souvenir for your friends.

The festival will be held until Nov. 3^rd. Also Jimbocho Book Festival (new books are sold) and Kanda Sports festival will be held this weekend.

Kanda-Jimbocho, a town of antiquarian book stores:

Around 8 min. walk from HOTEL NIWA TOKYO

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Nip of Fall

At the entrance of our hotel, there are some trees which are called “Japanese Rowan”, they bear a lot of fruits this year as well.

Now the fruits are slightly orange and they will change to red day by day till winter.

We call the tree “Nana Kamado” in Japanese, “Nana” means seven and “Kamado” means kiln.

The name came from the strength of tree. It is said that the tree remains the shape itself even if it was burned seven times. What a tough and round tree it is!!

It bloom many small white flowers at the beginning of summer and bear red charming fruits in fall to winter. I think the gap is interesting.


The picture taken on April 26, 2011.



I heard that the red fruit is good ingredient for jam and fruit wine. I privately wish we can serve you the homemade Rowan jam and Rowan wine some day.


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Small Hotel Guests

I've always wanted to take some pictures of the birds coming around our Hotel entrance and the courtyard pretty often.

Finally, the opprotunity came to me the other day!  

I'm not familiar with species of birds, but according to the information that I collected, it must be Hiyodori, the Brown-eared Bulbul.

Hiyodori is very common bird in Japan, even in the central part of Tokyo. 

Not only one but two comes together.
They must be a couple! (I really hope so...)

They always stands together like this.

Maybe they're coming from the Imperial Palace or Koishikawa-Korakuen Garden, both places are very close from our Hotel. 

We've been seeing the bird couple since the opening of the Hotel.
Now I'm wondering "Are they always the same two?"
Any way, it's very happy to have them in our courtyard.

This is a view of the courtyard from Japanese Cuisine YUKURI.
You might have a chance to see Hiyodori couple from this window at lunch time!

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YUKURI's Teatime -2-

The hot summer days are continuing in Tokyo!
This is the August's dessert for YUKURI's teatime.
"Plum flavored Winter Melon and Yuzu flavored Tokoroten topped with Shiso Ice Cream" 

Many Japanese ingredients are used in this cool dessert and it will surly refreshes you in this hot weather!
Not only at teatime but you can also enjoy it after Kaisei cuisine for dessert.

YUKURI's Teatime14:00-16:30 (Last order) *Open year-round
-Japanese Tea  700JPY~ 900JPY
-Japanese Tea and Original Japanese Sweets 1,200JPY~1,800JPY