Girl's Festival Dolls - "Hina Ningyo"

March 3rd is "Hina-matsuri", the Japanese Girl's Festival  or Girl's Day in Japan.
The festival is for wishing girl's growth and happiness, most families that have female children display these dolls at home.
They are usually decorated with peach blossoms , grilled bits of rice cake, sweet white liquor called "Shirozake" and so forth.

From the top tier, the two dolls infront of a gold folding screen are imperial dolls, the Emperor and Empress.
"Sannin-kanjo" is three court ladies which holds a "sake" equipment at the second tier.
Third tier holds a five male musicians "Gonin-bayashi". Each of them have a musical insternment in their hands except the singer, who holds a fan.
On the fourth tier is the Minister of the Left and the Minister of the Right. Between of them there is a "Hishimochi", a diamond shaped rice cake.
Fifth tier holds the three helpers as a protector of the Emperor and the Empress.
Sixth and seventh tier, there are a variety of miniature furnitures, tools and carriages are displayed. 

It is said that the custom of displaying dolls began during the "Heian" period (794-1185).
These dolls are made almost 60 years ago. You can see a delicate work on each of them.

The dolls are displayed until March 3rd. Please come and see the beautiful "Hina-ningyo" at Hotel Niwa Tokyo! 

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Setsubun and bean throwing ceremony at Misaki-jinja Shrine

This is Misaki-jinja Shrine, a guardian god of Misaki-cho area including Hotel Niwa Tokyo.

Today, not only children but a lot of people gathered to the shrine to catch on to the lucky fortune! 

Today is "Setsubun" , the day before beggining of spring according to the lunar calender, literally means "the day between two seasons".

Setsubun is very popular annual event in Japan and the most important ceremony on Setsubun is a bean throwing and catching.

The shrine's priest throw beans hoping for a good fortune and drive away an evil spirit.

Under the shrine building, many people reaches thier hand to catch those beans which are thier lucky fortune and happiness for this year.

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Happy New Year !

May the New Year bring many good things to you and we'd like to take this opportunity of thanking our guests and friends for their continued confidence and support.


We had a mochi-pounding with our guests at the lobby on January 1st morning.
Fresh sticky mochi is very delicious!

There was a custom in Japan that all the relatives gather in one house to pound mochi and celebrate New Year. But now mochi-pounding is very rare in ordinary house so not only foreign guests but also many Japanese guests were beginner pounder.

We had a very fun time with our guests.
Thank you very much!


There is a New Year's flower display in the lobby by flower artist Mr.Hiroki Maeno.
The theme is "Pray".

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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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