The excursion to Ome with my geisha family

On May 1st I went to Ome (青梅), which is located about 1 hour by train from Hachioji, with my geisha family.

We had planned to go to Ome last March, however due to the Tohoku earthquake, it was cancelled.

Ome is a popular town where we can enjoy the nature, go hiking, camping, fishing and so on. Aside from Autumn, May is the next best season for an excursion to Ome.

On the actual day we met at Hachioji station early in the morning and moved to Ome by train.

In Ome, we met our tour guide, who is my geisha mother’s regular customer, and is also the owner of a local sake company.
He kindly took us around all day to some places by his car.

At first we went to an interesting shrine which combines Shinto and Buddhism.
That was not a famous sightseeing spot, however the air was very fresh there and we could relax.

After we visited that shrine, we moved to the Kushi Kanzashi museum, which is operated by our tour guide’s sake company.

I had heard about that museum from my shamisen teacher. He suggested I visit there at least once, so I was glad.

* “Kushi = 櫛” and Kanzashi = かんざし” are both hair ornaments used in traditional Japanese hairstyles, especially when wearing kimono.”

Actually the day when we visited was the museum’s regular closing day, but our tour guide arranged for the the museum to be open especially for us, so we could take plenty of time to enjoy the museum.

There were many types of Kushi and Kanzashi dating back to the edo period, which were classified according to period and style, so I could learn about them in a systematic way.
Our tour guide said that it was not their complete collection. They change the display seasonally.
When I heard about that, I was surprised. I wondered how many Kushi and Kanzashi they have!

After we visited the Kushi Kanzashi museum, our tour guide took us to his sake brewery.
He explained how to make sake, and the difference between some types of sake.
I really enjoyed the sake brewery tour. His explanation was very informative and easy to understand.


After we visited the sake brewery, he took us to a local farm-house restaurant.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we all were surprised.
The exterior of the restaurant had an old-style thatched roof, however the interior of the restaurant was very beautiful, clean and stylish.
Especially the Irori (囲炉裏) was very rare and eating lunch around the Irori was like a dream.

The dishes were also very rare and delicious.
Our tour guide brought 2 types of his company’s sake, so we enjoyed lunch while drinking sake.
The atmosphere of the restaurant was the wonderful.
The manager of the restaurant said that only 2 groups of customers can make a reservation in a day.
The restaurant doesn’t have a website, so it isn’t known to many people. I was really lucky.

After we enjoyed lunch, we then enjoyed walking along the promenade next to a beautiful river. When we were having lunch, it had rained, however when we were walking, it stopped raining. The green looked more beautiful than usual after the rain. I reminded myself again how lucky we were to have such a good experience.

Around 5pm we expressed our gratitude to our kind tour guide and said good-bye at a station in Ome and went back to Hachioji.

After we returned to Hachioji, we went bowling and ate dinner together.
To tell the truth, I was very tired when we arrived in Hachioji.
However I really enjoyed that day.
By the way, I think my geisha mother and my geisha sisters are really full of energy!