Hello! I’m Aya, the host of Oyado Chiyosato.
Starting today, I’d like to write now and then about the guests who have stayed with us, and the small things that happened along the way.
For the first one: the family group that became a turning point for this house.
“We’d love to have hot pot together”
This February, a booking came in for a ski trip.
Three families from Kanagawa — six adults and three children — for two nights.
We had only just opened, and this was the first large group we would welcome.
I had built this place to be “a house for big gatherings,” and now, finally, it was going to be put to the test. I remember feeling equal parts excited and nervous.
Then came a message before their stay: “We’d love to have hot pot together.”
Hot pot. For a house with a table this big, the perfect request.
I have to confess, though — back then we didn’t own a pot large enough for a group.
Not for a second did I wonder whether to do something about it.
“Winter guests will surely want hot pot again,” I thought, so I went straight out and bought a big one, and polished up the portable gas stove and canister we had spare at home.
While I was at it, I sent them a message with where to shop: the local butcher for meat, this supermarket for everything else.
This business of wanting to do one more thing, and then another, turns out to be something I genuinely enjoy.
Somewhere in the middle of all that preparation, I thought: maybe hosting is what I was meant to do.
Hinamatsuri dolls and fresh flowers
On the day, I arranged fresh flowers in the dining room.
Flowers are a small habit we have kept up since our very first guests.
It was just before Hinamatsuri, the doll festival, so our ceremonial dolls were on display at home too.
And, for the cold nights, a hot water bottle for each person.
The three families who arrived were wonderfully close, with the warmest atmosphere between them.
The children discovered the kids’ space upstairs almost immediately and disappeared into the board games and toys.
The adults laid out everything they had bought across the big table and set about preparing the hot pot.
Watching it unfold, I thought: what lovely people have come to stay.
They told me afterwards that even with nine people over two nights, there was never a queue for the bathroom in the morning or evening — which made me quietly glad we had built in both a bathroom and a separate shower room.
A closeness that made me a little envious
On the day they left, they told me it had been a wonderful stay, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
What struck me most was how the three families moved through the house like one large family.
The adults talked around the hot pot; the children played like siblings.
Having friends you can travel with, whole families together — that struck me, as I waved them off, as something rather enviable.
And then, the turning point
Some days later, a message arrived on Instagram from one of them.
“I’ve written a review on Google Maps. It looked like it was the first one — I hope that’s all right. If it isn’t what you had in mind, please feel free to ignore this.”
They had gone out of their way to tell me, and to check that it was welcome.
That thoughtfulness got me, before I had even read the review.
And it was indeed the very first Google Maps review this house ever received.
“Everyone smiling, hearts warmed — a wonderful place to stay.”
I can’t quite describe how it felt to read that opening line.
Thanks in part to that review, many guests came to stay through the March ski season.
It also happened to coincide with our reshoot of the listing photos, and from that point on, bookings really began to move.
Our first large group, and the family group that set this house in motion. I think of them as benefactors.
That big pot I bought in a hurry has been steaming away on many guests’ tables ever since.
This winter, I expect it will be busy again.
Incidentally, Yachiho Kogen Ski Resort is about 20 minutes by car from the house.
The slopes are family-friendly, with almost no waiting for the lifts.
Skiing all day, then a hot pot with everyone in a warm house — as a way to spend a winter, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Until the next story.
Aya, Host of Oyado Chiyosato
