Tsukagoshiya Shichibee and the Hostess

Tsukagoshiya Shichibee is an established hot-spring hotel in Ikaho Spa. The house name has been for 157 years since its foundation at the end of Edo period. Takehisa Yumeji, a famous artist, used to stay here usually in Taisho period (1912-26).
There are a lot of informations on the Internet sites, so please refer to them for its introduction rather than my superficial writing.
The owner hostess is Ms. Sachiko Tsukagoshi.

Shibukawa City made a wonderful attempt in October, 2016: In conformity with "the spirit of Citizen First", we choose the person designated as a City Treasure among Shibukawa citizens and award him/her the title of Human City Treasure.
The 5th City Treasure is herself, the 7th hostess of Tsukagoshiya Shichibee.

Apart from a good lineage that she is a great granddaughter of Korekiyo Takahashi, once Prime Minister in Taisho period, she was more friendly than anybody as far as I had a glimpse of her during one night stay. She was not a person looking better with any background.

However, I got a pamphlet "SHIBUKAWA.TV INDEX" dated in September, 2018, in which there is an article of "Shibukawa Pick Up Person Interview vol. 05". It is a feature of Ms. Sachiko Tsukagoshi, titled "You can become happy by your own effort. The half life with ups and downs of the hostess, aiming to make the happiest hotel in Japan."
The following is its extract.

She was born here in January, 1967.
Went to junior high school in Tokyo.
Homesicked for 2 years, but became not to want to return home on the 3rd grade.

With Admiration for Ms. Natsuko Toda, a translator and famous for her Japanese subtitle in movies, Sachiko-san went on to Tsudajuku School majored in English and then went to the Translation-Majored School.

To make use of her school career, she entered Tokyo Broadcasting as a secretary and worked with Sports-Broadcasting Chief. There she had an "on-the-job training to "prepare anything for anyone"
She was recruited to Dentsu Inc. and worked for the creative director's job for 3 years and a half.

She went back to her hometown in 1994 to help her mother with the hotel including the new-built annex "Kounkan". However, she found the hotel desperately short of money. It was really in a deadlock with an enormous debt.
The struggle for life of her family began, calling back her brother studying in Australia.
During those days, the worse thing happened in 2004. It was called the "Triple Disaster Case in Ikaho Spa" with the bogus hot-spring case, an eruption of Mt. Asama and Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake. Lehman shock in 2008 was the worst to them. The bank's final notice was "no more help to you Tsukagoshiya". It requested them to go bankrupt or to sell the hotel and everything.

No breakthrough came out to them ever. Then, the hostess Sachiko-san happened to meet the lawer who said, "What is it you want to protect?"
It impressed her deeply while full of things to throw away and to give up on her mind. Staffs, business connection and guests.
Tsukagoshiya has been in business for 150 years because it has always been the hotel giving joyful energy to guests.
"It was myself to have decided to succeed this hotel. Therefore what I just have to do is to make my life yes-mind, that's to make the happiest hotel in Japan."
"I live now this way because I experienced a hard time. I realized how to live because of the huge debt. Everybody was born to be happy, so I would like to be happy in my way with my ability."

Shibukawa Dot TV <Human Treasure of the City>
http:// shibukawa.tv/ningen05

1st of a Fifth Wheel
Any Response to my Yearend Essay?

My travels last year were Yahiko Village in Niigata Prefecture for 3 days, a bus tour around Tohoku District for 4 days, and Kurobe/Uozu in Toyama for 4 days. Domestic only.

Due to this kind of my slowdown situation, the writing works, my reason for living, have been obviously in decline nowadays. I spent most of the time last year in the (last?) review of my 4 novels written over 10 years ago. In addition, besides the above travelogues, I wrote 2 essays. One of them was "One Year and a Half since the Pleasure Birthday." It was about my present state of mind, written both in Japanese and English, which I informed of to the mail addresses in mind including foreigners, ..., though I have not done such publicity in recent years since I quit Facebook.

I felt happy to receive warm replies from 20 and more people, thinking there were seemingly some people interested in and sympathized with my way of life full of slips and setbacks.

2nd of a Fifth Wheel
12 Signs of the Chinese Zodiac

The sexagenary cycle, Eto in Japanese, is a cycle of sixty terms used for reckoning time in China and the rest of the east Asian cultural sphere surely including Japan. It consists of Jikkan (the Ten Stems) and Junishi (the Twelve Signs of the Chinese Zodiac).
Eto appears in our usual life in many ways. Fortunes, directions, ages, characters, ... It appears in the historical events in Japan, like Boshin War, Revolt of Jinshin, Shingai Revolution, ...

Apart from Jikkan, this year is the year of "boar" in the Chinese Zodiac. My only simple question in the Zodiac is "Why doesn't a cat appear here?"
I am sure very few people of the same generation with me can recite the following Junishi also with the animals in relation.

Animals, birds, pets, and finally a dragon of a living in mythology. Though repetitious, why isn't a cat here among many familiar animals?
Is it only myself that the brain is invaded by such a question? I have thought this way until now. But there are many such articles in the Google. If interested, why not check? If you say it doesn't matter, could you overlook?

Anyway in this "boar" year, my full figure is to be referred to a fat pig, but I do hope this year will be significant to me, too.