Our family name: Maruyama is perhaps one of the most ancient name in Hakuba.  And we have a great number of families with the same family name.  So we call each other by his/her first name; like "Makoto" or "Takumi" etc. without caring much about the person's last name in our neighborhood.

    Do you know something?  In Japan, at least in these fifty years, people tended to prefer to call each other by their family names with "san" as the suffix for a small gustier of respect;. like "Maruyama-san" which is roughly equivalent to "Mr. or Mrs. or Miss Maruyama".  This odd, so to speak,  habit is the more distinct the nearer you get to a larger town or even a metropolitan area.  In those places, calling a person by the first name is a delicate thing to do; it could be taken as a sign of insult sometimes, though not very often.  And curiously, if you, for instance, are male addressing to a female person, or vise versa, you and that person could be understood as a couple of lovers or husband and wife.

    In Hakuba, therefore, we use to act like European way.  We suppose that in Japan, calling a person was much like in the other part of the world when we go back at least a hundred years ago; only except those few number of Samurai people.

    Interested?  When you come to stay our Hotel Viola, please find more fun.  And whenever you are interested in our old Inn: YAMABUN, please just let us know.  Or you are already at Hakuba, just take a look at YAMABUN, too.