HafH Network -Hostel KIKO-
Nice to meet you! Iwamu here! I’m the manager of Hostel KIKO here in Sendai.
Kiko is located 17mins walk from JR Sendai Station and 7mins from Itsutsubashi subway station. A large guesthouse in the Tohoku Region, we have 7 four sleeper dormitories, 2 four sleeper female only dormitories and 4 private rooms, and can sleep up to 44 guests at a time.
About 40% of our guests are foreign tourists and around 60% are Japanese tourists. The second floor is a shared space where you can eat, relax or open up your computer and do some work or study.
Our main concept is “a crossroads for local and international”. 5 people, including the owner Saito, manage the guesthouse together with 20 staff members and are creating a place where guests can say “my circle of friends has grown after coming to Sendai!” We also making it easier for locals to say “I have friends all over the world,” through events like dinner parties and language exchange.
So, I hope that I was able to give you a good overview of our guesthouse. Perhaps, some of you are also wondering what the special characteristics of our guesthouse are? There’s a hint in the name of our guesthouse, “KIKO.”
Directly translated, it basically means “stupid” (of a person or things), and is in fact a made up word that’s been used forever in manager Yocha’s household. Whenever someone goofed, someone else would say, “You’re a KIKO” and then everyone would crack up laughing. Rather than an insult, it’s actually quite a warm word.
Hostel KIKO is not a hotel, it’s a guesthouse. It may not be perfect and there may be moments where someone goofs. Yocha always says “we might come off looking a bit stupid sometimes, but that’s what gives our guesthouse the human touch.”
So there you have it. Directly translated it means Hostel Stupid, but there is actually a proper meaning in the name.
Since joining the HafH Network, we’ve had more opportunities for encounters and HafH Neighbors have given our guesthouse an even more human feel.
Just the other day, a HafH Neighbor (who I’ll refer to as “H”) came to stay for two nights. As we all got on well, we thought we’d have a dinner party and set the time for 7pm. By the time we actually got to start eating, it was 8pm. We apologised and told H that we run on KIKO-time. H laughed, said it was no problem, and even helped us in making the food!
HafH stands for Home away from Home – i.e. a second home. While the direct translation of our guesthouse’s name, KIKO, means “a little stupid/foolish”, it basically represents that feeling of coming home and being able to switch off and relax. I feel like it fits well with HafH’s image of “hometown”.
People from all over Japan and the world come to Sendai and meet, and the fun and excitement that comes from this is KIKO. Through our connection with HafH, we’ve been able to reconfirm the meaning and role of the guesthouse that we run. We will work even harder to create a place where more people can come in and say “I’m home!”
Hostel KIKO Facility information
