"Akabana", the mystical place where I got stuck for much longer than I wanted to ;-) What is it's secret? The place as such is not fancy, but that's not what backpackers are looking for anyway. It's two simple wooden buildings with tatami inside, one male, one female bathroom. In one room the owner's grandmother lives (and watches tv all day and night). At night the futons are rolled out for people to sleep on. So amenities are really basic.
But the atmosphere is really perfect for a hostel. Hori, the owner and Ippe, the "manager" or someone else from the staff usually organized something for the evening. A barbecue in front of the house, sunset watching on Ama beach or on the mountain, a karaoke night at the Izakaya or... A lot of focus on community life and a laid-back, very friendly atmosphere that made you want to stay. The barbecues were the most popular thing, Hori acted as the grillmaster and just prepared the most incredible amounts of delicious meat, fish and vegetables. One evening we were close to 30 people at the table, so a lot of work! The guys working at the hostel were all just being there for a while, either being students doing a summer job or having a time-out from stressful city-life (yes, there are Japanese people who don't want to work 15 hours every day!). So the staff is also changing from time to time.
There was a lot of partying and fun going on, but Hori and Ippe were also giving some rules and they did it in a smart, friendly-manipulous way. First thing when you checked in you got to read a sheet with some 
behavioural rules called "Akabana lifestyle". It started in the morning. If you were still sleeping at 8.30-9 am, they would just open the curtains and shout a friendly "ohayoo gozaimasu" (good morning). If you tried to ignore that, they would repeat it with your name at the end or start vacuum cleaning next to you... At night when the party got too loud, they would suggest something like "why don't we all go down to the ferry port and watch the stars?". That would usually make people more quiet and when coming back from star watching they would start going to bed. There was a lot of these little friendly manipulation going on, it was funny to observe. 
But nobody really minded it, because the atmosphere at "Akabana" is just great.
behavioural rules called "Akabana lifestyle". It started in the morning. If you were still sleeping at 8.30-9 am, they would just open the curtains and shout a friendly "ohayoo gozaimasu" (good morning). If you tried to ignore that, they would repeat it with your name at the end or start vacuum cleaning next to you... At night when the party got too loud, they would suggest something like "why don't we all go down to the ferry port and watch the stars?". That would usually make people more quiet and when coming back from star watching they would start going to bed. There was a lot of these little friendly manipulation going on, it was funny to observe. 
But nobody really minded it, because the atmosphere at "Akabana" is just great. 
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