Hotel

ホテル

Hotel & restaurant

My name is Tessin Sano and I was born in Japan. Both my parents are Japanese, but we came to Solsona, here in Catalunya, when I was 12 years old. I lived, studied and worked in Barcelona for several years. But, after some time, I decided to come back to Solsona and establish a family business that would put its focus on cultural exchanges between Catalunya and Japan. Fromhere, I would also offer translation, interpreting, and coordination services.
As years went by, we opened “Kinoko”, a Japanese restaurant also located Solsona. Not long after, we also grew into a travel agency, focusing on fully customised trips to Japan.

My name is Nuri Jou, and I was born in Cirera, a traditional Catalan cottage in Lladurs, north of Solsona, where I first studied. I went on to graduate from the University of Lleida and decided to continue my studies in Barcelona, where I would work for several years.
After coming back to Solsona, I have been working for more than 15 years as a social worker in different public offices in the area.

Hotel Restaurant

My name is Tessin Sano and I was born in Japan. Both my parents are Japanese, but we came to Solsona, here in Catalunya, when I was 12 years old. I lived, studied and worked in Barcelona for several years. But, after some time, I decided to come back to Solsona and establish a family business that would put its focus on cultural exchanges between Catalunya and Japan. Fromhere, I would also offer translation, interpreting, and coordination services.
As years went by, we opened “Kinoko”, a Japanese restaurant also located Solsona. Not long after, we also grew into a travel agency, focusing on fully customised trips to Japan.

My name is Nuri Jou, and I was born in Cirera, a traditional Catalan cottage in Lladurs, north of Solsona, where I first studied. I went on to graduate from the University of Lleida and decided to continue my studies in Barcelona, where I would work for several years.
After coming back to Solsona, I have been working for more than 15 years as a social worker in different public offices in the area.

Casa Puigpinos, the name of the building where the hotel is located, has belonged to my family for nearly 890 years, since it was built in 1131. The surname Puigpinós has been passed down for centuries through my family until my grandmother, the last generation of owners with this surname and the last to live in the building. After her, no men were born, so my mother and I did not bear the surname, but we are descendants of this age-old family.
After they left, a family of sharecroppers took care of it, followed by some people who used it as a summer residence. Around the 70s, some renovations were made to the building, mainly on the roof.

We met each other in Solsona’s high school, since Tessin arrived here with his parents and brothers when he was 12. Since they wanted their kids to live far from a bustling and busy place like Tokyo, they chose Solsona. Actually, from the moment we first met, we already believed that this house should be restored and adapted in order to keep the legacy alive.

Years passed, and we went on to raise a family, now with two kids, and we want them to have the chance to live in such a quiet place as Timoneda and enjoy nature, as I did myself, when I was a child, here in a masia of the area.

In order to restore the estate, around 2008 we decided to start growing truffles (Tuber Melanosporum) and, as of 2022, we have five hectares of it. We want to keep alive our region and protect the environment. And we do enjoy taking care of it.

In 2015, we got in touch with some Japanese architects in Barcelona (KOBFUJI architects) and some Catalan ones from the same Solonsa (Padullés – Arquitectes) in order to make this masia in a house that would see flourish countryside tourism, but we saw that the main focus of the project should be another one.

After giving it some thought, we decided to make it a Japanese hotel, thus maintaining the very essence of our Catalan-Japanese family. And we also would have a very different lodging model.

In 2019 we moved forward with the idea and again contacted those architects. KOBFUJI architects would work with the interiors with Japanese style and Padullés Arquitectes would take care of the restoration and reforming of the building’s structure.
The works began in 2020 but had to be halted because of COVID-19 pandemic. We resumed the process in 2021, up to 2022, with its opening.

We aim to take care of our natural environment as well as preserve this estate that has been in the hands of our family for centuries.

We want to make this project even bigger, with more rooms and to make it alive with plenty of activities that connect our guests with the beautiful countryside the Solsonés is. But we want to fuse it with Japanese culture. We also aim to have an onsen, a hot spring area based on the Japanese tradition, which can be found in the ryôkan (Japanese traditional lodgin)