Dec 06, 2025
Author's Commentary #11:
Time to talk about Chapter 11: Triple Cedar Hotel and Resort.
Now that Triple Cedar Hotel has made it's debut, I feel now is the best time to do a geography lesson on where the series takes place.
The series primarily takes place in Kawaguchi, Saitama. The city is located towards the south east of the Saitama prefecture and borders the Tokyo wards of Kita and Adachi. Lagoon Pathways is located in Mito, Ibaraki, the capital city of the Ibaraki prefecture. I chose to have the hotel be there since the Ibaraki prefecture is known for having the second largest lake in in the country, Lake Kasumigaura, within its borders.
As for Triple Cedar, it is located in Nikko, which is located in the Tochigi prefecture. I chose this location after seeing some pictures of Tochigi and thinking that perfectly captured how I wanted Triple Cedar to be; a hotel surrounded by forests and trees. Following my trip to Nikko though, I decided to revise the image of it. Like with Lagoon pathways, it is based on a hotel I once went to, and is greatly exaggerated compared to its real world inspiration. Initially, I had it located in Tochigi City after seeing a nice panorama shot of the city, but decided Nikko fit better, thanks in no small part to my vacation there. Tochigi City will still play a role in a future arc of the series though. Now let's shift gears and discuss the new characters.
禿 愛 (Kamuro Ai) is how Ai's name would be spelled in kanji. It literally translates to "bald love". Obviously fitting since Ai has a massive bald fetish. But there's more.
Her birthday is October 14th which is Be bald and free day. Yeah, Ai's whole character is bald, bald, BALD! Though I'll talk more about her later when more is revealed about her in the story. All I'll say is she enjoys being bald, shaving women bald, and is attracted to women and strives to form a harem of bald women.
Her favorite piece is the queen, mainly because she views herself as the queen of all women.
執見 美智子 (Azami Michiko) is how Michiko's name is spelled in kanji. Her first name, 美智子, means "beauty", "wisdom", and "thinker", while her last name, 執見, means "take hold of" and "to meet".
Her birthday is January 25th.
Like Ai, her favorite piece is the queen.
One thing I'll mention about Michiko is that she actually underwent a notable redesign, and now sports a more stylish hair-style that I feel fits her much better than the original. Speaking of redesigns, SPCM Himitsusama, aka Mizuse Niimi, also got a minor redesign in terms of hairstyle.
氷見 卑弥 (Himi Himi) is how Himi's name would be spelled in kanji. 卑弥 means "humble" and "increasingly", while 氷見 means "ice" and "see".
Her birthday is October 7th, which is the day Italian charlatan and con artist, Charles Ponzi, was officially deported from the United States.
Her favorite piece is the queen.
Himi is a brand new character exclusive to the volumes. With Ai's role now being merged with that of a character known as Melisha Kamaleon from the original, Ai's original role in the story is being passed on to Himi.
新美 美都砂 (Niimi Mizuse) is how Mizuse's name is written in kanji. 美都砂 means "beauty", "capital", and "sand" while 新美 means "modern" and "beauty".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
Her birthday is September 9th, which is international beauty day. She also shares this birthday with Yuzuha and Waki from Spice of Life. Funnily enough, this means that September 9th is now the day that has the most number of birthdays for characters created by me, at least for now.
Her favorite piece is the queen, mainly because she believes it is the most beautiful piece on the board.
Mizuse hails from Okinawa and is known as Himitsusama. She's quite skilled at chess and is also the CEO of one of the world's largest women's beauty brands, Mizuse Niimi. She was originally set to appear much later in the story, but I decided to have her appear earlier and have a bigger role in the story.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
