The space above our intercom has gotten a little livelier this spring.

“Why would it build a nest somewhere so busy?” Some guests stop and look up, surprised.

There, tucked into a small home of mud and dried grass, sits a swallow.

Our little spring guest has arrived at Fortune Inn once again.

Take a look just above the intercom at our entrance.

The mud and dried grass our swallow carried, bit by bit, have become a sturdy, well-built nest.

Watching the parent bird perch quietly on the rim is the kind of sight that stops you in your tracks.

All day, a soft chirping drifts through the doorway, and the entrance feels a touch more alive than usual.

Building a nest right by a busy doorway isn’t an accident. Swallows have a very good reason for it.

“A home where swallows nest will prosper.” “A house the swallows visit will see business thrive.”

Sayings like these are still passed down across Japan today.

The reason lies in the swallow’s instincts.

To protect their eggs and chicks from predators like crows and snakes, swallows deliberately choose busy places where people come and go.

In other words, the homes and shops swallows pick are the ones where people gather.

From that came the idea that a house the swallows visit is a house that flourishes.

For a place named Fortune Inn, having a swallow choose us feels like a happy stroke of luck.

Here are a few facts about swallows. Once you know them, watching the nest becomes far more interesting.

n early March, swallows set off from Southeast Asia—places like the Philippines and Taiwan—and cross the sea to reach Japan.

Come autumn, they head back to the warm south.

They have a remarkable homing instinct, and many return to the very same nest year after year.

The nest by our entrance may well belong to a swallow that grew up here last spring 🙂

In a single brood, a swallow lays around three to seven eggs—one each day.

After about two weeks of incubation, the chicks hatch.

Just over twenty days later, the chicks have grown nearly as large as their parents and leave the nest.

When conditions are good, a pair may even raise two broods in one summer.

Chicks opening their beaks wide to beg for food is a sight you can only catch right now.

Swallows catch flying insects—mosquitoes, flies, horseflies—right out of the air as they fly.

They’ve long been cherished as beneficial birds that protect crops and daily life from pests.

Charming, yes, but also genuinely hard workers.

Fortune Inn is actually home to a second lucky charm: the carp.

The carp is a symbol of success and advancement. It’s famous from the legend of the “dragon’s gate,” in which a carp that climbs all the way up a waterfall becomes a dragon.

A lucky swallow in the sky, an ambitious carp in the water.

Few inns let you meet both good-luck symbols in one place.

Just looking at them, you start to feel like something good is on its way.

The season when swallows build their nests and chicks peek out lasts only a brief while each year.

We’d love for you to watch this small life grow up close—a spring story you can only see right now.

The lucky swallow and the ambitious carp are both waiting for you at Fortune Inn.

One small request: so the swallow family isn’t startled, please don’t touch the nest, and watch over them gently.

We’d be very grateful.