Dear diary: 4月19日! Meal coupons and inbound travel
The Japanese use a word ‘hitori kotoba’ ( 一人言葉) to describe people who talk to themselves. Most of my coworkers always talk to themselves while working in the office, so it’s pretty common to call them out on it! They know they’re being loud and always get flustered when I mention it haha.
Today was a busy morning, since we had over 100 inbound guests from Taiwan. They were from 4 different travel companies, so they had different schedules and departure times.
Gonna do some explaining here! When guests check-in, they get meal coupons either by purchasing them separately or get them as addition according to the accommodation packages they’re using. These meal coupons give the guests free passage for breakfast. Usually there is a bellboy or a front desk worker by the elevator, who will show the way to the designated breakfast restaurant. In the restaurant, the guests can choose their breakfast from three different kinds of options: Japanese breakfast (washoku 和食), American style breakfast (yooshoku 洋食) or a healthy continental breakfast. The Western stylized restaurant Rose is the main restaurant serving breakfast, but when there are a lot of guests, in addition the Japanese restaurant Yoshikawa serves breakfast. Yoshikawa serves only washoku though.
Ok, back to the inbound and the coupons! The main color for the meal coupon is GREEN. But in case we get inbound guests, the game gets a little bit trickier! The front reception adds different colors to the coupons it gives out, so it’s easier for everyone to tell the guests apart and ensure they’re eating with their group and a breakfast they specifically ordered. Today we had green, yellow, pink and purple coupons. Guests with purple and yellow coupons had their breakfast in Yoshikawa, pink coupons went to the Plaza Cafe, and lastly all of the green coupons went to Rose. The Japanese guests staying at the hotel also have green coupons, so the Taiwan inbound had an another additional coupon with a picture of their designated breakfast.
After the breakfast all the inbound guests took some photos with us (especially me haha) and then left with their buses to do some sightseeing etc. I was assigned to stay at the front reception until 12pm. One of my coworkers was training a new trainee and while I listened to her explanations I decided I wanted to make a post on how to read the hotel’s daily schedules. Gonna post that later with photos!
At 12pm I left with GM to Tsukuba to join a meeting with three other hotel’s general managers. They were from Okura Frontier Hotel Tsukuba, Kashima Central Hotel and Keisei Hotel. The meeting was about breaking cooperation with Keisei Hotel and just mainly general stuff about the hotel’s sales, bridals, inbounds etc. The meeting ended around 4pm and we were back in Mito a little after 5pm. Wrote this report so that means I had another 11 hour shift! Whew!!
The GM at Mito Plaza Hotel values omotenashi a lot, so be sure to memorize it!
The main thing to keep in mind in the hotel business is ‘omotenashi’, or hospitality. Customer service at Mito Plaza hotel is about service and hospitality, and it’s important to remember that one does not equal the other. Service is something that is ‘atarimae’, obvious and should be considered as mandatory. Hospitality is one step beyond that. Instead of executing standard customer service, hospitality makes extra effort to ensure customer satisfaction.
The English word ‘hospitality’ is derived from the Latin hospes, meaning "host", "guest", or "stranger". Historically in ancient cultures hospitality involved welcoming the stranger and offering him food, shelter, and safety. I could search for more cool meanings, but I guess that covers enough background for such an important word.
In a hotel hospitality is about reading the guests needs and answering to them before the guest even gets the chance to ask for anything. In Japan it’s all about opening doors for the guests, carrying their bags, putting surprise gifts in their rooms, remembering their birthdays and even playing with their kids.
The head of the Human Resources Office in Mito Plaza Hotel had made arrangements for an apartment for me for the 2 months I was going to spend interning at the hotel. We went with the general manager Mr. Hashimoto (GM from now on) and the front desk worker to finish the paperwork for my apartment at Leopalace21, pay the deposit for the 2 month stay and to get an internet connection for my apartment. It was a lot of difficult Japanese for my brain that had just stayed awake for 24 hours haha.
Afterwards we went to see Mito Plaza Hotel. As a custom I would spend the first night in the hotel guest room and move in to my apartment the next day. In a way it was good chance to get familiar with the level of the hotel, learn the layout of a double room and just RELAX.
After resting for 30 mins I headed to the western restaurant, restaurant Rose for my welcome party.
The next day I ate Japanese breakfast (和食 washoku) with GM and afterwards checked out of my room and joined the office’s morning meeting. I was NERVOUS since I had to use my immaculate Japanese in front of all these people who’d be working with me and training me for the next two months. The office was also mainly filled with higher ups haha.
After that we went with GM and Miss Kugenuma to buy me a suit! I was supposed to borrow one from the hotel, but my 180cm height turned out to be way too tall for them and there was simply no clothes for me. GM ended up buying me a suit, pants, two shirts and a pair of shoes. The suit store, Aoyama even gifted me a snoopy shopping bag after the purchase, since according to them, I was ‘cute’.
Next we went to my apartment to get me settled in. It was the first time after coming to Japan that I was left to my own devices and I happily unloaded my suitcase and turned in for the day. My on-the-job-training was going to start the next morning at 8am!!
I’m going to make yet another post to go into more detail about my apartment!
