Volume 17 A Day in the Life: Midnight to 3 AM DISCUSS THIS FEATURE HERE 3rd September 2004

Midnight to 3 AM

The weather has been cold and overcast for several days with almost a meter of fresh powder having fallen - and more on the way. As the clock strikes midnight to welcome Sunday, February 22, 2004 - most guests are tucked away in their beds dreaming of the lovely virgin powder to be tackled in the morning. On the operations side of the resort however, many of the staff are up and busy with their jobs that will keep them busy through most of the graveyard shift. What is happening during the dead of night operations wise? Read on for a better idea.

Of all the divisions at the resort, the one for the Mountain is busiest at this time. Operations are coordinated on a round-the-clock basis from the base, which is located in the main office of the village station. The staff member manning the base will coordinate between the constantly updated weather forecasts coming in via satellite, the Pisten Bully base as well as each of the 13 vehicles on the mountain to make sure grooming is carried out both on time and correctly. Fortunately, the skies have cleared so that the lights from each of the Pisten Bully’s can be seen from down in the valley almost 20 kilometers away.

Down in the village bartenders from the Restaurant division are cleaning up after a busy Saturday night, while the last few guests straggle out the door and back to their rooms. Being a bartender at a snow-based resort means absolutely no on-the-job-drinking, as there is always a drive home to deal with following your shift. The bartenders have it rough, as not only do they have the drive to deal with, they also have to first both find their cars in the staff parking lot and then dig them out from the snow. A new bartender a few years back was late for work one day and hastily parked his car in the staff lot as snow started to fall - at the end of his shift he had to dig through mounds of snow to find which one his car was under as he had forgotten where he had parked!

The Internet never sleeps and “Follow the sun” works well, because overseas guests are often making online bookings in the middle of a Japanese night, as was the case for the Inventory of Skills Division on this evening. The Guest in this case was based in Europe and was able to firstly browse the resort site and then place online reservation requests for accommodation, restaurants, lessons and the Spa. These requests are forwarded to the resort and processed the following morning during regular office hours.

A representative from the Sales Division returns to the resort in a company car following a business trip to Tokyo. The car is parked inside one of the resort garages and unloaded of the promotional materials, which are then taken to the storage room for the sales division. This is all done indoors as the various parts of the village are connected by a series of underground tunnels reserved specifically for use by the staff.

The last staff shuttle bus of the night operated by the Guest Relations Division returns to its base (called Park Support) located just below the village on the mountain. On this last run, the driver will have left Park Support just before midnight to pick-up staff at the village. In addition to staff that just finished their shifts in the restaurants, bars or Spa, other passengers include those who are returning from a drink following a night out on the slopes. The shuttle bus then would make the 20-minute drive downhill to the off-site dormitory.

This dormitory is located between the main city of Arai and the resort, and was built in 1993. Although initially built as a dormitory, the resort turned it into a hotel with a restaurant to generate revenue while the main village was being built. When the village was ready, the hotel and restaurant moved to it. Each winter the dormitory houses a large part of the winter staff, about 300 people.

The dormitory rooms are quite comfortable and house up to four people in either bunks or futons. It can be a little cramped at times but life is made easier by the inclusion of an air-conditioning unit, basin, toilet and television.　

Each floor is equipped with washing machines and dryers and the bathing is traditional Japanese style and Communal! A little daunting at first, especially if you enjoy a morning shower as the bathrooms are a bit of a trek.

A fax arrives at the Accounts Division from a travel agent concerning payment details for a group visiting the resort. While this is understandable, faxes also sometimes arrive in the middle of the night from the accounting section of the area’s city office. It seems that accountants can’t wait until the morning to talk with each other about issues such as management counseling and the like.

The two staff members pulling the graveyard shift in the central systems center of the Human Resources Division prepare for a routine check of the grounds within the resort. This consists of checking both the interiors and exteriors of the buildings, as well as monitoring the heating system of the heated plaza.

The concept of underground tunnels for the resort I understand came from Disneyland. The resort is divided into a front yard for the guests and a back yard for the staff, the latter of which the underground tunnels are included. This system of tunnels connects all the buildings at the resort and also houses wiring etc. so that the front yard does not include any utility poles and the like. For lighting in the underground tunnels, the staff will rotate usage of the lights to both save energy and make sure that the vacuum-packed tubes eventually burn out at approximately the same time.

A taxi from Nagano train station arrives at one of the hotels carrying a passenger who has traveled from Tokyo aboard the last bullet train of the day. In this case it is a businessman who is joining his family already at the resort following a dinner meeting in the big city. Fortunately, previous arrangements made by the Hotel Division ensured both that a taxi was waiting for the man at Nagano Station, and that the main doors of the hotel were unlocked for the arrival. Overnight hotel staff at the resort often either remain up late to check-in such a guest, or get up early to check-out guests catching a morning flight from Narita Airport.

Just as the Bartenders of the Restaurant Division have made it home and are beginning to wind down from their shift, the Bakers are dragging themselves out of bed to make it to the resort for their very early morning shift. As Bakers tend to go to bed around 8 PM in the evening, those that live in the dormitory need to have roommates with similar sleeping patterns. While most Bakers have to accept early morning hours as part of the business, the extra time it takes to struggle up a mountain in the middle of the night means waking up that much earlier.

The Shuttle Bus Drivers of the Guest Relations Division have changed vehicles and are now out in snow ploughs of various sizes and shapes clearing both the access roads to the resort as well as parking lots. Although the resort has 4 outdoor lots, overnight parking is permitted in only one. This overnight lot is lit at night and cleared only with smaller ploughs as guest vehicles arrive throughout the night carrying passengers looking for a few hours of shut-eye before slopes open the following morning.

As the mercury drops to the lowest level of the 24-hour period, the Mountain Division would have to worry about lifts freezing up; however, as the chairs of these lifts are all stored internally overnight in a kind of underground garage, there is fortunately no such concern. For the Gondola cars, most are stored indoors behind huge doors at mid-station, with a token few at the base for initial morning operations. While the mercury rarely gets down below minus ten degrees Celsius at this time, the wind chill factor as well as the fact it is usually a wet cold means that freezing up would normally be a concern.

Many Japanese Guests staying at a Hotel like to enjoy a bath first thing in the morning, and the resort offers it’s Japanese Baths to Hotel Guests from 6 AM daily. Unfortunate souls of the Hotel Division (in this case at least one male and one female) will need to rise from their bed at about this time. If such staff stays at the Dormitory, then first they will need to take care of their own needs after waking up. With this out of the way, the staff then make their way outside towards a car used for such staff (shuttle buses do not run at such times). Once the car is cleaned off of snow and warmed up, the trip to the staff parking at the resort is made. Then there is the trek from the staff parking outdoors into the underground tunnels. Once in the tunnels, it is another walk to the elevator that takes the staff up to the baths. To prepare for the opening, staff need to be on-site at least an hour beforehand to prepare towels, check temperatures of the baths etc.

Summary

The average overnight guest to the resort is oblivious to most of the above, and to be honest so was I until well into my tenure at this resort. Indeed, most of the information provided above comes from observing fellow staff throughout successive white seasons - no wonder the veterans of this resort are tough nuts to crack!