Volume 20 A Day in the Life: 9 AM to 12 PM DISCUSS THIS FEATURE HERE 12th December 2004

9 AM to 12 PM

The village is full of activity as skiers, boarders and others head towards the village station to take advantage of great weather and abundant snow out on the slopes. The resort was full overnight and pressing operational concerns have been lightened by the favorable effect such desired conditions have on guests. Up at the top of the mountain the first Gondola passengers that boarded at 8:30 AM are now off at the Gondola Peak and catching the final chair up to the peak of the lift services that the mountain offers. These fortunate souls must be contemplating a further hike on foot to the peak of the mountain to cut some fresh tracks back down to the regular runs. Such runs are part of the conditional zones at the resort, which are four “off-piste” zones encompassing 55 hectares located on the upper regions of the mountain. These areas are opened when there is both a sufficient amount of snow and it is determined to be safe to do so on the day. When opened, guests enter at their own risk and natural obstacles are either marked or unmarked…

Read on for the fourth installment in this series within the setting journals - if you have not read the intro. & previous articles to this series, please do so via accessing the links at the bottom of this page - thanks.

Opening Note as of December 10, 2004:
To continue with the theme that opened the last volume of this series, namely that a great deal can happen in a month, some things have happened while others have not. Top of the list is that in my mind the earthquakes that hit the Chuetsu region back in October appear to have settled down somewhat, which is a relief. In the Joetsu region life returned to normal for a couple of weeks before preparations for the season began in earnest.

With each year that passes of my resort life, I find myself being drawn further into the operations process of opening a resort, which while interesting consumes valuable time. In this industry, Marketing and Operations are constantly competing with each other. While both are essential, it is far easier for co-workers to expect you to pay more attention to what they can see needs attending to immediately, and this is usually the case. With the late snows this year, operations have been given extra time to prepare for the delayed opening. While having extra time to prepare, Marketing suffers due to the weather conditions. It is rare indeed in the snow industry for both Marketing and Operations to be happy at the same time.

In a way, staff training can be considered to be a form of Internal Marketing, but this is carried out at the expense of External Marketing. Such training for the seasonal workers this year features a combined Intercultural and Basic English instruction for the first time. The concept of Intercultural relations was framed around pizza of all things, as the Japanese and Foreigners approach this food in a very different manner - quality control experts take note!

The 40-minute lecture begins with a role-play of a server greeting a foreign guest at the Italian restaurant in English, seating them and then taking their order in English. The seasonal workers follow this along with a Japanese translation, and then listen to a 15-minute English lecture that is simultaneously translated into Japanese by one of the bilingual workers at the resort. The lecture entails firstly talking about the differences between pizza in Japan and other countries, and how foreigners visiting Japanese resorts may not be satisfied with “take it or leave it” style pizzas here. Once the theme is clear, then other examples are incorporated into the theme of foreigners visiting a resort including:

-- Removing shoes upon entering water-based facilities;
-- Wearing room slippers;
-- Sitting on the floor Japanese style;
-- Sleeping on futons;
-- Yukata as sleeping wear;
-- Japanese-style toilets;
-- Bathing naked with others.

Following a group stretch, the latter half of the lecture involves a one-shot English class with 32 helpful phrases for dealing with International Guests at the resort. The Seasonal staff will then be issued with a pocket-sized handbook that contains among other things the same 32 phrases. This lecture is repeated on six different occasions along with the other training to a total of approximately 200 seasonal staff. This year’s seasonal staff roster includes both an American and a Canadian, which adds further relevance to the importance of English ability to ensure smooth operations.

FLASH BACK to February 22,2004

Daily Weather Report as posted on Snow Japan:

Sunday 22nd February 2004, 8:52AM
The clear dry weather continued through yesterday and overnight, with no new snow to report. Though this weather is expected to continue through today, rain is expected later with snow following overnight. The snow has suffered over the past few days, and becomes increasingly wet and slushy as daily operations progress. The mountain will be busy today with families taking advantage of the sunshine.

Updated : Sunday, February 22 2004, 8:52 AM

The patrollers of the mountain from the Guest Relations Division setting the mountain are enjoying this morning extensively. The daily job of setting the mountain proceeds from top to bottom, and on days of heavy snow those staff helping the patrol are tired, hungry and cold! Setting the mountain is an extensive process that has been written about in Volume 2 of the setting journals here.

Not this morning however, as no snow overnight means a playful race towards the bottom of the slopes followed by a quick ride up one of the shorter lifts to get in a quick run! The season I spent (White Season 2001/02) helping the patrol to set the mountain each morning had one or two days like this, and my experiences from that work has inspired many of the volumes to appear in the setting journals. Whenever the senior patrol members broke the normal routine, it was a sign that snow conditions were at their peak! No time for a second such run as the guests from the village are making their presence on the mountain felt…

The groomers of the Mountain Division have now returned to their base and are in the process of servicing their Pisten Bullys following the night shift. The Pisten Bully base is considered to be high-end by a man that designs ski courses for a living (Mike Larson - formerly of Vail Resorts) and he always remembers to tease the Pisten Bully operators about what a nice hotel their base would make whenever he visits the resort. 

Although I’m never sure if he’s serious or not, the Pisten Bully operators and he go way back to the time the first courses went in at the mountain, so perhaps it is the latter. With the completion of Phase 1 of the resort finishing a few years back, I had the pleasure of talking with Mike on several occasions and his insight into the snow industry left a great impression that has served me well since then.

The Guide Center in the village station, belonging to the Guest Relations Division, is full of activity as the reception for the daily Kids Adventure has now closed and priority shifts to getting the participants out onto the slopes! Mixed in are both infant siblings of some of the participants as well as Mom and Dads. The infants have been checked into the Nursery, and the parents are meeting up with their guides for the Papa & Mama plans. Last season the resort offered a Native English Snow Board instructor from Canada and for the present season there are two professional Australian instructors.

To be clear, I am concerned about the legs of such instructors because their services are always in high demand during the peak of the season. They commonly go straight from the Early Bird to a morning lesson, followed by another lesson in the afternoon - whew! In latter seasons, repeat guests often request the same guides by name when making reservations for lessons and the like, which confirms to me their popularity.

Having Native English Speakers working in the Guide Center has ensured smoother operations at peak periods. The Snow Board instructor from Canada could speak some Japanese (perhaps the top qualification requested by management) and also both had previous experience working at a mountain as well as related retail experience. The Aussie instructors hold extensive North American, Australian and Japanese qualifications.

Not all guests have made a beeline for the slopes, and indeed some are still lingering over breakfast provided in one of several eateries operated by the Restaurant Division. I find myself in the Japanese restaurant and come across some repeat visitors who have not seen me the whole weekend. “Were you taking a little holiday?” they ask politely, and in reply I told them that no, I’ve just been busy behind the scenes. Fortunately as mentioned earlier, I’ve had to do less attending to guests with each successive season as the resort itself becomes more competent in its dealings with foreigners, and the repeaters now know their own way around the place and have developed unique preferences and the like. Just when I think I’m in the clear however comes that unanswerable question, “What was that bell I heard earlier this morning?” It turns out that it was the bell signaling pending gondola operations, though to be honest I was not entirely sure of the answer at the time. Such is resort life; you end up being an eternal student of the place…

A maintenance person belonging to the Human Resources Division boards a Gondola to get to the mid-station, where one of the flush toilets has seen better days. My background is such that finding flush toilets on a mountain is rare, and to have them both at Mid-Station as well as at the Gondola Peak with heated seats to boot is like another world. The first time I rode the Gondola back in February of 1993 I was blown away by two things: 1) That there was a Mid Station and that 2) The direction of The Gondola changes at this point so that the line traveled is like 10 minutes to two on a clock. I learned later (again from Mike Larsen) that the Mid-Station may be the largest of such structures in the world and indeed needs to be roped off around the outside each winter. This is due to the fact that when the snow that piles on the conical roof decides to give way and fall to the ground below, the weight of such would definitely harm someone. I have actually seen the snow give way, and the accompanying rumble took me straight back to Africa where the lions roared during feeding time. In other words, you halt in your tracks and hope for the best!

My mobile rings and it is the front desk of one of the hotels belonging to the Hotel Division. A guest that booked through me is querying the charges on the related hotel bill and the manager wishes to confer directly with me. Fortunately, this manager speaks decent English so can handle the claim directly as opposed to previous years where I was asked to deal directly with such guests simply because of my native tongue. Also, reservations in the past were not as well organized so quick access to pricing quoted in an e-mail meant a desperate run through the tunnels back to the main office instead of logging on to the nearest network computer. In the end, the guest and the manager settled the claim without my direct participation, something that I could have only dreamed about just a few years back.

The Sound Spur Band hired through the Human Resources Division boards the Gondola at the village station to travel up to their set of lunch shows in the restaurant at the peak of the Gondola. Sound Spur became the first of two main Philippine House Bands at the resort back in 1996 and have sung contract-to-contract with the resort from that time. A four-piece cover band featuring three males and a female singer, the band has entertained many a tired skier and boarder at the resort over the years. When they first discovered that they would be singing 1,000 meters above sea level, their nerves got the best of them in those early days. One of my duties then (as I worked at that time in the same facility) was to deliver their boxed lunches, and so during delivery on the first day I stuck out my hand to receive a gratuity.   The leader of Sound Spur uncomfortably fumbled around for some cash but could not find any, so was relieved when I explained that I was not seriously looking for a tip!

To continue with the “all hands on deck” theme, the lady that sits next to me in the Inventory of Skills Division returns to the main office after having finished helping out with the morning rush down at the guide center. She tells me that two foreign gentlemen appear to be having troubles communicating with a manager of the Guide Center and that I should go down and help out. At the scene I find two Dads that have traveled from Tokyo together with their elder children to the resort for the weekend. It turns out that as they arrived at the guide center after the reception for the Kids Adventure finished at 9:30 AM, their kids may not be able to join the program as the other participants are presently out on snow. Well, to diffuse the situation the two Dads were first asked to sit down, and then once everything was clarified the manager was asked to bend the rules this one time. After some humming and hawing, an arrangement was made and the Dads were able to get out on the slopes. So is it the fault of the manager for not being flexible enough or the guests for not following the rules? Snow Japan members in the thread linked to this article can discuss this topic further....

The first of the guests to visit the restaurant at the Gondola Peak are oblivious to the fact that there are no Kiwis behind the counter but the staff are missing their former co-workers desperately as the English-speaking guests tummies rumble in front of them! The resort was fortunate to be able to hire 4 working holiday kiwis this season for the first time, and the ABCD quartet as they were known by here arrived during a break from Otago University. The Restaurant Division assigned the four to individual restaurants but eventually “B” of ABCD moonlighted by doing the breakfast shift at a restaurant in the village with “A”, and then caught the Gondola up the mountain to pull the lunch shift with “D”. The quartet advanced intercultural relations among the staff here tremendously during their stay and got along nicely as well with the Japanese and International guests alike. Their visit could only be described as a honeymoon though as the next term of Uni called for their return half way through the season.

In my time at the resort the lifts belonging to the Mountain Division have been manned either by friendly young adults or by senior farmers of the area looking for an income during the long winter. A lot of the international guests have often mentioned how friendly these seniors are, despite the fact that native languages of both parties are different. Although the seniors go through English training at the start of each white season as explained in the opening note above, they seem to get by nicely with a smile and friendly manner consistently extended to the guests.

Speaking of seniors (those persons aged 50 years and over), such a guest arrives at the Spa for counseling before the scheduled noon treatment. The resort was the first universally designed one in Japan, and ease of access has meant that grandparents can come along on Ski trips and enjoy the services of the village while the rest of the family is out on the slopes. By universal design, the resort has incorporated a layout that is supposedly both understood and accessible by everyone that visits, including those with special needs. Thus, such persons can enter a pool by descending down a ramp in special wheelchair for example, or utilize lifts to board the Gondola instead of having to use the stairs. When my parents stayed at the resort recently, my father appreciated using ramps and lifts, along with non-slip surfaces designed especially for people that need assistance to get around.

The brew master of the Microbrewery belonging to the Sales Division is busy collecting all of the mini-kegs from the resort eateries and replenishing them with new ones brought up to the tunnels. Not a Sunday goes by without the clanging of the Kegs in transit.

Summary

By noon of this day I was ready for some of the tasty Micro-Brew, but of course that would have to wait, as there was work at hand.

Next time in The Setting Journals I’ll follow up with operations from Noon through 3 PM.

Until then, remember to do three things:
-- Drop a line or two in the thread linked to this article;
-- Make plans to get out on the slopes this white season; &
-- Think Snow!

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