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Volume 21
A Day in the Life: 12 to
3 PM
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DISCUSS THIS FEATURE
HERE
14th January 2005
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Noon to 3 PM
Lunchtime in Japan is quite the
event, because everybody seems to stop to eat. Eating at 11:30 AM or 1 PM is
out of the question to most - meaning a mass rush on eateries as the clock
strikes noon. The lesson to be learned from this though is that to get the most
out of your day out on the slopes, plan your day around doing things during
shoulder periods instead of at peak times.
Read on for the fifth 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 31, 2004
Today is always one of the toughest days for operations.
Staff work extended hours to help guests bring in the New Year - only to get up
at a hideous hour on New Years Day to take care of morning operations.
This season was particularly rough because the snows arrived
late, meaning that resorts in this region of Japan could not open as scheduled.
Reservations in place for up to a year were cancelled - with part time workers
put into limbo, as resorts were not generating forecasted revenue streams.
Given that Arai was scheduled to open on Saturday, December 11 - the weather
report from 10 days later posted below indicates that the actual opening day
was still not confirmed!
Daily Weather Report as posted on Snow Japan:
Tuesday 21st December 2004, 9:47AM
What a difference a day makes! Clouds, wind and rain gathered in the Joetsu
region yesterday afternoon. Overnight, snows fell on the mountain. There is 10
cm of fresh snow to report at the top of the mountain, with 5 cm of new at the
base. It is snowing presently in the village and on the mountain as well. Snow
is forecast to fall daily through the end of this week. The snow in the village
is wet with that up top relatively drier. Although the above report is
encouraging, more snow is required before the groomers can head out to prepare
the runs. Essentially, it is not about snow falling or not now, but instead how
much snow falls. If all goes well, there is a chance of limited mountain
operations from Friday, December 24. Stay tuned for daily updates...
Updated: Tuesday
21st December 2004, 9:47AM
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Current snow depth |
(ARAI) Mid station 45 cm, Base 5 cm |
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Snow depth on previous update: |
(ARAI) Mid station 35 cm, Base 0 cm |
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New snowfall overnight |
Mid station +10 0cm, Base +5 cm |
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Temperature at bottom lift |
+1.0 C |
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Temperature at top lift |
-1.0 C |
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Weather conditions |
Cloudy, then snow |
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Wind conditions |
W 2.0 km/hr |
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Visibility conditions |
Medium |
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Type of snow |
Upper part of mountain: Slightly wet
Lower part of mountain: Wet |
Within the
stream of cancellations however came some encouraging signs of colder weather,
cloudy skies and snow!
As the resort
could not offer regular operations as intended, cancellation charges were not
levied. During this rush, the resort contacted all parties with confirmed
reservations. Three types of replies came back (in more or less equal
proportions) as follows:
--Postponement
of the visit to later in the season;
--Cancellation of the reservation; &
--Proceeding with the visit as intended.
Those brave
souls that hoped for the best and came to the resort enjoyed lots of fresh snow
but few open runs - as limited operations began on Saturday, December 25.
Behind the
scenes, mountain operations struggled to deal with all the new snow (in order
to open more runs as quickly and safely as possible). By the last day of 2004,
the season was beginning to look more regular (as the following weather report
indicates) thanks in a large part to some solid effort by mountain operations.
Friday 31st
December 2004, 9:28AM
Yesterday was relatively dry in the Joetsu region, with the occasional periods
of snow. Overnight at Arai, +7 cm of snow fell on the upper elevations of the
mountain with +20 cm falling at the base. As the temperatures rarely rise above
freezing these days, the snow on the mountain is of high quality - but still
rather sparse compared to previous years. Presently in the area it is dry but
overcast - with these conditions looking set to hold for most of the day.
Tonight, winds are expected to pick up and bring a full day of snow to the
region tomorrow.
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Current snow depth |
(ARAI) Mid station 224 cm,
Base 90 cm |
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Snow depth on previous
update: |
( ARAI) Mid station 217
cm, Base 70 cm |
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New snowfall overnight |
Mid station +7 cm, Base 20
cm |
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Temperature at bottom lift |
+1.0 oC |
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Temperature at top lift |
-1.1 oC |
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Weather conditions |
Snow, then cloudy |
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Wind conditions |
0.3 km/hr |
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Visibility conditions |
Good |
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Type of snow |
Upper part of mountain:
Hard packed
Lower part of mountain: Hard packed |
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Areas where riding
possible |
Most of mountain except
conditional zones |
FLASH BACK
to February 22,2004
The Kids Restaurant within the Guide Center belonging to the
Guest Relations division is busy serving up lunch to full-day
participants of Kids Adventure. The kids come off the slopes just before noon
and get out of their wet snow wear and line up for lunch. Given that the
concept of a line up varies from culture to culture, participants of different
backgrounds approach this line up in different ways. Is it males first or
females? Regardless, it is pretty impressive that all kids are fed and back out
on snow by about 1:30 in snow wear that has been dried during lunch.
Trio Latino,
one of the two Philippine in-house bands belonging to the Human Resources
Division, is in the middle of its first of two lunch sets at a restaurant
in the village. Although packed with a mixture of hotel guests, day
skiers/boarders and locals up for Sunday lunch - not to mention hall staff
serving these guests, the band manage to somehow play their music in an
unobtrusive way that relaxes everyone. I’ve worked with this band in various
roles for several years now and am continuously impressed with their talent.
Perhaps my fondest memory of them to date was when Trio had all of the best
mountain bikers in the world on their feet singing in a kind of competition
during dinner one night. It was the Asian leg of the annual UCI downhill and
dual world cup circuit, and anyone fortunate enough to be there that night
probably still has similar fond memories - the band is that good. That night,
they worked their magic with a mixture of hits from the 60’s, 70’s &
80’s - as well as some theme songs from popular television shows past. Their
depth however really stands out in my mind because their repertoire also
includes Japanese Enka and theme songs from kid TV shows in this country such
as Doraemon (the traditional song for the series, that is).
Although I have no idea how many
calories patrol members of the Mountain Division burn during an average
working day, they eat well at lunch. Most patrol members eat this meal in their
mountain base, which is found on the fourth floor of the building that also
houses the peak of the gondola. Lunch for each patrol member consists of an
individual boxed lunch (prepared down in the village daily and shipped up to
the base just after 11 AM), supplemented by hot drinks prepared on site as well
as instant ramen available via a vending machine within the base! The managers
of this division - when not eating lunch - coordinate daily patrol operations
from here, while also spotting both the weather outside and activity at the
base of the lift traveling to the top of the mountain. It is actually a coveted
duty for patrol members as they get to work indoors for a change and give their
feet a break from the constricting shells of ski boots!
I’ve never met somebody that worked
on a mountain for an extended period of time who was not a hearty eater, myself
included! Lunch for members of the Inventory of Skills Division means
one of four things:
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1) |
Walking through the underground tunnels from the main
office to the staff cafeteria - followed after lunch by a return trip back; |
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2) |
Visiting one of the restaurants with a co-worker (if it is not too busy) or
attending to guests; |
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3) |
Buying some instant ramen and bread to eat back at your
desk; or |
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4) |
Tucking into a lunch brought from home. |
Lately I prefer the last
option simply because I have both more freedom to choose when I eat and it is
kind of nice to eat something different from everyone else. Readers of this
column in Japan that eat school lunches with their students can no doubt relate
- one fixed menu at a set time for everyone grows tiresome after the novelty
wears off.
Although the Hotel division
outsources chambermaid duties, these groups usually eat lunch together on their
respective floors. All hotels have three guest room floors each, and I
understand that each such floor in the hotels have their own chambermaid team -
with different hotels sometimes hosting rival cleaning companies! The
underground tunnels connect all three hotels, and the staff elevators in each
usually offload on guest floors straight into the office of that floors
cleaning team. Sometimes when a guest arrives a hotel staff member and I will
take luggage up to the room via these elevators, and we’ve offloaded straight
into the middle of a group of grandmothers peacefully chowing down on more than
one occasion! Cleaning companies in Japan seem to charge by the square
centimeter for their services, and it is not uncommon to see managers hovering
over blueprints with a magnifying glass to try and see if the cleaning bill is
on the up and up!
Lunch at
the pipe, overseen by the Guest Relations Division, is altogether a
different matter. When the weather is good, the boarders buy bread brought up
from the Bakery and hang out along the environs of the pipe. The music flows
and the sun shines, with boarders and skiers in action at the pipe steady given
that it is one of the busiest days of the week. Although the scene sounds
great, it is days such as this where the pipe takes a real beating through both
heavy use and the rays of the sun. Quite often after a heavy day such as this,
the pipe will need to be closed on a weekday for major maintenance. To that
point, patchwork maintenance on the pipe is a daily thing, with groomers
packing snow etc. overnight. Before opening, staff go over the pipe touching up
final bits manually. During the day, those on duty will ride the pipe and
perform maintenance whenever they can/need to.
Lunch for the Avalanche Control guys
of the Mountain Division can sometimes mean eating at 1,429 meters above
sea level at the peak of Mt. Ohgenashi. Long time readers of this column may
remember the name Ko Tanaka (interviewed in Volume 3 of the setting journals).
Tanaka-san
looked after me when I was helping to set the mountain each morning a few years
back. One morning there was not much new snow so Ko asked me to hike up to the
peak with him. For those of you that have hiked uphill on unpacked snow while
carrying skis or a board, you may agree that it can be quite the haul. At the
top however we were treated to a splendid view and were actually joined by
locals out to find a bear that had been spotted in the area a few days earlier.
At the peak Ko explained to me that out of all the places on the mountain to
take lunch, he enjoyed eating at the peak the most - despite the chance of
coming across a hungry bear. That morning we were followed up to the peak by
several guests also out to enjoy the highest conditional zones on the mountain,
and all of us enjoyed swooshing down along the boundary lines of the resort
back to the groomed runs.
So what happens
when the locals out following up on bear sightings actually catch up with the
unfortunate soul? According to tale relayed by the Accounts division, it
is actually made into soup and offered to employees in the staff cafeteria!
When bears are caught, the locals invite the executives of the resort down for
a party. As most of these executives are Metropolitan types, they probably
never expected in their wildest dreams to be invited to a potluck party
featuring bear. Fortunately, alcohol flows freely at such events helping to
take the edge off the whole experience. Unfortunately for the ladies of the
accounts division, they did not take to the bear soup offered by the previous
master of the staff cafeteria. To date, I’ve yet to try bear. Perhaps if I
had been invited to the locals party and imbibed rather freely, this bear
report would be different.
The split shift
is pretty common at the resort for the chefs of the Restaurant Division.
At the Italian restaurant, the chefs seem to appear in the underground tunnels
just before 10 AM to pick up their cleaned uniform. Once changed, they proceed
to their kitchen to cook up a storm for the lunch crowd - but what do the chefs
themselves eat for lunch? As it turns out, the restaurant staff rounds up a
daily kitty consisting of 200 yen from each staff member working that day, and
just shy of 2 PM one of the chefs will cook up the menu for that day. The dish
is usually simple but nourishing, with staff helping themselves to it as they
come off the lunch shift. After lunch the chefs retire to their own special
tatami room for a quick nap before rising again for the dinner shift.
Despite the occasional offering of
bear soup, the staff cafeteria run by the Human Resources Division has
served up some tasty fare over the years for a very reasonable 250 yen a meal.
What does the staff of this cafeteria eat? Same as everyone else that has eaten
at the cafeteria that day. Again, the pattern of eating together comes into
play, as all staff of the cafeteria will sit down to break bread every lunch.
Joining them sometimes is the band getting off the lunch shift, and all usually
rest in the cafeteria and watch some TV and/or smoke. Unfortunately, smoking by
the staff in such areas is ubiquitous, and can tend to upset foreign staff that
are used to dining in smoke-free zones.
Back at the main office, a member of
the Sales division leaves his desk to visit the smoking corner of the
main office. Considered to be “smoking clean” in Japan, these corners often
come equipped with a ventilation unit that looks similar to a Korean-style BBQ
unit found in “Yakiniku” restaurants. While I am all for employees having a
place where they can take a break and talk with fellow co-workers, these
yakiniku ventilation jobs do not prevent second-hand smoke from drifting
through the office - especially in winter when the windows are closed. Local
staff often claim that smoking is an essential communication tool within an
organizational setting, but my lungs beg to differ!
Out in the fresh mountain air,
screams of pleasure are heard from kids riding the Banana Boat. This is a type
of sled (shaped like a banana) and towed behind a snowmobile driven by a guide
of the Guest Relations division. Native-English speaking guides who have
done this often comment afterward that they are surprised how slow the banana
boat actually moves along, but it is actually outfitted with speed-limiting
brakes to ensure the safety of the kiddies. Although the Kids Adventure
offers many different snow-related activities, banana boat rides seem to be the
highlight for the wee ones.
Summary
At this point
on a fine day, some guests have retired from the slopes and are lunching in the
plaza. Eateries at the resort leased out to vendors offer take out food,
meaning a rather festive Piazza-style atmosphere for all. Children run around
freely amongst napping guests that have spilled out of resort eateries, while
some adults sip on Arai Micro Brew.
Staff are sent to the plaza just
before 3 PM to clean up litter and the like - inevitable given the above. For
office workers such as myself, it is a chance to stretch the legs and
get some fresh air while also catching some of the natural buzz created by
guests coming off the slopes. During winter, the sun is already noticeably
descending behind Mt. Ohgenashi, putting the guest face of the mountain into
shadows extending all the way down to the village.
Is this the end of the day however? No - far from it - but
further details will have to wait until the next volume of this mini-series
within the setting journals comes out. I wonder what
will happen between now and then that I will write about in my opening note?
If you can’t wait for March, please drop a line in the
thread linked to this article. Have a safe one, eh?
Click here to go straight to the next article - "3PM to 6PM"
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