this is a day in the life of a Japanese
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waitress this is you 24 years old living
in the heart of Tokyo and she's just
waking up for
work I guess she's still a little
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sleepy she lives on her own in this 1K
apartment meaning one room and kitchen
not surprising in the middle of the
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city oh she's using a disposable
toothbrush that's a new one for the
series
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she's originally from Fukuoka but
because of her love for anime she would
visit Tokyo at least once a month to
attend anime events so it was only
natural for her to move here after
graduating
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University that's an interesting
breakfast yo you have so many remotes
so what do you watch oh what's your
favorite right
now cool I guess she's going to watch
some anime while she gets
ready so Yuki considers herself an anime
otaku in Japan otaku meaning someone
who's deeply obsessed in something once
having a negative connotation of people
so obsessed in their hobby that they
were thought of as poorly dressed and
stayed home all day but now there are
Fitness otaku and even fashion otaku in
Japan in fact today 45% of Japanese
consider themselves
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otaku so Yuki commutes to work by train
along with the majority of Tokyo
residents her commute fortunately is
only about about 15 to 20 minutes with
no transfer as she was able to choose
her apartment after getting her
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job good morning y'all I'm back with
another day in the life this one is
going to be a special one the train
should be coming soon and Yuki should be
on it I think it's right
here good morning did you sleep well
last
night damn I guess that's early for her
so our workplace is just a 4-minute walk
from the Shinjuku station West exit
interestingly Shinjuku station itself is
a world's busiest railway station with
over 3.6 million people passing through
daily which helps explain their constant
flow of
customers and this is where she works
Yuki is a waitress at Pandora a
Tepanyaki restaurant Japanese style flat
grill which has been a local favorite
since 1972 serving Kobe beef steaks and
tanaki cor meals
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so one of her first tasks in the morning
is to check the restaurant's emails to
ensure that all of the reservation
requests she received overnight are
registered in the system after that she
works on the Shop's social media what do
you have to do
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hi oh she's talking on the phone taking
customer reservations is also one of her
daily responsibilities now she moves on
to her next morning task cleaning
starting with the restrooms in Japan
it's common not to use cleaning
companies for restaurants and businesses
in general it's very much ingrained in
Japanese culture taught as early as
Elementary School Japanese students
learn to respect their surroundings by
taking responsibility for different
areas in the scho School each day
including the toilets oh that's an Oshi
buy the customary wet towel offered
before the meal it's not only used for
customers to wipe their hands but also
it's a sign of Welcome Oshi foies are
regularly offered warm in the winter and
chilled in the summer to create an even
more welcoming environment do you buy
those oh I guess a restaurant received a
delivery from the beverage vendor it's
not necessarily her job to stock the
items but it's common in Japan for any
of the workers to pick up small tasks
like this when they see it's available
it's all about working as a
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team so about half an hour before the
restaurant opens Yuki starts prepairing
the signs in Tokyo and other major
cities in Japan where the restaurants
are often hidden inside of buildings
like Pandora restaurants commonly
advertise their menu with pictures on
street
level what you made that
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so it looks like Yuki is going to be
cleaning for just a little bit so let's
do what we do and explore this place
maybe we can meet some
people hi what are you
doing so what's on today's
menu can't wait to see see it so that
sign behind me is really important it
actually tells you where the beef is
coming from and it even has a serial
number oh the chef is doing stashi
ingredient prep for the day and wow she
cleans the drain right away got to
appreciate that cleanliness and now she
does stashi for the garlic which is a
key ingredient in many tanaki dishes so
what do you use the garlic for
are you g to slice it
now hi can I bother you you look like
the manager how long have you been
working
here so what's important when working as
a
manager got
it cool they even have a private smoking
here so you don't bother the other
customers okay so I was actually looking
at this tank behind me I'm like oh I
guess they don't have any fish in fact
just right here they have awabi oh
Blades of Steel that's a real deal 16th
century Samurai armor worn by one of the
top generals poier MAA sitting in the
open the restaurant actually has two
separate restaurants one on the second
floor and the other on the fourth and
the workers share the load between the
two today Yuki is working mainly on the
fourth floor the Kobe beef specialty
tanaki restaurant but will sometimes
help on the second floor as
needed in a typical Japanese tanaki
restaurant the chef Cooks the food over
a flat stainless steel grill right in
front of the customer so it's Yuki's job
as a waitress to see the clients take
orders serve drinks and sides while also
keeping the table
clean the food looks phenomenal sizzling
on the tipon interestingly it's often
completely confused with hiachi which in
Japan is simply a circular heating
container designed to hold burning
charcoal and Tepanyaki itself in Japan
is not known to be a flashy dinner
performance but a way to cook food such
as steak okon Yaki and Mona
Yaki wow it's before noon and the seats
are already filled up okay so we are in
the kitchen and you can see right here
this is the Miso soup and those are the
ingredients that when you put the Miso
soup in it's all ready to go in fact
it's typical in a Japanese restaurant
for the rice and miso to be served at
the same time as the main dish so it's
her responsibility to keep a Keen Eye on
each table to ensure that the food is
served on
time by the way do you have any days
off and what do you do when you're
raw like
what cool do you go alone
oh how do you make friends
online I
see oh I guess this salary man is here
for a quick lunch in the city especially
in crowed business districts with many
Japanese salmen it's common for
restaurants during lunchtime to also
prioritize a speedy and Quick Service
understanding that many office workers
have short lunch breaks so the
restaurant staff need to be extra
diligent when preparing and serving food
so I think Yugi is going to be a little
bit busy serving all the customers so
let's go down to the second floor and
see what's going
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on oh the chef's making their lunchtime
hurger what's the key to a delicious
hamburger cool so Japanese hambu is
quite a bit different compared to the
Western hamburger for one the meat Patty
is served with a side of rice instead of
between two buns also the Patty itself
is made to be juicier and ingredients
like onion PCO egg and flour are often
used creating a different flavor and
texture
profile wow that smells
amazing is it slowing
down oh I
see Yuki is also responsible for
pretending to the front register in
Japan it's fairly common for customers
to pay at the register even more so
during lunchtime so it's normal to have
a line of salmen waiting to pay at the
door oh that's the yoshu show an
official Japanese unitemized receipt
often requested by Japanese businessmen
for tax filing
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purposes oh it seems like the last
lunchtime customer left in Japan it's
very common for restaurants to close
down for a few hours between lunch and
dinner to clean up rest and prepare for
the evening oh she's recording the sales
from lunchtime how are the sales so
far that's good to
hear so this is awesome they're about to
have their maai
Meal yay the workers's lunchtime she
didn't eat much for breakfast so she
must be
hungry at this restaurant everyone helps
out by cooking and serving their own
makanai a meal provided by the
restaurant for the workers it's a large
part of Japanese restaurant culture for
workers to eat together in this way mcai
allows the workers a chance to talk bond
with each other and it even sometimes
gives rise to new menu ideas a lot of
the time though the McAn ey meals are
completely different from what's served
on the Restaurant's
menu where are you going
now shopping for store supplies is also
one of our responsibilities other than
food and drinks the restaurant also
needs to purchase cleaning supplies
stationaries napkins and so on they
often purchase in bulk online but since
the store is really close by she goes in
person almost every
day so what did you buy
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today I guess the dinner shift has begun
and there's a customer
already so the restaurant reopens at
5:00 p.m. for dinner common for many
restaurants in Japan you usually
starting slow with customers but picking
up by around
six another common requirement when
working as floor staff for many Japanese
restaurants is fluency and KGO a system
of honorific speech in the Japanese
language to show a sign of respect in
this case to the customers even
difficult for many Japanese especially
without practice fortunately for Yuki
she worked part-time at a restaurant
even during University which allowed her
plenty of opportunity to refine her
language ability what what's
that nice apparently the restaurant is
doing a collaboration with the Vocaloid
producers to create seasonal menu items
like this and Yuki is the one who
organized it she says that as an anime
otaku it's one of her future dreams to
create and run her own collaboration
Cafe although it's still a vague idea
right now she truly appreciates working
for an owner that provides such an
encouraging environment I hope her dream
comes
true nice they're staying the customer
all the way off to the elevator known as
Omi UI escorting customers is part of
Japanese restaurant culture as well as
high-end apartment stores and even car
dealerships it's a sign of respect and
gratitude for coming to their
business she says that during her time
working as a full-time waitress she
learned the importance of reading and
anticipating the customer needs and
acting beforehand it's a large part of
Japanese otashi culture a deep and
honest form of hospitality treating
customers with respect without asking
for anything in return one of the main
reasons why in Japan tips at the end of
the meal are very
uncustomary okay so the last customer
left now it's time to clean up the
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place oh it looks like Yuki is washing
the dishes for the last time today
although the workers started cleaning up
when the customers slowed down towards
the end of the night now the team
focuses all of their attention to
closing
up okay it looks like Yuki is done on
the fourth floor but now she joined the
second floor to help finish
up oh she's cleaning out the Beer
Dispenser apparently the restaurant
cleans each piece and runs water through
the machine as part of their daily
cleaning routine to ensure that
customers receive the best quality beer
each and every time it's served now she
has to recheck the beverage inventory
and place orders for the next day oh so
you're using the fax machine to place
the order
so in Japan fax machines even in this
day are still being used not only in
business offices but in restaurants as
well there are still vendors and
customers who prefer fax so as not to
inconvenience them and to keep their
business Japanese establishments
continue to offer fax
Support also all the sales from today
must be accounted for and recorded at
this point the restaurant is almost
ready to be closed but since she still
has a bit of extra time she again makes
use of it by doing some administrative
work like making Flyers creating SNS
post and so
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on nice she's bringing home the left
over rice yay finally done quite a long
day but for many Japanese who work
full-time in the Japanese food service
industry the shift starts from when the
restaurant opens until it
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closes at last she's made it home time
for her to get her me time
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but first before dinner she quickly
plastic wraps the rice individually for
freezing quite a common practice in
Japan she says this amount of rice will
last her for about a full
week now time to get dinner ready I
guess today she's having the rice that
she brought back with her along with
other food she already has in her fridge
you cook that fish
yourself I guess it's one of the
advantages that you get to save on food
when working at a restaurant finally she
gets to watch her favorite anime and
enjoy her
dinner so it looks like Yi's going to
finish up dinner and then after that
probably watch her anime until 2:00 at
which point she'll go to sleep that's
pretty much a day in the life of a
Japanese waitress if you guys like this
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