This is a day in the life of a Japanese hotel worker
This is Yohei, 30 years old living in Tokyo
and he's just waking up for work
He starts his day by checking his temperature
as these days it's become a company requirement
He lives in this one room apartment
and by Tokyo standards it's fairly spacious
Yohei, how long does it take you before you leave the house?
I guess that's a single life
Interestingly, Tokyo has a highest number of single households in Japan
at 49 percent, whereas the average in Japan is 35 percent
Damn, that's a lot of masks!
I guess these days you can never have enough
Yohei is originally from Chiba
and first moved to Tokyo for university
after graduating he started working for his current company
first in Kobe for two years
then transferring back to Tokyo
Yohei lives only five minutes away from the train station
and then another 15 minute train ride to work without a transfer
It's not the shortest commute time
but far better than most in Tokyo
Plus he doesn't have to negotiate
through a Tokyo rush hour transfer
All right, we're back with another 'Day in the Life'
I'm really excited to see how this day unfolds
Yohei should be on this train right now
Let's see how he slept the night before
Good morning
How did you sleep last night?
Is your office far from here?
So Yohei works as an assistant manager at
APA hotel Shinjuku-Gyoenmae
APA is one of the largest hotel chains in Japan
There are 623 hotels in the country
with about 98 000 rooms
APA hotel uniquely identified
as a new urban style hotel:
high quality, high functionality
without all the unnecessary services
often mistaken as a Japanese business hotel
which are typically budget style hotels:
smaller rooms, bare amenities
and close to the train station,
originally intended for traveling Japanese salarymen
After clocking in, Yohei has a traditional Japanese morning meeting called chorei
At his hotel though there are
both day shift and night shift workers
and so at the beginning of each shift they hold a similar meeting
To command staff recite the APA principles in unison
which is typical for many Japanese companies
Afterwards the staff practice their cutomer greetings
In Japan, there's a unique hospitality custom called omotenashi
It means services are always
completely genuine and honest
Because it's so deeply rooted in Japanese culture
the staff make extra efforts to provide guests
with the best experience possible
without expecting anything in return
First thing in the morning Yohei cleans around the hotel
Yohei, do you do this every morning?
In Japan, it's important for companies
to maintain a clean kept area in front of their business
which also includes public walkways
Although not their responsibility to clean
they do it anyway
Next, he helps sanitize the hotel
Due to covid the hotel has adopted
stricter cleaning and sterilization measures
Yohei visits each of the 14 floors in the building
and wipes down all the elevator buttons
as well as other high touch areas in the hotel
During peak checkout times
Yohei focuses on assisting guests
The hotel uses express checkout stands
The machine has a built-in sensor
that recognizes the room number,
automatically registering the checkout into the system,
while also notifying the cleaning crew
that the room is ready to be cleaned
Oh, I guess he's going to the hotel restaurant
So Yohei checks in with the head chef
to confirm the next day's menu
so he can prepare signage
as well as informing enquiring guests
Something smells good!
There you go. Breakfast is served
What's in here?
In Japan, hotels are often used as evacuation locations
so storing food and water is necessary
So why did you decide to work at a hotel?
It looks like they're starting their monthly fire drill
So they select the location in the hotel for the fire to start
It's a staff's responsibility
to quickly and safely guide guests to evacuate
as well as extinguish the fire if possible
Usually the hotel is filled with guests
So it's critical for the team
to regularly drill in case a real fire were to happen
in order to keep everyone safe
Wow, they're really taking this seriously!
I'm getting flashbacks from another
'Day in the Life' I recently did
Apparently the company also have
first responder training four times a year
so that all the staff are comfortable with evacuation procedures,
reporting to the fire department
and even handling a fire extinguisher
After the drill the team reviews
what they did good and bad
so they can make improvements
for the next time around
What just happened?
Throughout the day he's tasked with
random guest requests and issues like this
It's critical for the hotel to always maintain
a clean and pleasant environment for its guests
So a lot of his time is also spent
regularly checking that the hotel facilities are well kept
Yohei, what do you enjoy most about working here?
Okay, a company man!
You don't really have much office work, right?
In addition, he adjusted room prices
based on the current room occupancy
to attract more guests
So it looks like Yohei has
some office tasks to do right now
Let's take advantage of this time
and see if there's room to explore this place
So this is one of the storage rooms on each of the floors
Let's go inside and see what they have
I guess basically it has everything
that you would expect
It has sheets, has towels,
it has soap
it has batteries
it has cups
That's pretty much everything you would need
What's quite interesting is that the elevators here
have two doors - one is used for the clients
and then the other one is used for the workers
This right behind me
right here says deluxe toilet
Let's see what a deluxe toilet looks like
Basically, you have your basic baby changer here
and then you have your
regular automatic toilet which I love
It even has a special flushing sound
so that you don't bother anyone
or if you make special noises in here
that other people can't hear from the outside
And just behind me they even have their own parking lot
But because real estate
is a little bit tight in the city
they have a special type of parking lot
Let me show you
Wow, look at all of these batteries right here
I suppose with 411 rooms
there're as many or even more remote controls
Oh, I guess he's decided to have lunch
at the hotel restaurant today
Since staff rotate on breaks
Yohei usually eats lunch by himself
Oh, that's the same curry we saw earlier
I wonder what it tastes like
Looks like he's having hamburger for lunch
That looks amazing!
Do you eat here often?
After lunch, he prepares for room inspections
To maintain the highest level of room cleanliness
he performs quality checks
for 10 rooms randomly
If he finds an issue
he fixes it himself
and reports it back to the cleaning crew
so the same thing won't happen again
Oh, there's Shinjuku Gyoen Park!
Yohei, how did this room do?
Well, that's one room down, nine to go
So these are the standard size rooms
Cool, it even has luggage space under the bed
So after this check he re-sanitizes the room
The cleaning crew also sanitizes the room
but since he entered the room afterwards
the room must be sanitized again
Oh, now he's going to the daiyokujo
In English it's a large bath at a ryokan or hotel
Yohei, what are you doing?
It's widely known that Japanese
have a deep rooted bath culture
preferring full baths over showers
Because of this many urban and business hotels
these days offer a shared bath area
In fact, many salarymen and other Japanese
decide upon the hotel based on
whether the hotel has a shared bath or not
Here they have the onsen bath
where all the guests can come and use
You can see right behind me
is that they have these stalls
where you can take a shower
and clean youself off before you go in
And look right there
they have everything you need:
shampoo, soap and conditioner
During the peak check-in hour
Yohei assists guests with a check-in machine
At his hotel guests can also check in through an app
to save time at the front desk
guests can simply scan the code
and immediately receive their card
Oh the guest has a package at the hotel in advance
Now Yohei is helping him carry it to his room
In Japan, tipping is not customary
and in some ways can be awkward as it's unexpected
It's ingrained in Japanese culture
to take pride in your work
no matter at what level
to receiving a tip as an incentive
to deliver the best service
is viewed as unnecessary
All time back to omotenashi
As an assistant manager, Yohei also helps
train the staff throughout the day
providing guidance on proper procedures
and overall guest services
How long have you been working here?
What do you like most about this job?
After check-ins slow down
Yohei has to perform other miscellaneous tasks
Oh, he's speaking keigo
It's a formal way of speaking polite Japanese
intended for customers, superiors and hotel guests
Schools in Japan generally teach students the fundamentals
but only until one enters the real world is it used
So even for Japanese people
it's sometimes difficult to speak without practice
How long does the hotel keep the lost & found items?
What about the expensive stuff?
Good work, that's another happy guest!
He still has a little bit of time left
so he sanitizes the used cards for next time
And now he cleans around the hotel
one more time before leaving
Yay finally finished!
After work he usually goes out to dinner with his frineds
as there are many restaurants and bars in the Shinjuku area
but because of covid
these days he goes straight home
Oh he's making gyoza tonight
That looks pretty good
In Yohei's free time he plays a guitar in a band
and he writes his own music
[Music]
Wow he's pretty talented!
I guess tonight he's feeling it
So it looks like Yohei is going to be
playing the guitar for just a little bit longer
Then after that he'll take a bath
and then probably go to sleep
by 12 o'clock tonight
Let me know what you guys thought of
this day in the life of a Japanese hotel worker
Let me know in the comments
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