Hello and greetings from the sunny and quite warm city of Beppu.
It’s been about two and a half months since I started my internship at Ryoutiku Bettei Hotel. Oh boy were the first couple of weeks nerve-wrecking! I still have moments of nervousness sometimes, but I’m glad the worst is over. I’m used to my tasks now and my seniors are treating me as a proper member of the hotel. One of them even asked if I’d like to stay in Japan and get a permanent job from the hotel, but I rejected the offer politely telling that I really want to graduate from university… and after that to go to a graduate school! Thus, no time to stay at the hotel even though it is a quite nice place to work in.
Me holding a lunchbox I made at a park during cherry blossom viewing (花見)
Since I have previous experience of studying and living in Japan, I know the hierarchy system and different language for different situations. At first I had to spend some time studying the most formal language used for customers and it’s still quite the tongue twister, but I’m getting used to it.
I work from 10am to 5pm with a 30min lunch break. My hours are waaay shorter than regular workers’, and I’m even allowed to go home on time (very common in Japanese work culture to stay at work until the boss leaves or do over time work for at least an hour). I start by working at the lunch restaurant, have a break and then move to the lounge where I welcome guests and then take them to their room while explaining about the hot springs, breakfast and other functions of the hotel. There are some projects going on at the hotel which require me to act as a contact person for the university I had my exchange period in so it’s fun to interact with the APU students again. I sometimes miss my former uni!
Me being extremely happy!
I come home every day around 5.40pm and I’m often too tired to do anything awfully productive. I usually cook, exercise if the weather is good and my legs are not dead, and just “hang out”. I have one or two holidays per week and during them I sometimes go to explore new places in Beppu.
I think that’s enough for now. Thanks for reading!
Maria
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