Ben in Hakone
Hello, fellow participants of this program. My name is Ben, and I would like to share my experience in Hakone with you, as well try and give you an insight into the Japanese culture and its people. My time in Hakone was filled with joy, frustration, sadness and satisfaction. I can honestly say that going to Hakone was a worthwhile experience.
My Hakone experience began in November 2004, when I left Sydney Airport bound for Narita Airport. My stay in Japan was scheduled for one year. I had actually joined the program in July that year but it took 4 months to organise my apprenticeship with my hotel in Hakone as well the various other things that needed to be sorted out for my trip (e.g. travel insurance, plane ticket etc.).
After my long flight, I arrived at Narita Airport tired and exhausted. I was met in the arrival terminal by a man named Mr Oda , who was the programs Japanese representative and also the director of a company called 3AA who managed and looked after employers of various hotels across Japan. Mr. Oda took me to a hotel in Shinjuku where I was to stay for two nights. Over the course of my two-night stay in Tokyo, I was given information about my work, the culture of Japan and the Japanese lifestyle. I also met a lovely woman named Mika Harita, who worked with Mr Oda and was the person who helped me out a lot during my time in Japan. She took me out to see the sights, sounds and tastes of Tokyo, which turned out to be a great experience.
After my two days of Orientation, it was finally time for me to go to Hakone. Hakone, I discovered, is quite close to Tokyo which pleased me as I knew I could always come to Tokyo on my days off and have some fun! The train ride took 80mins and after arriving at Hakone-Yumoto station (the biggest station in Hakone and the gateway to the Hakone mountains) we took a bus up the winding roads into the mountains. Throughout the whole trip into Hakone, I was having constant butterflies in my stomach and I was very unsettled, but Mika who had joined me on the trip was very supportive and kept reassuring me that everything would be fine. I though otherwise!
After arriving at our destination Mika escorted me to my accommodation, where I would be living for a year. The place was an apartment located just 10mins walk from my place of work, which was convenient. But when I was shown into my room, it was not as convenient. The room had nothing but a bed and a cupboard and looked very old and run down. In fact this apartment had been set up especially for employees of the nearby hotels who had no places to stay and had been operating for over 40 years! Over the course of the next few months, I spent a lot of time (and money) transforming my room into liveable space, buying carpet, tiles, paint, posters and a TV. So for most of my days off during my first couple of months, I was busy giving my room a makeover. Hard work, but it was fun! After I put my luggage in my room, I was taken to my place of work to meet my future manager and bosses.
My apprenticeship was not actually with a hotel, but with spa resort called Yunessun located in the high mountains of Hakone and next door to one of the most famous hotels in Japan, the Hakone Kowakien Hotel. Yunessun is a rather large building, (about the size of a normal shopping plaza) consisting of many different styles of baths and hot springs.
There were many different working positions at Yunessun: front-of-house staff, cleaners, electricians, waiters, cooks and various people who performed massages for the customers. The work I was given was with the position know as `Spa Guard`.
A Spa Guards job is to the look after the safety of the customers and to prevent any customer from drowning in the baths. At first I thought, How could anyone drown in the bath? I mean, the water is only 60-70cm deep and there is hardly any space to swim!
But I soon found out it was not necessarily the danger of drowning in the usual way. But because the water temperature is quite warm, for some people exposed to the warm temperatures for a long time there is a danger that an individual will lose consciousness and therefore drown. So my fellow workmates took the job very seriously.
As well as the various baths, there was also a 25m indoor swimming pool, which was very popular during the summer months, but was usually empty during autumn and winter months. The pool was 1.2m deep, which made it a potentially dangerous area. During my time as a Spa Guard, I had to rescue small children and elderly people from drowning at the pool about four or five times, so the danger was real!
My shift at Yunessun would start at 8.30am until 7pm. The days were pretty long, but as I got used to the hours the days seemed to go very quickly. Before I knew it a whole year had passed! Anyway, each morning before Yunessun opened at 9am we would do our morning training. The morning training sessions consisted of swimming, practising different styles of rescue techniques or practising CPR (resuscitation).
The morning training sessions required a lot of concentration and effort, especially the swimming! By the end of each session my legs would be so tired I sometimes couldnt stand up straight. But on a brighter note I believe that all this training was good for my health and I believe I have become a better swimmer than I was before.
As Hakone was in the country there wasnt much to do in terms of `going out and having fun`. And because I had come from Sydney, I was used to having somewhere to go to at night, if I wanted to. I soon found, though, that in Hakone my friends and I were fortunate to have a few drinking bars and a Karaoke bar near our apartment.
The main routine after work was simple: we would finish work, have some dinner, get dressed, call a couple of other friends and then head down to the drinking bars or the Karaoke bar. Singing songs at karaoke helped me to learn more of the Japanese language and the Japanese music culture. It was great fun. And Ive now got a good repertoire of Japanese songs I can sing which, as you will find when you go to Japan, can be pretty useful.
So, to all the future participants who will be going to Japan, I hope you have fun and have a safe trip!
