Whether you’re staying at a new five-star luxury hotel like the Capitol Hotel Tokyu in the Akasaka district of Tokyo or a hundred-year-old traditional ryokan inn like the Ryokan Sumiyoshiya in Kanazawa, or any kind of hotel or inn in between, the one thing the Japanese excel at is service. Even the modest inn can put an American Ritz to shame.
Case in point: the concierge at the Capitol Hotel Tokyu called ahead to our next *three* ryokans to ensure we would know how to get from the train stations to their ryokans.
Case in point: At Ryokan Sumiyoshiya in Kanazawa, we asked where to buy stamps, and they *gave us* four stamps for our postcards. And mailed the postcards for us, too.
Case in point: When we went out for the day or for dinner, the owners of Ryokan Gion Sano in Kyoto insisted we take their umbrellas if it was raining. They always accompanied us out to the street and waved good-bye as we left. When we left by taxi for the train station on the last day, I turned around and looked out the rear window, and they were still there, standing by the street and waving until we turned the corner and were gone.
Case in point: When we arrived in Toba, we called our hotel, the Toba International Hotel, to find out where to catch the shuttle they run to the train station every half hour. We had just missed it, so they sent a special car to pick us up so that we wouldn’t have to wait. When they learned that their first shuttle of the morning on our last day would make for a very tight connection with our train, they offered to drive us in a car so that we wouldn’t worry.
Case in point: In an extremely light drizzle, we walked from the bus stop to our hotel in Hakone, the historic Fujiya Hotel, where we were greeted by a doorman who raced to hand us umbrellas–and opened them for us. Another doorman relieved us of our suitcases, carried them inside, and carefully wiped them off for us. After we checked in, not one, but two, people showed us to our room–one to explain everything to us, and another to bring our bags.
Taxi drivers wear suits and ties and white gloves. Taxis are immaculately clean.
Everyone smiles and bows and seems genuinely happy to be of assistance. We smile and bow too, and say, “Thank you” (our one word in Japanese), and are genuinely happy to be so thoughtfully taken care of. But they bow deeper and say, “Thank you very much!” And they seem to mean it.
And most amazingly, everyone appears to be paid a fair wage for their work, which is treated with dignity, from the person sweeping the train platform to the manager of a large hotel. And no one–not one person–expects or will accept a tip.