Miki

Tone Heaven!

2008-08-05T15:21:30Z

Me has a guitar now!

Yay! :D

The blue world

2008-07-20T14:00:38Z

I found another nice coffee house in Kyoto! This place is called Soirée, which I heard means "evening party" in French.

Inside was blue and calm like deep sea

My fruit soda had rainbow cubic jello inside

Must be the blue fairy

Beautiful collection of coffee cups

"The scent of evening coffee leads me into a dream"

That place itself seems like a dream

LJ meme

2008-06-29T14:47:20Z

Tagged by fashionlover

Rules of the Game: A) People who have been tagged can write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz. These people can state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

C) ENJOY? I tag: no one, but you can do this if you want.

oo1. If your lover betrayed you, what would your reaction be?

Punch him in the face.

oo2. What do you do before bedtime?

Brush my teeth, take a bath, put face/body lotion, dry my hair, drink a lot of oolong tea, set my alarm clock and go to bed.

oo3. What will your dream wedding be like?

Small wedding with my family and close friends only. Plus a nice little dinner party at night. I want to travel to Europe for honeymoon.

oo4. What is the city of your dreams and why?

New York City. The energetic atmosphere of the city fascinates me.

oo5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?

Extrovert!

oo6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

Definitely loving. When I like someone, life seems brilliant everyday! hahaha

oo7. Do you trust easily?

No, I don't think so. I always try to analyze people and see who really is trustworthy. If someone I trust betrays me in some ways, then I would lose trust in them though.

oo8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?

I'd just try to find someone else, but if I really like him, I'd secretly hope I can be his girlfriend if he breaks up with his girlfriend.

oo9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?

Polaroids going bye-bye. :(

o11. Is being tagged fun?

Yeah?

o12. How do you see yourself?

Active, friendly, ambitious, honest, reckless, indecisive and childish.

o13. Who are currently the most important people to you?

My family and my best friends, but then I have a lot of best friends, it's so hard to choose who is most important.

o14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

She is one of the sweetest people I know!

o15. Would you rather be single & rich or married but poor?

By single, do you mean unmarried? I want money AND a lover. hahaha

o16. How many children do you want to have, if any?

Two or three. For some reason I want to have kids so bad lately and I don't even have a boyfriend at the moment. LOL When I was younger, I used to think "I guess babies are cute but not for me." but now biological change has happened to me, and whenever I see babies/little kids I'd go "aww." haha I don't want to get married at all now though.

NEW o17. Name one thing you would like less of in your life and one thing you would like more of.

Less physical distance between my friends and I, more free time.

o18. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

More trustworthy.

o19: Would you have 100% safe sex with a stranger for $10,000,000?

There is no 100% safe sex!

o20: What were your parents going to name you if you'd been born the opposite gender?

My parents decided my name after they saw me. :)

Souvenir from India

2008-06-05T13:15:14Z

When I got to work today, my supervisor came up to me and asked, "Hey, did you take a room reservation for this deaf guest called Mr. Kihara?" so I said "Yes? I think I did." thinking, "Oh god, what did I do? What did I do?" Then she took out this little pack of tissue paper with a postcard and said, "This is a small gift from Mr. Kihara. It's just a pack of tissue, but he said it's scented tissue he bought in India. I heard he was an artist and traveling around the world. Anyway, he said thank you very much to you."

Now I think back, I did get a phone call from this woman who seems to be the wife of Mr. Kihara one day, and she said a deaf man is going to the hotel so she was trying to reserve a room for him. So I took the reservation and told her how to get to our hotel carefully and that we were looking forward to seeing him. I didn't care much about it though, because it was just like an ordinary phone call I always get. Although, I was trying my best to hear what she was saying.

So it was such an unexpected gift. I was getting sick of answering phone calls but it sure did cheer me up. You might think, "But it's just tissue paper. hahaha" but it's a precious gift and evidence for me that I did in fact hear the customer's voice, and my hospitality was somehow received over the phone.

I wish I could've worked at the front desk today to say thank you to him, but I took phone calls in the back office as usual.

I hope one day I will marry the gingerbread man!

2008-05-31T20:20:03Z

OMG.

So I was just wide awake surfing on the Internet, but for some reason one cartoon I used to watch when I was little popped into my head so I started to look for it and luckily I found it!

THE COOKIE CARNIVAL!

I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

If my memory is right, it was on some Disney VHS my mom randomly rented from a rental video store, and my sisters and I used to watch it over and over again because we particularly loved it. I didn't know the title though, and of course I didn't understand English back then, but I did understand the story and had this warm, happy feeling whenever I watched it.

Seriously, I'm glad I found it. Thank you technology!

But I need to have old cartoons on DVD. It's one of my favorite cartoons I want to show to my children when I become a mommy someday!

Moneymaker

2008-05-28T15:37:32Z

By the way, last Friday was my first payday. YAY MONEY! Since I started working on the 7th, my pay was only 1/4 of the monthly pay I'm supposed to get, but still, I got more money than I expected! YES!! I'm very happy about it. :) Unfortunately I was too busy working on the weekend, but somehow I managed to get off work before the closest department store closes today, so I stopped by there after work and bought surprise gifts for my family.

CAKE!!!!!!!

I ate the biggest strawberry shortcake in the middle! It felt more delicious than usual. haha My family was happy too! I'm glad! :D

Thank you for calling!

2008-05-28T14:06:02Z

Lately I started getting phone calls at work. Sometimes I reserve rooms for our guests, sometimes I tell them the way to the hotel, and sometimes I even get phone calls from our clients. So I get ALL kinds of phone calls. But since I'm still not used to/suck at business conversation, I hate it so much, especially because I have to speak very formally. But today, one funny thing happened when I was on the phone with a client, and the conversation went on like this . . .

*****

*Phone rings*
Me: Thank you for calling. This is Araki of Hotel Sunroute Kyoto speaking. How may I help you?
A travel agent: Hello Ms. Araki. This is Fukuoka from JTB Traveland. I am calling to ask you about your parking system. I hear your hotel does not own a parking garage, so I would like to ask if there is any parking lot of some sort nearby.
Me: Yes, as you mentioned we do not own a parking garage. We're very sorry for our inconvenience. However, there are two parking structures right next to our hotel; the prices will be 1500yen per night including tax.
A travel agent: Oh, I see. Thank you for all the information. I will let our customers know about it.
Me: You're very welcome, Ms. Fukuoka. Thank you very much for calling. If you have any questions, please do feel free to contact me anytime. This was Araki speaking. Have a nice day.
*I was about to hang up*
A travel agent: Oh! Then I have a question, Ms. Araki. Personally.
Me: Yes, ma'am . . . ?
A travel agent: Didn't you graduate from college recently . . . ? May I have your first name?
Me: Yes . . . ? My name is Miki Araki.
A travel agent: MIKI!!! It's Mari! Mari Fukuoka!! Your voice sounded familiar, but I was right! Oh my gosh, what a coincidence!

*****

So what happened was, the client was my college friend! We didn't notice that until the end and had this whole awkward "business" conversation. hahaha Her travel agency is pretty far and she didn't know which hotel I work at either! What a coincidence. But since now I know that her company is one of our clients, I might be able to talk to her again, so I'm kind of excited. I wish I could get phone calls from my friends every day!

Kyoto Virtual Tour

2008-05-27T12:37:11Z

The other day, I traveled around Kyoto by myself for two days as a business trip! On the first day, I went on a bus tour to visit the most famous sites, and on the second day I took a walk around the sites near my hotel. Since Kyoto is close to where I live and I go there often, I'd never gone on a bus tour or spent all day sightseeing, so it was a pretty cool experience! I took lots of pics then, so I just wanted to show where I work to the people here on LiveJournal. Enjoy!

Day 1

Kyoto Bus Tour!

Day 2

Taking a walk

What I enjoyed is that I met various people during this trip.

On the tourist bus, a business man sitting next to me was traveling alone and didn't seem to know what to do, so I showed him around during the free time and he got me an ice cream as a thank you gift. Lucky! He was coincidentally staying at the same hotel chain as mine too (though in a different city). Also, I met this Japanese-American woman who got lost at a tourist site, so I showed her the way in English and she said she is going to visit me at the hotel next time she comes to Kyoto!

All in all, I had a lot of fun! Some people don't like traveling alone, but I definitely like it because it brings unexpected encounters.

Job jobbity job job job

2008-05-09T14:45:20Z

I finally started my job on Wednesday!

On the first day, I got to talk to Presidents (for some reason my hotel has two Presidents: I guess President President and CEO, but both of them go by President), along with managers and already-working-coworkers. All of them are really friendly and nice! which relieved my nervousness quite a bit. In the morning, I was all nervous and probably had stiff shoulders, but when I had a lecture from Front Desk Manager (who is my favorite boss) in the afternoon I was so relaxed that I was scared I was going to fall asleep during the face-to-face lecture. haha

On the second day, I learned bedmaking! Usually hotel housekeepers do this job, but I learned it as a part of training because I'm in Rooms Division. It's so tiring, but it was more fun than I expected since I like cleaning, doing the laundry etc. What I can proudly introduce about my hotel is that we use Tempur mattresses and pillows in all rooms. They are so squishy and nice! I want to stay at my hotel sometime when it's not so busy.

It's been fun. :)

I will miss you, Tokyo!

2008-05-05T12:09:31Z

I haven't started working yet, so lately I've been enjoying my carefree life seeing people, getting ready, just relaxing etc. Last week though, I was in Tokyo to see some of my friends, and the trip was too much fun! I saw one of my best friends from Eastern and a couple of Gaidai friends who moved there for their jobs. It was good to see them one last time before I start working!

First, I saw my college friend Miho and we went to see Tokyo Tower. I know it's such a touristy place, but the trick art gallery in it was so much fun! We took lots of pics there!

Miho is a lovely angel! <3

I catch marlins like the Old Man. haha

Whoaaa!

Scary!

Gorgeous nightview from the tower

The next day I went to see another friend Erika and hung out in Ginza. Ginza was full of rich-looking people and smelled like perfume all over the place. Definitely not my kind of city, but it was still an interesting place to walk around! We ate a lot of food there. haha

Erika eating lunch

Me eating lunch

We found Krispy Kreme Doughnuts! It has just arrived in Japan recently so there was a long line to the shop. But for some reason we got free doughnuts while waiting. Lucky!

Erika eating a free doughnut

Me eating a free doughnut

On the last day, I got to hang out with my friends from Eastern, Hazuki and Dan! I would hang out with Dan whenever I went to Tokyo for job-searching, but now that I'm stuck in the westside, I should invite him to come over here next time!

When I was still in college, I took it for granted that I see them often, but now that I got a jobby job, I won't be able to see them as often as I used to. Man, I will miss them so bad. But now I have more reasons to go to Tokyo more often, so in a way, that's good! :) Although I have grown to love Kansai, Tokyo is still a fun place to visit once in a while.

Miki is back on LiveJournal.

2008-04-12T15:49:40Z

Long time no post. For those of you who haven't been in touch with me, I'd been job-searching since I came back from studying abroad last May. Fortunately, I just got a job the other day so I decided to come back and restart writing about my life here on LiveJournal. Sorry it took me so long to come back, but I will try to keep updating as often as I could.

About my job, I got a job at this hotel in Kyoto, and going to work as a front desk clerk. I studied Tourism at Eastern, and I've been searching for a Tourism/Hospitality-related job, so it seemed like a perfect job offer for me. It's a business hotel, but since the hotel is in one of the most popular tourist cities in Japan, I get to use English to welcome foreign tourists. I've studied English for years! Being able to use English at work was a must, so I'm pretty happy about that also.

This is my first real job, so there are so many things that I worry about, but more than that I'm excited to start my career as a hotelier. I'm not sure exactly when I start working yet, but I hope I will get used to the job soon and get along well with my co-workers. Wish me luck!