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When I think about chiduru — or more precisely, about how much Mama and I talk — I realize that we talk an extraordinary amount.

Most of those conversations are about the shop.

And they don’t necessarily happen in anything we would formally call a “meeting.”

We talk while we are out shopping.

We talk while we are eating.

And because we are who we are, our conversations often wander completely off topic. 😅

Still, we talk a lot.

 

I hadn’t really noticed it before, but lately I feel that we have gradually become more and more in tune with each other.

If we were to think of chiduru as one product,

the “chiduru” that Mama imagines and the “chiduru” that I imagine are now almost the same.

Perhaps we have reached that level of understanding after all these years.

 

Of course, our personalities are different.

The way we naturally think about things is different too.

So it isn’t that we agree about absolutely everything.

But when it comes to our customers and the direction of the shop, we are usually looking in the same direction.

And when the goal is to provide better hospitality,

I think it is a very good thing that we have gradually learned to work so closely together.

 

I feel the same way about teamwork.

Although…

there are only two of us. 😅

Perhaps two people should be able to work together.

You might think it would be easy.

But when I look around at the world, it seems that even that can sometimes be surprisingly difficult.

 

I am mainly responsible for the financial side of chiduru.

Mama is mainly responsible for taking care of our customers.

So naturally, there are times when we see things differently.

Mama thinks:

“What can we do to make this customer happy?”

I think:

“How much will that cost, and can we continue doing it in the future?”

Neither one alone would probably work very well.

 

Perhaps the enormous amount of talking we do helps absorb those differences.

We can give a little.

We can listen to what the other person is thinking.

We can respect each other’s point of view and then decide how to move forward.

That makes me happy.

 

 

What we — or perhaps I should say chiduru — are trying to achieve is not exactly the kind of service usually associated with Japan’s nightlife and entertainment business.

What we have in mind is something closer to the hospitality you might find in the lodging industry.

At an inn.

At a small guesthouse.

At a place where someone is welcomed as a guest.

 

But explaining this is really difficult.

People may misunderstand what we mean.

And it probably isn’t something that a great number of people are looking for anyway.

Still…

every now and then, a customer says,

“There’s something different about this place.”

And when someone feels that, I think perhaps we don’t need to make a dramatic change in direction.

After all,

if you turn the rudder too sharply,

the boat may capsize. 😅

 

The problem is that we still have to call ourselves something.

And the category most people in Japan would recognize is “snack.”

When we first opened, one of our small attempts to deal with that problem was to describe ourselves as a “snack bar.”

We couldn’t exactly call ourselves “Ryokan Snack chiduru,” could we? 😅

A ryokan, for readers outside Japan, is a traditional Japanese inn.

So “Ryokan Snack” would be a rather strange name indeed.

 

In the end, perhaps the only thing we can do is let each person who visits decide for themselves what kind of place chiduru is.

There is alcohol.

There is karaoke.

If you look only at those things,

yes,

we are a snack bar.

 

And of course, I am not saying that snack bars don’t have hospitality.

Casual conversations can be hospitality.

Singing together with a customer can be hospitality.

Helping someone enjoy the evening can certainly be hospitality too.

 

But on top of all that,

Mama and I often come back to the same thought:

We should offer the kind of hospitality that we ourselves believe in.

 

And then, of course, we arrive at the obvious question.

Most of the direct interaction with customers is done by women.

There is alcohol.

There is karaoke.

There is conversation.

So…

“Then how exactly is chiduru different from a snack bar?”

And once again, explaining it becomes difficult. 😅

 

This is the kind of thing we hope we can do.

 

 

That is why I sometimes think this is really just a matter of our own attitude.

Perhaps it is something we can simply keep inside our hearts.

We don’t necessarily need to stand outside and announce loudly,

“This is what chiduru is!”

 

The style of chiduru that Mama and I have in mind isn’t something that can necessarily be understood after visiting us only once.

And it isn’t really something we can advertise by saying,

“Please come and give us a try!”

Perhaps that is why it can be difficult for people to understand what we are trying to do.

 

Still, something happened last night that made me very happy.

A customer came to see us.

At first, the plan was to stay for “just one hour.”

But in the end, he stayed until closing time.

And this morning, I received a LINE message from his wife.

It made me very happy. 😊

 

My husband and his coworkers said they had a wonderful time. They were also very happy that there was no smell of cigarette smoke. We look forward to seeing you again. 😉👍🎶

 

I asked whether it would be all right for me to share her message.

She replied,

“Please do.”

And then she sent another message:

 

There are many people looking for a non-smoking snack bar. 😉 Mama’s ability to talk with and entertain people can be enjoyed by both men and women. Sometimes, instead of going to a karaoke box, spending time in a quality space is important for both mind and body. 😉

 

If we wrote about ourselves,

“Our customer service is excellent.”

or,

“We provide a quality atmosphere.”

that would sound rather strange.

I certainly couldn’t write those things about ourselves very easily.

 

But when someone who has actually spent time at chiduru says something like this,

it makes me wonder whether, even just a little,

they were able to feel what we have been trying to create.

And that makes me very happy. 😊

 

Little by little, we seem to be meeting more customers who feel this way.

From the point of view of the person responsible for the accounts,

perhaps I should be thinking about numbers.

But from the point of view of someone providing hospitality,

it makes me very, very happy. ♪

 

Of course, having many customers is important for a business.

I understand that.

But…

for the people who truly want what we offer, we want to do everything we reasonably can.

And perhaps by doing that,

the distance between us and our customers becomes a little smaller.

Not all at once.

But gradually.

As we spend more time together,

perhaps a relationship begins to grow.

 

That is the kind of thing we want to take care of.

 

In today’s world,

perhaps this is a rather old-fashioned way of thinking.

But…

that’s us.

 

And so today’s conversation wandered in all sorts of directions,

and once again,

we didn’t really reach any grand conclusion. 😅

But we had a very enjoyable,

and very serious,

meeting this morning.

That is today’s little story from chiduru.

 

That’s all for today.

I hope you have a lovely Sunday. 👋