Location: Fuji-Hakoné National Park
A pretty rough year - "the pandemic shakeup"
2019 seemed to end on a fairly nice point. I was told I'd be getting a raise at my job, and during the winter holidays I took my girlfriend out on a lovely trip to Ōshima, where we climbed Mt. Mihara, enjoyed the local cuisine, and relaxed at a wonderful hot spring. The first couple months of 2020 went alright, my cousin came to visit, and we had some good travels. But from early March, things suddenly started to decline pretty fast, starting with one company PR crisis after another. After working almost a month straight trying to handle various work crises, I was notified that the company couldn't afford to keep their employees due to the new Coronavirus situation, and so everyone was immediately laid off. I don't blame them, as the pandemic affected almost every industry, but small companies than ran on international business models were mostly obliterated. My parents urged me to return to Canada (their usual response to any crisis), but I didn't see how that would benefit my situation. Only a few weeks later, I was notified by my central Tokyo apartment that all residents would be evicted - there was no notification explained. Next, my girlfriend dumped me hardly a month later due to the "stress" of dealing with a jobless boyfriend, I hadn't even told her about the eviction. The only silver lining was I was eligible for 4 months of unemployment insurance. During that time, I relocated to a cheap share house out in Fussa, and continued to look for work. I even applied for jobs back in Canada, but the pandemic situation lingered on, and the job market worsened worldwide. Meanwhile, Canada's housing market/apartment rent had skyrocketed, so Japan was still a cheaper option. I avoided teaching jobs, because it would require changing my work visa type, which would limit my future work options in marketing/PR/film. Thinking out of the box, I tried applying for several hotel jobs, including a secluded cabin out by Mt. Kumotori, but it was a bit too remote (not even any phone signal). Just when my employment insurance had run its course, having barely scraped by, I landed a doorman job at a hotel in Hakoné, a mountainous hot spring resort town a couple hours west of Tokyo.
Although the country was strictly locked down, there were still some new American travellers from the US bases, and so the hotel needed an English speaking staff, which was covered by my work visa for "international services". I dropped my other furniture in my friend Tommy's car shop, and made my way out to the mountain town, taking the local train line up the curvy mountain railroad. The absurdity of where life had brought me within just a few months didn't hit me until I was finally there. I still had an hour before the scheduled first meeting at the hotel, so I went to a local restaurant, had a nice bowl of Okonomiyaki. Two years ago I was living in central Tokyo, in a relationship, working as a communications manager at a stem cell company. Now at 32, I was completely alone, carrying nothing but a dress suit and two suitcases, sitting in a rural cafe out in the middle of nowhere about to take a part time job as a doorman. A bit depressing, but I felt that my life had nowhere to go but up from here.
Settling into life as a hotel doorman and receptionist
After greeting the managers and staff, I was guided to my lodgings at an apartment near the Open Air Museum, which was about 20 minute walk from the hotel. Unlike the friendly employee lodging featured, since I was just a contract staff, my room was in a sketchy old building, and the interior was somehow worse than the exterior. It hadn't been cleaned since the last staff lived there, and her shoes, food, unmade bed, and black hair was scattered all around the room. It absolutely had those early 2000s J-Horror vibes. I was hesitant to open the closet, half-expecting a "grudge-like" ghost to come crawling out. I spent the next 5 hours frantically cleaning every inch of the apartment, and requested to get some clean sheets. A part of me was ready to just pack up there and just give up... but I had already come this far and I didn't have many other options.
Marc, The Hotel Ghost
The next day, I worked a 1~10pm shift at the hotel, and mostly just helped welcome guests & check their temperature, etc. The hotel restaurant served dinner on the first floor from 7~9pm. During this time, some guests requested a special birthday or anniversary cake delivery to their bedroom refrigerator as a post-dinner surprise. So, after delivering the last cake of the night I quietly left one of the guests rooms. I stopped for a moment outside to check the time on my phone before heading back to the lobby. Just then, I heard a frightened gasp. A lady at the end of the hallway was looking in my direction with a terrified expression on her face. At first I wondered if she thought I was breaking into the guests rooms or something, so I tried to greet her with a friendly demeanour. She seemed quite shocked at my height, and after waving and approaching her, she said to me "The low ceiling was blocking your face, and for a moment I thought you were a ghost." I explained to her I was a staff and was from Canada. I then continued on my way back to the lobby and finished my shift.
I arrived at the hotel a bit earlier the next day, and met the morning staff for the first time. One of them point at me and starts laughing. "Oh my god! You are real!" She then explained to me that while checking out of the hotel, the guest whom I had encountered the previous evening told her that she met the friendly Canadian staff in the hallway. Since they hadn't met or were informed of me (since I was just a temp staff), they had no idea what she was talking about. The receptionist replied "From my knowledge, there are no new foreign staff working here, and no foreign guests, especially since the country is in lock down. " Apparently that guest had a horrified reaction, and perhaps assumed that she really had met a ghost.
The Weeping Woman of the 3rd Floor
Another "paranormal" incident occurred one night late November, when the graveyard shift working the front desk received several complaints from guests on the 3rd floor, saying they could hear a the noise of a woman weeping in the hallway and questions of if the hotel was haunted. However, as I was present the night before, I knew of a possible cause for this. The hotel had been donated several small glass art sculptures from the Open Air Museum, which were on the display in the lobby (with no protective casing). When checking in the guest at around 5pm the night before, suddenly we heard a loud smash.
As one of the families was checking into the hotel, their toddler had wandered to the corner of the room and touched the sculpture, accidentally knocking it over and shattering it. I quickly rushed over to make sure the child was okay, and then we carefully scooped up the shattered sculpture. The mother was very upset about it, but we assured her it wasn't really a big deal. At most, the sculpture was valued at a couple hundred dollars max, not even the cost of a family size room on the weekend. We told them not to worry and enjoy their stay. However, that evening when I signed in the guests to the hotel restaurant, the mother looked over at the empty spot where the sculpture was and burst out crying again. From the sounds of it, she continued crying late into the night and next morning. This mother was clearly going through some extra stress and this was probably the literal breaking point. It got to the point where the hotel was running out of patience. One manager suggested "they won't need to pay us for the sculpture if she just stops crying!"
The hotel guest who almost became a real ghost
Halfway during the pandemic, Japan decided to launch the "GoTo Travel" campaign as a means to boost domestic tourism to make up for the lack of foreign tourists. The campaign offered coupons valued between 10~100$ to be used at souvenir shops limited to the local area. Of course, this was a bit of a controversial move since the virus was still active domestically. For the most part, people did a great job following the cautionary procedures like follow the 3C's and more importantly - not to travel when sick! However, there were several problems with this. Our biggest challenge was to avoid clusters in the lobby following the dinner. When checking in, all the guests were very careful to follow the procedures, but after a few drinks in, everyone got very relaxed about the rules. We had one wasted guest stick his head under the plastic wrap on counter and ask for towels while coughing up a storm.
But the worse case was one young Japanese guy who clocked in at 39°C during the standard lobby temperature check. The standard procedure is if the temperature gun shows a fever, we give them a few minutes to rest and test again with a more accurate body thermometer.
As this guy was being re-checked, I watched him slip ice cubes into his armpit to lower his body temperature. I asked him not to do that, but every time the thermometer gave a number, he quickly erased it. I got into an argument with the restaurant manager (who I had some problems with) who just wanted me to check him through, but it was very, very evident this guest was extremely sick. I eventually spoke to another manager, and we checked him in, but told him he wasn't allowed to go to the public hot spring and we would ship dinner to his room. A few hours later as I was returned to the lobby from some other task, I see an ambulance parked outside the building. Moments later, the elevator opens and I see the man being escorted by hospital staff while walking and coughing horrendously (at least with a mask on). He then looks over to the reception counter and right before leaving in the ambulance he says, "will my coupons still be valid by tomorrow evening?" - Priorities, eh?
Creatures in the darkness
I always worked the afternoon shift at the hotel, usually from 1:00pm until around 10 or 11pm. My apartment was about a 20 minute walk away, so I encountered several strange animals at night. The most common animal I spotted were wild boar. In general, they were fairly passive and only seemed interested in munching on garden shrubs and twigs. However, on one occasion, there were some very drunk hotel guests that started screaming when seeing the boars, startling them. Of course I always kept an ear out for other animals at night. On several occasions, when passing by the Gyoza Center late at night on my way home, I saw a shadowy figure watching me from behind the trees. Its eyes watching me, but I couldn't make out what type of creature it was. Eventually one night, it suddenly rushed out from the darkness towards me, did a back-flip, and then wandered off - it was a cat.
The Doomsday Siren
Since a good portion of Hakoné township is structured along the side of an active volcano, there is an emergency broadcast system which can provide quick warning to the residents. The volcano had undergone a recent mini eruption in 2015, and several hiking trails had been closed off as new sulphuric gas vents had opened up closer to the mountain top. There was further seismic activity in 2017 & 2019, keeping residents on their toes. While exploring the various hiking trails, I had found sulphuric vents along some paths that weren't closed off, meaning they might be recent newly exposed faults. Indeed, for all of Hakoné's scenic beauty and bountiful hot springs, living there certainly isn't without risk. As such, it was extremely important to have emergency supplies on hand and be ready for anything.
On a cold & foggy winter morning at around 5'oclock, I was awoken to the loud "doomsday/air raid" siren on the emergency broadcast system. Realizing this could mean an eruption, I quickly jumped out of bed, dressed, and readied my emergency supplies. I rushed out to my patio where there was a viewpoint of the volcano's peak to see if there was an eruption. My older neighbour rushed outdoors too with the same mindset. Then the emergency broadcast announcement finally played, "Attention residents! This is an emergency broadcast! A person working at the Gora Park has caught Covid. Please take measures to prevent the spread of virus." That's right - the entire town was woken up at this ridiculous time to be notified someone at a park had Corona. Why this early time - I have no idea. Anyways, my neighbour had the most irritated look on his face. Before heading back inside, he glanced to me and without saying a word, his expression read clear as day, "They woke us up for this?"
The Wandering Giant
On the days I wasn't working at the hotel, I spent my time exploring all the hiking trails throughout Hakoné. I was in a tourist town, so why not be a tourist? I made it my goal to explore every accessible hiking trail throughout the park, which resulted in some very interesting adventures, beautiful views, and a few misadventures as well. I spent a lot of time checking out the various hot springs, and even managed to get a local's discount at one place. I got to meet some friendly shopkeepers, including Tom (nickname), a local who ran a coffee shop from an old air-stream camper. I guess he told some of the other customers about the giant Canadian who was always climbing the hills around the town. One day, while hiking down from Mt. Myojin, I ran into a local who spots me and excitedly asks "Oh, are you Marc?!" I guess I earned a brief reputation as the wandering giant.
The Forbidden Santa
In general, I seemed to get along well with most of my staff and colleagues at the hotel. However, there was a very short kitchen manager whose name I've since forgotten seemed to have a problem with me. First, when checking guests into the hotel restaurant, he demanded I write from a ledger on a podium. The problem was that this podium was lower than my knees. Perfect height for him, but even some the other Japanese staff had to bend their back forward. I offered alternative solutions that wouldn't cause severe muscle strain for me, but he rejected these. Eventually I had to speak to another manager and get permission to hold the clipboard in my hand. The other problem he had was that I was accused for incorrectly entering the dinner receipts. He said this is because I was not Japanese and therefore couldn't read the kanji. To vindicate myself I signed the back of every receipt I entered - and surprise, all of the receipts I input into the system were totally fine. It turned out the erroneous receipts were from his login.
One day, I had my mask off for a brief moment, and I had some brief stubble on my face - nothing more than a 5 o'clock shadow. He told me I wasn't allowed any facial hair, a rule that seemingly only applied to me. However, since I also had to wear a mask all the time, how was he to know? Throughout December I "defiantly" grew a beard under that mask, and then on Christmas dyed it a shade of white. On a day he wasn't working, I came into the back office and with a Santa hat and gave all the staff little Christmas snacks - they all seemed to enjoy the gesture. I immediately shaved the beard afterwards, as I knew word would get to him. The next time he saw me, the man scolded me again for having a beard in the photos, and I took off the mask revealing my clean shaven face, "what are you talking about?.
My 4 month contract finished at the end of January 2021, but I came back and stayed at the hotel as a guest later that summer. I spoke with the friendly night manager who informed me that short restaurant manager was fired less than two months after I had left, as it clearly wasn't just me he had problems with, and no longer had a foreigner scapegoat for all his problems.
The Faces of Japan
I think across the world, the pandemic brought out both the best and worst of people.
In Asia, there was a lot of anti-western propaganda, nonsense videos on Japanese television showing how the English language spreads Covid, etc. Japanese governments enforcing very strict travel policies to foreigners but not nationals, and messages like "don't eat with foreigners" This repeated propaganda eventually got to a lot of people, especially some older generations. I have a sneaking suspicion this mindset may have played a hand in my last breakup. But it was most evident when talking morning walks, having people panic seeing me on the street or trail. I was yelled at by several people, and the worst was in the summer when transferring at Matsumoto station, I was followed by some lady shouting stuff like "Corona!" "Get out of Japan!" etc. It happened a couple times during morning walks in Fussa and Hakone, as I was mistaken for a foreign tourist (although that wasn't even possible due to travel restrictions). I started to get a feeling, was this the true face of Japanese people being exposed, and that I really wasn't welcome. Why was I still here...?
But for all the nonsense, I still wanted to believe there were good people out there. One day in Hakone, I got a bit lost when climbing down from Mt. Myojingatake, I ended up taking a trail which had probably been closed for years. After finally making my way out of the brush, I stumbled upon what seemed like a cafe (according to Google Maps). It turns out it hadn't been in business for over a year, and I kinda ended up in the middle of this person's garden. I was half expecting a freak out - but instead the lady who used to run it still welcomed me onto the porch and gave me a cup of coffee for my troubles of travelling out that far. She was teaching a friend how to bake bread. We all had a great conversation and I said goodbye while they continued to practice baking.
Another welcoming person was the lady who ran Kintoki Chaya, a small tea house at the top of Mt. Kintoki whom I had first met back in 2016 when hiking with my friend Evgeny. One day I waved goodbye, climbed down one of the quickest routes, and walked to the 7/11 at the base and she was there inside the shop buying snacks. Either she is some sort of magical being, or probably knows a secret shortcut to a hidden road with a car. Inside the convenience store, she then gave me some granola bars as a gift. As my 4 month contract was coming to an end, I was searching for other job options. Upon hearing this, she actually got me in contact with Hakone Town hall, and set up an interview. Although things eventually didn't pan out that way (due to the ongoing pandemic), it was a great gesture of support.
There were many other supporting people in the community, such as the friendly staff at a local hot spring, several friendly cafe owners such as Tom & his airstream cafe, the staff at a local convenience store near my work, and this hidden confectionery shop & cafe. So although in 2020, I saw a bit more of Japan's xenophobic side, I was also reminded by all these kind people that its really only a small portion of Japan who hold that xenophobic mindset, and the vast majority of people are very compassionate and welcoming to foreigners.
A Real Spirit of Inspiration
My life in Hakoné was a strange 4 month odyssey that occurred during a very turbulent time in both my life as well as the world. During this time away from the busy schedule of my previous job, I was able to reconnect to my first two passions in Japan, film making & mountains. By the end of my 4 month odyssey, I had successfully hiked every trail in Hakoné, and asides from continued job hunting, I spent a lot of free time working on writing new screenplays. I decided my next film project would combine my two passions, and it would be something worth dedicating my future years towards.
While I had a two enjoyable visits by some hiking friends (Mt. Kintoki with Nadia & Mt. Byobu with Sneha), one more memorable encounter was meeting my old collage internship manager, Julie Thomas Toda, who stopped by while travelling through Hakoné with her family. She gave me several powerful words of encouragement and told me to further pursue my directing and mountaineering dreams. That was the last conversation I would have with Julie, as she sadly passed away a few months later from a sudden and aggressive illness. Her kind spirit, and words of inspiration still resonates with me.
Especially in one's 30s, there is a lot of pressure to "settle down", and get a steady job, partner, etc. - even if it breaks one's dreams. I came to realize here that in a way the whole "pandemic shakeup" was actually a blessing in disguise. Ultimately, I am glad I got out of those negative patterns before I wasted more time on them. Financial stability, jobs, and even relationships may come and go, so it is important to stick to doing the things that we truly love, to pursue our own real passions in life, not the life that is expected for us by others (parents, society, etc) - even if that path is not easy, and it by all means isn't.
By the end of January 2021, a second state of emergency caused further problems to all of Japan's tourist locations, especially Hakoné, resulting in all contract employees to be laid off - twice in one year! I had just secured a new job, and could get back to my career path while also holding a greater understanding of my own personal goals. After a few months crashing at my friend's car shop, I had finally gotten back to my feet, and was working towards making my dreams a reality. I am sure to experience more potholes along on the road towards whatever future I am destined for, but I will do what I can to approach them with a positive mind.
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