Food idea for Japan hotels

Press, 3 June 1982, Page 5

Food idea for Japan hotels

Two suggestions that Mr Yasunari Ebihara. the assistant manager of Tokyo's Shiba Park Hotel, will be taking back to Japan with him in July are "bigger meals" and .“lower bar prices."

Mr Ebihara is in New Zealand on a six-week exchange of staff between the Shiba Park Hotel and Noahs Hotel of Christchurch. He will spend the six weeks as an assistant manager of the Christchurch hotel.

It is the first exchange of staff between the two hotels, although a chef from the Shiba Park. Mr Tedayo Sekyama, spent .six weeks in New Zealand earlier this year. His visit, ended with a Japanese banquet at Noahs. The Japanese were still not familiar with the NewZealand lifestyle, said Mr Ebihara. The first difference he had noticed was in the

size of meals? Japanese meals were small but the colour and decoration were very beautiful, and customers were offered second helpings at no extra cost. “New Zealand meal portions'are huge,” he said. “The steak I had last night would have fed nine people in Japan." People also seemed to spend more time in hotel bars in New Zealand, said Mr Ebihara. Japanese hotel guests did not use the hotel bar very often, probably because the prices were much higher than they were in New Zealand.

A glass of beer cost cost $2.50 to $3 in Japanese hotels, he said. Mr Ebihara said he would try to introduce larger meals for tourists and to reduce the bar prices when he returned to Tokyo. Japanese tourists liked

visiting New Zealand, because it was a "fresh destination." he said. “Many people have been to South-East Asia, to Hawaii, and the west

coast of the United States. But the Oceania area — Australia and New Zealand — is a new place for them to go."

Japanese tourists also liked the open spaces of New Zealand. It was heavily promoted by Japanese tourist agencies as a friendly and safe country to visit. ’ • The Japanese tour parties he had seen in New Zealand seemed very quiet. "Japanese tourists at home are very noisy," Mr Ebihara said. "They like to always be doing something. Here'they are very quiet.” The parties he had talked to had felt that everything in New Zealand was organised for them.

"They would like the freedom to decide for themselves. not to be so organised." he said. Some tours did not take long enough travelling

through New Zealand, said Mr Ebihara. “All they see is Auckland. Rotorua. ' Christchurch. Queenstown, and Mount Cook," he said. "Japanese people want to see the countryside as well as the cities."’ The assistant manager of Noahs. Mr Raymond Black, who will spend six weeks in Tokyo in Julj- and August, said that the hotel accommodated many Japanese guests. “We have a party of 14 honeymooners booking in tomorrow evening." he said. After a visit by a touring party in which nb-one spoke English, the hotel printed in Japanese instructions for making a long-distance telephone call to Japan and the instructions in case of a fire. Noahs was also thinking of introducing a Japanesestyled breakfast, with food packaged in the same way as on an airline, said Mr Black.