Before I started my own restaurant, the owner of a long-established udon restaurant once told me:
"Iwasu-san, if you run a restaurant with a counter, you'll see the world."
To be honest, I didn't understand the owner's true intentions at the time. At the time, I was a radio music program director. I met people in the music industry and musicians frequently, and I had a sense that I was working in a job where I communicated with people. I'm embarrassed to say this, but I thought I had good communication skills. However, when I started the store, it was completely different. I was so conceited back then. It was so lame that I was depressed.
We opened the bar in 2009. The bar mainly has tables and only four seats at the counter, but even so, there is always someone sitting at the counter drinking alone almost every day. Office workers, civil servants, business owners, part-time workers, housewives, students. Naturally, the people who come here come from a wide variety of professions and occupations.
Hmm. What should I talk about? That's right, music is a good place to start, so at first I only talked about music. I had a fair amount of experience with music in my previous job, so I could easily say things like, "What kind of music do you like?" "Oh, that band is great, isn't it?" Then I'd say, "Actually, that band is like this," and I'd give them a little bit of industry talk. Then they'd respond with, "Wow," or "Amazing." At the time, I thought this was "a lively conversation." I was an idiot.
But as I do this, I gradually begin to realize something.
What? I'm out of material now? ? When the music talk ends, it gets quiet. This is bad. I'm sure this person works for a plumbing company. But he doesn't know anything about plumbing or plumbing equipment. This person is on a business trip today, bowing to a client, tired, and looking for relaxation, he's here to air out even a little bit of complaints. And yet, all he can say is "I see." He ends up saying "10 I sees in a row." How lame.
I was completely ignorant about what other jobs there were out there, how people felt, and how they worked.
And now, I realize. Talking only about the things I'm good at isn't a skill or anything. It's a self-centered misunderstanding. If I don't look at the other person properly and take an interest in each of them, I won't be able to connect with them. That's bad. I need to know more about them. No, I want to know.
This reminds me of the owner of the udon restaurant.
"Iwasu-san, if you run a restaurant with a counter, you'll see the world."
That's it. By meeting and talking to people from all walks of life every day, I want to know more about their backgrounds. If you piece all those backgrounds together, it's the world.
I see. If you're only interested in yourself and only look at what's in front of you, you won't see the world. If you're sitting at a counter and you start to feel like looking beyond the people sitting at their tables, you'll start to see the world. That's definitely true. (Although the owner of the udon restaurant may not have meant it that way.)
Since I started to have this mindset, my conversations with customers have changed a little. The world is made up of things we don't know. By taking an interest in other people, you learn a little about things you didn't know, and it's fun. It's a gain. Somehow, the counter has become one where this kind of atmosphere can be shared. However, because I'm still inexperienced, I sometimes come across as pushy.
And then Corona hit. Bokumo is now a bento shop and wine shop. I can't do counter talk. It's sad. The world is getting smaller day by day.
So we decided that we had no choice but to hold a Zoom drinking party. Because we want to see the world. We want to connect. Everyone feels the same, right? That's what we called out to everyone. Of course, if we're going to do it, it's meaningless if the people who participate don't enjoy it, so we thought a lot about how to make it fun.
In the end, we held the event four times, with a total of about 45 people participating. We received messages from participants saying things like "It was fun" and "Please invite me again," so for now we can call it a small success.
And when I said I was going to have a Zoom drinking party, some people even went out of their way to buy bento and wine at Bokumo and take them home to join us. I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful. I can't think of any other words to describe how grateful I am.
Now, from here on, I will write in a little more detail about how I actually held the Zoom drinking party. I hope this will be of some help to those of you reading this.
Announcements will be posted on Facebook.
I also use Twitter and Instagram on a daily basis, but I didn't use them for the Zoom drinking party. Facebook allows you to match faces with names (in most cases).
In my 11 years here, I've had a few experiences where troublesome people have ruined the atmosphere at the counter. Please, no more.
As the organizer, I want to ensure that the environment is not disturbed by people who are obviously unable to read the atmosphere. So, as a safety measure, I decided to limit the participants to people I know through Facebook.
However, there are some people who I only connect with through Twitter and Instagram and I think would be happy to participate, so I'm thinking about not being limited to Facebook in the future.
Things to be careful about when making announcements
First of all, I named it a "meeting like talking at the counter at Bokumo." The counter is basically a place where you come alone and talk to people you meet there if you get along with them. I'm on the other side of the counter and I'm the one who leads the conversation.
By sharing this image, we wanted people to feel like they were taking a step outside, even though they were participating from home. It was a sign from our side that since it was a counter, we should talk to people we've never met before. Maybe new relationships will be born? We wanted to create an atmosphere of expectation.
However, that didn't matter to some women, and they attended in their loungewear and with no make-up (which was cute in its own way).
The other thing is setting a theme.
I thought it would be hard to get excited with people I met for the first time if I didn't set a theme. Zoom is a system where one person talks while the others listen silently. When four people are sitting at a counter, you can split into two and talk about different themes, but that's not the case. So it's good to have a consensus among everyone that we're going to talk about this today. If there's a theme, everyone will bring it up. Even if you don't know each other, you can deepen your understanding by asking and answering questions about the theme.
In fact, when we held the event on the theme of "Now in Japan and Now in Overseas," the participants had a lot of fun, and by holding the event multiple times, we were able to discuss things like, "How does it compare to the last time?"
At the "wine" themed event, I gave a shortened version of the wine seminar I usually give, and then everyone had a great time introducing the wines they were drinking.
Making the most of remote work
After 11 years of operation, we've seen an increase in the number of people who have come to our store before but now live far away. I think being able to connect with such people is one of the good things about Zoom drinking parties hosted by stores like ours. That's why we prioritized connecting with people overseas when we decided on the dates.
In my case, I first wanted to connect with the people in Christchurch (NZ) who have been the most helpful to me, so I first secured a schedule for that and then called out to everyone, saying, "We will connect you with overseas."
After trying it four times, the cities I was able to connect with outside of Aichi Prefecture, where I live, were Christchurch (NZ), Auckland (NZ), Michigan (USA), near Dublin (Ireland), Bangkok (Thailand), Tokyo, and Sapporo.
Japanese people living abroad want to know about Japan and share their circumstances. People in Japan want to know what's going on in the world, where Japan stands from the world's perspective, and where they stand in that world. I realized that the Zoom hosted by the store can be a hub that connects these thoughts.
I set the time to 18:00-21:30.
The time difference between NZ and Japan, which is the main connection, is 3 hours. If we start at 6pm in Japan, it's 9pm in NZ. I thought this would be a good time for a drinking party. However, it was 6am in the US and 10am in Ireland, so naturally I ended up participating for morning coffee, not a drinking party, which I felt a little sorry about. Even in that situation, I was very grateful that they were proactive in talking to me about various things.
Among the participants in Japan, there are those who prefer early hours and those who prefer late hours. If you try to accommodate various needs, you will naturally end up dragging on. As a result, we went over time all four times. In the second half, we time-slip, just like in a normal drinking party.
The role of the person in charge is important
As I wrote earlier, Zoom is a style where one person speaks and everyone listens. Basically, it cannot work without a moderator. Especially when there are many people who are meeting for the first time, it is difficult to talk unless the organizer connects people.
It is also necessary to give speech to those who are not speaking, and to interrupt those who are talking a lot.
Create a somewhat relaxed atmosphere
It's okay to join or leave midway. You can leave for 30 minutes or so and come back. You can do it while cooking dinner, or go to the convenience store to get some extra groceries. Not being too strict lowers the barrier to participation. But, if you stay the whole time, you won't miss any interesting stories.
However, if there are a lot of people joining in the middle of the meeting, it is a bit difficult for the organizer. Every time a new person joins, everyone needs to be introduced again. If you don't do that, the new person will be left behind. Oh, that's right. Maybe it will be solved if we introduce a rule that everyone writes a brief self-introduction in the chat. Let's do that next time.
The number of people is suitable for up to 15 people.
If the number of people increases too much, the "waiting time" will definitely be longer. When you are not talking, your hand tends to reach for the glass. As a result, you tend to get drunk unexpectedly. This is something that everyone who has been doing Zoom drinking parties will have experienced. I felt that up to about 15 people was just right. It is better to set the maximum number of people every time you recruit.
Give it a try
So, what were the results of our experiment? As I wrote at the beginning, were we able to share "knowing the world" with the participants?
The answer is yes.
I learned real things that you can't find in the media or on social media. I feel like my horizons have broadened considerably. When your horizons broaden, it's accompanied by fun. The more interesting things you learn, the more fun you'll have. That's what I thought.
I'll summarize what kind of interesting things I found specifically.
The world I discovered through Zoom
New Zealand was quick to decide on a lockdown. Everyone followed the 39-year-old female prime minister's command and succeeded in containing the virus. She used a new word, "bubble," to show the public "a group unit that is okay to spend time together now."
In Michigan, citizens have been arming themselves since early on in preparation for riots caused by people who have lost their jobs and homes. Ammunition and guns are selling well. Discrimination against Chinese people, and against Asians who look Chinese in general, is common. The auto industry has almost stopped. Many people have no savings, so if things continue like this, a huge number of people will be unable to pay their rent and will be out on the streets.
In Ireland, infected people are concentrated in the capital, Dublin. The reason is that Ireland is not rich in industry, so in order to attract foreign companies to Dublin, they made it a special zone with preferential tax treatment. The city became wealthy thanks to the influx of global companies, but the large number of people who travel frequently to and from overseas created clusters.
People in Bangkok are relatively cautious and not many people go out. Perhaps because they have air conditioners and closed off places where people gather early, they have been able to contain the virus to a certain extent. Japanese people living there do not seem to feel particularly depressed.
So that's what the Zoom drinking party was like.
summary
Currently, I am thinking every day about how long I should continue the lunch box business and wine shop, when I should reopen, how I should get my staff to work, how I should respond to changes in the environment around us, and my biggest current challenge, the money issue, but I still can't find the answers right away.
Even in such circumstances, I thought that learning about the world would be something I wanted to put high on my priorities.
Because I'm sure that if I just look at what's in front of me, I'll definitely make the wrong decision. I'm the kind of guy who always tries to talk about my favorite genres. If I'm not careful, I think that kind of narrow-mindedness will come out when I'm forced to make important business decisions. And now I've reached a year where no one is warning me about that anymore.
"Hey Iwasu, see the world."
I think this time I have to tell myself that.
What about you guys?
