LuLuLu Guest house: Restart filled with energy

By Marika Yoshimura

A lot of elderly couples, families, and so on enjoy walking the Obiya shopping street, stopping by a shop such as a stationery shop, or dressmaker that interests them from time to time in spring 2023. Typical Japanese shopping streets in this style are a long pedestrian along many covered shops, and those were built in the Showa era (1926～1989).  

 “This folding fan is great, isn’t it?” says a European-looking woman with blond hair in an exuberant tone while walking around a one-hundred-yen shop in the shopping street. At the same time, clerks are busier dealing with customers rather than before.  

 LuLuLu is one of the guest houses that is doing well due to the positive impact of the end of the Corona disaster. Many foreign tourists are returning to the guesthouse, and it is coming back to life again 

This guest house has restored the number of customers as well as before covid-19. It features a unique point in that each room is a private sleeping room so people, after a long trip, can relax in privacy. They also offer breakfast for free.  

 “The number of foreign visitors has really increased since January,” said Kayako Motoyoshi, guest house manager. “The number of European visitors is increasing,” she said with pleasure. “Many are German and French. Yesterday, we had a Swedish guest.” 

 Many big cruise ships come from particularly Europe since April. Particularly in September, ten cruise ships arrived at Kochi New Port. As for one of the ships, the number of passenger clerks is about three thousand people, according to a report from Kochi prefecture. There is a big map on the wall that has many pins that indicate where come from. Even though after corona epidemic version map, the European region is filled with a lot of pins.  

 But during the pandemic, this guest house tried to carry on as normal through some obstacles. One of the problems is human resources.                                                                                                                                                                                           

“While the pandemic, human resources such as helper or part-time jobs had been reduced to zero!” she said. “So, I started from zero in human resources development, resulting in people.” 

  Voluntary refraining that people have to in the home not to contact with people had a terrible effect on not only tourists but also significant shops themselves, so this guest house had to choose a path to cut them reluctantly due to not coming customers.  

Even though most of society was in a dark atmosphere, this guest house attempted to do what they hadn’t before. One of the trials is expanding their business.  

 “We expanded to Tokyo, in Sangenjaya (vibrant area with a mix of old and new). Many are forced to close down, but I try to get twice the profit after people come back,” she said. “We have to do it. It`s a light of hope.” 

 A lot of people spent boring time because many business scales get to be small and have nothing to do with the untransformed future. However, they found a way they could at that time and picked up the room that a company left.  

This guest house struggled to worry about responding to the customer, depending on each epidemic. It was hard for them to predict the flow of customers so that the epidemic suddenly woke or intensified. 

 “In 2022, suddenly customers came to this guest house because of the conference and Yosakoi (famous summer street dance festival in Kochi), inter-high school competition, but we were not ready for it,” she said. “I heard the news that corona epidemic would spread again as of June. I didn’t predict the number of customer visits, so I assumed that the festival might not be held.”  

 Even though, the inter-high school competition was held from July 23 to August 23. The Yosakoi festival was held on 10 and 11 August 2022. Regarding the Yosakoi Festival, the number of spectators was about 1.40 million and the participants were around 19,000, according to the YOSAKOI Soran Festival.  

 They couldn’t offer services that they could have done before since the staff was fewer and they had to rest themselves not to damage their body.  

 “We had worked without break day because of a shortage of staff. For example, one customer said where they could check in at 2 p.m. early, when actually, 3 p.m. is normal. But if we respond to this request, we won’t have time for a break,“ she said. 

This guest house is going to proceed, not stay in the same condition to create a better environment.  

 “I always attempt to do new things. Just one week ago, I reformed the living room that had a counter kitchen,” she said. “The style changes create interaction, which allows people to cook on the table together.” 

 There used to be counter tables that faced a wall, which is hard to communicate with people. After reforming, the wall between the table and kitchen was removed and a big table was installed in the center of the living room with about ten chairs.  

The second of their attempt is to hold events involving foreigners to let know them about Kochi and Japanese culture deeply in the near future.  

 “I want to let everyone know tosamaki (a thick sushi roll wrapped with seared bonito), it is so delicious,” she said.  

 Seared bonito is famous as Kochi’s popular food, but tosamaki isn’t so famous that visitors try to eat it in Kochi.  

 “I teach not only just Japanese calligraphy but also more detail like tome (the skill of stop)  and harai (the skill of upward brushstroke) for foreigners who like Japan, “ she said.  

 Most foreigners who experience Japanese calligraphy finish just writing the letter without some rules. But by learning some rules, they would find attractive points in getting to know the real Japanese culture.  

Recently, the bad influence of corona was ended, and she has managed to improve the guest house to a better one.  

 “Customers’ request and criticisms are my motivation, not their appreciation,” she said. “The idea that we want it to be like this in here is the customer’s opinion, we’ve come this far.” 

 After one customer said to them, they changed the number of share house members to plus five members.  

 This guest house is continuing to evolve more for what you have never seen. 

 “Managing LuLuLu is the same as raising children,” she said. “At first, we started from nothing, and sow seeds, water a lot, grow, recently grow leaves. Getting to understand Know-how.” 

Map https://goo.gl/maps/PTEuBYsG424fBbqn6

Kochi Prefecture (https://www.pref.kochi.lg.jp/soshiki/175201/cruise7.html) 

Yosakoi Event Information (https://www.yosakoi-soran.jp/event_result/) 

LuLulu (https://officelululu.com)