great customer service, anyone?

I think anybody would readily agree with me that nothing beats Japan’s excellent customer service. Want proof? Here’s one:

From the southern-west part of Japan, Okasan went on a business trip to Yamanashi prefecture. Thoughtful as she is, aside from her Inden-ya present to me, she bought us shiro (white) wine. Yamanashi sits in a basin and because of its location, the prefecture has been famous for its sweet grapes. And ergo, the winery.

After her Yamanashi trip, she then went to Tokyo as she also got invited to a special film showing. Cinema staff then took care of her wine bottle. But alas, after the movie, everyone found out that for some reason, her bottle of wine got broken.

Can you imagine what a cinema staff would do had it happened in your country?

Anyways, what the cinema staff did was they got the address of the recipients of wine (us!) and they promised to deliver the wine to us. That was Monday.

Friday, I received the package. Of course i’m happy, there’s another delivery! Another gift/mail to open! Yey! 🙂

It was a box specially designed for bottle deliveries.

The wine was inside one of the smaller boxes whilst a letter was on the other small box. As Hubby put it, the letter contained their deepest apologies as well as explanation of the contents of the package.

So here’s the wine, safely wrapped with big-bubbled bubble wrap.

And yes, cinema people replaced the broken wine with a wine they bought straight from Yamanashi. Not replaced with just any wine that can be bought in a neighboring mall in Tokyo.

Oh, they didn’t stop from there. Because it was a special film showing, some brochures about the movie were being handed out. Okasan’s copy got wet as well. So cinema staff promised to send a new one along with the wine.

But they didn’t just send a new brochure. They sent one that had a sign by the lead actor Daiichi Yasuo.

Simply amazing customer service. Can anybody else top this?

Inspires me really. To go the extra mile.

Oh by way, The movie is entitled “Love Tomato” or “Koisuro Tomato” in Japanese. It was filmed in the Philippines and has a Filipino title of “Kumain Ka Na Ba?” (Have you eaten yet?).

It stars the beautiful Alice Dixon. She’s 43, can you imagine??

 

Here’s one scene of the movie. Sorry it’s blurred. Photo taken from the brochure print.

Okasan gave us a copy of the movie. The print may be weeping (yes, blame it on the wine) but it is workable, probably. Weekend is for movies so Hubby and I definitely have this movie in our lineup. Over a bottle of wine, most probably.

 

An afternoon with Okasan

After my medical check yesterday (that one in itself is blog worthy if only I was able to take photos of the hospital), I met up with Okasan who was here in the Kanto area for some business. As Hubby has to be in the office till 6, Okasan and I were left to our own devices for 3 hours or so. Even though I only know for now very few Japanese and Okasan as well is learning English, still, we had a great afternoon.

After coffee break with the spectacular view of Minato Mirai splayed before us and after shopping (thank you Okasan!), we headed to Cosmo World to ride the Kanransha (big clock ferris wheel). It takes 15 min for the big wheel to make its complete round hence we were looking forward to some relaxing sightseeing. Along the way however, we stopped by one of the puri kuras or picture booth. Fun! The type we got though is not the sticker type. Hence, i’m using my half of the photo print as bookmark on my Nihongo Breakthrough book. 😀

My 100-yen coin purse gave up on me two days after I bought it, 2 months ago. So yes, not all 100 yen stuff are durable.

I never really got around to replacing it though, busy as I was (before). And anyways, it was still functional. It was just as good though as Okasan’s omiyage from Yamanashi was just right for me. I loved the Yamanashi Inden-ya coin purse Okasan gave. Loved tha lacquer-embossed flower.

It also has two pockets to put folded bills on one and another where I can put my alien card and train pass. Perfect to bring for short errands out of the house. Just what I was looking for.

Now i’m so glad I procrastinated on buying another poin curse. 🙂

Thanks Okasan! And mata ne. 🙂