Not in Osaka or Kyoto either? ;)

I couldn't resist.

Sanosuke!

in japan you can tip
 

if you want to, but its not necessary.

there is a huge difference to the us.

on my last visit to the us i was wondering why a taxi driver is asking me for a 2 usd tip on a 4 usd ride.

he didnt know the way so we had to tell him where to go, and when we gave him 5usd, he jelled something like, give me more tips.

so in the US you are forced to give tips even the people DO NOT DESERVE the TIP. the argumentation of my friends didnt satisfy me. well i understand that the
people in the service industry are not earning a lot. so if i was them and i want TIP, i would try to serve my guests so they are really satisfied and want to give me tips.

well i think that 10% of my bill is a nice tip , for example we spent 500usd in a restaurant and had to tip 20% on top which in my eyes is insane. if i eat with 2 persons for 500usd and didnt get the best service (which i would expect for this price) i would normally maybe tip 10% but not 20%.

on the other hand i can understand that a lot people from the US want to tip the japanese waiters even a 30% tip as the service you know from the US is so bad compared to the japanese service, that you feel like you are stealing from these guys if you do not tip them more than 20% .

but guys, in japan the hotels always have a 10% service charge which is indeed for SERVICE. so there is no need to tip .

so my friends told me, if there is no service they tip 10% , service is good 20% and service is outstanding they tip 25%.

so maybe its my friends who are tipping unusually but i dont get it...

the service in the USA as bad as the service in china and i hope that people stop tipping for NON-Existent service in the US.

anyway, in LA the service at SKYBAR was outstanding so we tipped an 25% which was ok for me.

dp

I'm moving to Japan and will be living in an apartment building with valet parking. (Self-park is not possible in the garage.) Nice to know I won't need to tip every time I drop off or pick up my car.

What about annual bonus or gift (for New Year or some other festival?)? Is it customary to hand a small gift or money to service staff (building manager, receptionist, gym attendant, parking attendants, etc.) once a year? In Hong Kong, for Chinese New Year, we'd have to hand out numerous 'lai see' (lucky money) envelopes to everyone who's served us during the year.

yes
 

this is totally ok.

in japan it is often comen to buy beer vouchers to give them to people or fruit baskets etc. but you can be creative and give them something when ever you feel they deserve a little token.

usually when i go to a business trip i buy some staff like candle or other stuff and give it to my staff or sometimes to hotel managers.

last time i have bought champagne and presented it to my hotel contacts at 4-5 hotels in tokyo as a christmas present.

cheers dp

To hand a gift to someone causes themn to incur a feeling of responsibility to return the favor. That is not the goal. So to achieve the goal of expressing thanks while simultaneously avoiding their incurring any debt, the culturally appropriate thing to do if giving a gift is to give a gift that person can share easily with their whole team. The fact is all people here work in teams. A building manager does not see the building being satisfactory to you as his doing alone. Rather he would see it as the successful integration of the efforts of all staff associated with the bulding functioning properly. The same is true of gym attendants, parking attendants, receptionists, etc.

Suggestions include senbei (rice crackers), cookies, chocolates, or other similarly individually wrapped or delineated within a larger box items from wherever you have returned recently. Home town specialties are very good too because it shows a bit of sharing of yourself with the team. Which in turn is in and of itself team building.

To give any gift at all is not necessarily customary, nor even expected, but if done within the parameters of the culture, very well received.

Mike

Thanks for the insight. Yes, being from a Chinese culture, I totally get the teamwork mentality, and the instinct to take credit for the group as opposed to as an individual, so gift-giving to the entire team does seem to be a good way to go.

As far as timing, is it customary or expected to do this gifting to service staff once a year, at New Year's? Or should it be done shortly after receiving extraordinary service?

Thanks.

Deleted - too sarcastic

:)
 

you can give them a little gift newyear but if you gift anything because you got extraordinary service you have to do a lot tipping in japan.

compared to europe and us the service is good, unless you want something which is not written in their guidelines...

and if you tip a japanese as you read above , the put the other person in a situation in which she/he has to return the favour.

so better you dont tip or make presents .

a thank you , smile, is enough.

at years end , christmas or newyears eve you can present the whole crew some gifts which can be shared.

and if you liked on eperson veyr much, you could always buy a small godiva or other chocolate products etc.

dp

There are exceptions to this rule as with anything else. When you stay at a ryokan, it is customary to tip the hostess who take care of you once you get to you room, in a nice envelope of course.

We stayed at the very nice Kagaya at Wakura Onsen on the Noto Hanto (Noto Peninsula) in Kanazawa prefecture. They assigned us a hostess with fluent English. Of course we did not know to tip but she took care of us at every turn anyway, from waking us in the morning to settle us in for the night.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...l&pagewanted=3
http://www.jtbgmt.com/japannow/zoom/index64.asp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lear_sh...7594107031046/

You can see the English speaking Masako san in the last URL (not our pix).

Where did you get this information from? Please explain your source.

There is such a practice and I have previously reported on my experiences of this in this forum. Long story short - I attempted to give an envelope to the ryokan hostess in Miyajima. She smiled and very firmly refused the envelope.

I would guess that the ryokan gratuity is a dead (or nearly dead) tradition.

I remember - but I'm extremely interested in learning from which kind of sources this advice is still sprinkling from.

Good grief ... It's in dozens of guidebooks. I doubt that anyone can tell you the source ... the source might be an edict from a tokugawa era shogun for all I know...

Try googling for "kokorozuke" - I get a pretty good description on Ikyu (an online hotel reservation site):
http://www.ikyu.com/spcl2/kntat/vol13.htm


[See section on "the use of pochi envelopes"]

Guests staying at a ryokan always prepare a pochi envelope and some uncreased notes and pass it over unobtrusively.

This info came from a Japanese friend after the Kagaya stay. He asked me whether I tipped or not. It makes sense. It makes sure you get a super treatment. The service at these ryokans put all western style hotels in Japan to shame.

I was starting to think the hostess Masako san never sleeps. When we were in the room, even asleep, the door was never locked so she can slip in and out. You only lock the room when you are out. Our stay was in winter time and the snow was coming down as I sat in the outdoor pool. We also visited the Kenrokuen garden in Kanazawa to see the famous snow scene.

At the JR Wakura Onsen station, the hotel vans were waiting for their guests to arrive. I missed my station and the hotel sent an unscheduled van.

I guess it's because I've never looked too deeply into staying at "TOP LUXURY ryokans". http://www.jnto.go.jp/syd/arrange/ac...ons/index.html None of my (British) guidebooks encourage me to tip.

Perhaps it would be more helpful to try and figure out what percentage of ryokans are 'top luxury' ones, and how much they usually cost so one can recognise them.

That should stop anyone who might get concerned with tipping doing so needlessly.

What are the tell tale signs of a 'top luxury' ryokan where this sort of practice may or may not be expected?


EDIT TO ADD: Just seen SJUAMMF's reply. I was wondering which guidebook/website you might have seen this in, but this makes sense (to me at least :)). Thank you very much!