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The service staff had arrived right before the opening. Everyone in the first group were Australian from a hotel school. And they said, "We have to put everything in place for the opening". They were truly professional. We finished fitting the furniture and we were fully ready for the opening.
I remember we also had rehearsal for our opening ceremony, because everything has to run on time in Japan, just like the Shinkansen.
We had an English-style opening at British Hills. For the opening and closing of the Houses of the Parliament in London, there's a gentleman called “Black Rod” who strikes the doors of the houses and demands entrance of Her Majesty the Queen.
So we decided to do the same ritual for the opening of British Hills. All the front doors were closed. It was the butler, Peter Stanbury, who took the part of the Black Rod and banged on the door. During the rehearsal, the door was closed, he banged on it and we opened – it went perfect!
The time of the official opening came and all the distinguished guests were there, as well as the people from the Embassy and all the VIP guests. The ceremony took place in front of the Manor House. After the cutting of the ribbons, finally the Black Rod appeared. The door was opening outwards, so I was at the back of the door waiting. And Peter was at the front, and when he had to bang on it, I had to open.
Peter began to bang on the door and I tried to open. But the door jammed, and I just couldn't open. He was banging on the door, I wanted to let him in and pushed. It was a brand new door, but I had to kick it open.
So finally the door opened and I was relieved. People fortunately thought it was all part of the opening ceremony. It seems the doors was swollen, so we couldn't get it opened. It was really funny episode. On the next day, Mr. Yamanaka, the maintenance staff, scraped the doors down, so that we wouldn’t have the same problem.
By the way, Mr. Yamanaka was a enigmatic character. Nobody knew details about his background. Usually he was wearing worker’s clothes, but once he got dressed up, he looked very dandy and make women look back at him. I taught him how to use properly knife and fork. And he taught me how to use ohashi. If we wanted anything, Mr. Yamanaka would find and get it for us. No one knew how he would do that. (4/9)