Summary of original post:
While staying at a small hotel in a remote area of Japan, the staff kindly invited me (a solo traveler) to join them for dinner. It was an incredibly warm and memorable experience, and I asked Reddit for ideas on how to properly thank them.
Follow-up:
2 days later that amazing dinner, I went to Kamikōchi.
Next to the famous Kappa-bashi bridge, there are several souvenir shops. I found a package of Milk Manju called Cheeks of Kappa (the most expensive one I could find) and decided it would make the perfect gift (pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/YnZx65D).
As soon as I got back to the hotel, I went to the front desk, handed the the box, and (as u/Extension_Climate471 suggested) I said:
> Iro iro osewa ni narimashita
(It means “thank you for everything” or “thank you for all of your help”)
For context: I don’t speak a word of Japanese, I just repeated the phrase exactly as it was written.
His reaction was priceless! He looked so happy, and then he took me straight into the kitchen. After calling everybody over, I repeated the same phrase again. They all smiled, thanked me warmly, and I went back to my room feeling really touched.
Two days later, on the day I left the hotel, they surprised me with a parting gift: a bottle of apple juice! (pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/MkrZOYL)
I want to thank everyone who commented on my previous post ( u/Vall3y, u/Reasonable-Truck-874, u/Extension_Climate471, u/chri1720 ….sorry if I've missed someone), your suggestions really helped me make this small gesture.
Having dinner with them was already such a beautiful experience, and the gift exchange (yes u/rworne I've gotten into Japanese gift-giving tradition! XD ) was something I honestly didn’t expect at all. 🙂
I guess I’ll be sending them a postcard from here now! 😛
by Gongshu