The Story of How I Wrote a Tanka After Renovating the Toilet at Heiwaien, a Mecca for Tanka Lovers
I lived in Nagoya from 2019 to 2024.
I was a general employee who was always ready for a nationwide transfer. I had moved there from Hamamatsu.
After coming to Nagoya, the place a Tanka lover must visit is the Chinese restaurant 'Heiwaien'.
I visited it nervously, and at the counter, I would down three highballs with their explosively delicious fried rice and stir-fried garlic stems.
And every time I paid, I would say, '
Please let me know when you decide to change the toilet' and would always get a laugh.The toilet at Heiwaien was a Japanese-style squat toilet. Every time I saw it, my blood as a 'toilet woman' would secretly boil, thinking, 'That is a toilet worth changing.'
In 2022, as sales grew, my nails became flashier, and my hair turned gold and green. Back then, when I was shouting, '
I want to be the real deal, caught between results and rules', someone nicknamed me the 'Communication Monster'.Living up to my nickname, I made sure to exchange contact information with the owner, Charlie.
“
I want to change the toilet, can I get a quote? lol”It happened, it finally happened!!
After visiting for three years, the request to change the toilet had truly arrived.
However, I had forgotten. I am a person from a 'manufacturer.' I cannot perform construction.
I panicked. I could only provide a quote for the manufacturer's suggested retail price of the toilet. But for a salesperson, saying 'I can't do it' is forbidden.
'Understood! Is there a specific type of 'Tanka-like' toilet you want? Or just a normal one?'
Looking back now, what on earth is a 'Tanka-like toilet'? I had lost all my composure. The reply came immediately.
“A normal one (lol)”
A few days later, I brought along the president of a construction company that specializes in store renovations, and we headed to Heiwaien.
The tiled Japanese-style toilet, which had only grown more intense over time!!!
The president and I examined it thoroughly and took measurements. It was a limited space. The president would handle the blueprints, and I would propose the optimal equipment.
At the second meeting, the president suggested, 'How about painting the walls gold?'
Charlie said, 'If you can do it for this price, I'll leave it to the pros.' It was thrilling. He was too cool.
I asked one thing that had been bothering me.
“Why gold?”
President: 'A golden wall with a shining gold toilet, doesn't that feel like a holy site?'
Charlie's mother laughed.
'Oh, the color of this wall isn't gold, it's nicotine stains.'
Nicotine stains~~~~!!!
The president was floored, but the conclusion was, 'Gold, that's actually good.'
When the president, who was acting like a TV personality, brought out samples saying, 'There are different types of gold...',
Charlie just said, 'I'll leave it to you'. His decisiveness was too sharp.With the blueprints, wall color, and equipment decided, the 7-day renovation began.
I was at Heiwaien every day. Days spent going back and forth between the office and the site.
Breaking, fixing, drawing lines, scraping, connecting... My job was the final piece, and I realized once again that a manufacturer alone cannot build a toilet.
Or rather, there was still so much I didn't know.I thought I was someone who went to sites relatively often, but...
Supported by the craftsmen, with the client paying the money, I felt deeply every day that this is where I stood.
I even realized that I had been under the illusion that I was the one creating the richness of the plumbing.
The products selected by Uemoto were extremely difficult to install.
Even though the carpenter, Kio-san, was exhausted by the proposals of a 'violent' manufacturer that didn't actually do the construction, he laughed and said, '
It's fun to learn things I didn't know'.On the final day, the painter painted the door gold as well. The toilet began to emit a radiance unlike any other.April 4, 2022, handover.
Charlie, who had returned from a short break, was also smiling.
I cleaned up, removed the protective coverings, and was the first to worship the reborn toilet.
April 5, at the new Heiwaien, I ordered the fastest highball in human history.
At 17:30, my throat was quenched.
Then my boss, seniors, and juniors gathered. Everyone praised the food and smiled when they saw the toilet. 'No wonder you come here every day,' they said.
I think my seniors understood that, even if it might not have been a manufacturer's job, it might have been necessary for Ayaka Uemoto to watch over this construction every day.
, they thought.
The next day, I had a celebration at Heiwaien with the construction company president and Kio-san.
We took turns going into the completed toilet and coming out, saying 'What a great toilet,' over and over again, and toasted.I also sat on the toilet seat I had chosen and looked at the wall.
Ah, it's shining.
Realizing I had been looking at only a part and assuming it was the whole,
I felt like I had finally seen the 'full picture' of my work. I felt like I had earned the right to be the real deal.
When I returned to my seat, there was a Tanka notebook on the table.
Had something been conveyed? At that moment, for the first time in three years, a poem descended upon me.Gazing at the golden wall, I wonder if there is a future created from the buttocks (Ayaka Uemoto)
After that, this construction became a big topic within the company, and it became a place where top management gathered. I, a low-level employee, was told by a director of a listed company, 'You did a good job.'
Since this construction, my approach to work has changed a little.
The 'ease of use' for the craftsmen and construction companies,
the 'ease of use' for the client—even for the same product, the evaluation is not the same for both sides. If the position is different, the requirements are different.
That is precisely why I need to consider the other person's perspective,
and I feel like I have become able to work by embodying what I have been told since new employee training, at least a little bit.
Charlie laughed, saying, 'I've been busy since I renovated the toilet.'
A year later, I was transferred to the Kanto region.
The future created from the buttocks truly existed.
The president, Kio-san, many craftsmen, and Charlie, and his mother.
I am now in the future that I created with many people.
Heiwaien has become my hometown.
Because that poem was written, I was able to participate in a Tanka gathering in Nagoya for the first time in seven years, and I submitted to a new writer's award for the first time in my life, so my Tanka also began to move forward.
The Tanka mecca was truly a 'mecca'.
Note that this story is true, and the golden shining toilet actually exists ⇩
https://jp.toto.com/reform/case/view/137276/