In fact, it was her experience in having to organize her own concert that made her realize she had skills that would later come in handy when she made the move into hospitality. “I decided to do it in a large concert hall and I wanted to organize it myself. I didn’t want any agent to tell me what to wear, what to play, and I didn’t know anything about the business.

“I did it out of passion, designed my own poster, wrote my own press release although I didn’t know it was called that at the time. I drew up the proposal to get sponsorships, invited the newspapers and sold my own tickets.

“It was fun. I told my father about it and he said, that’s called marketing.”

Today, she still plays at home and for friends. “It was difficult – you have to train a lot, and be really disciplined,” said Aya, who was raised in Brazil, did her studies in the US and moved back to Japan after living abroad for almost 20 years.

Her first job in hospitality was working at the reception of the Sheraton Grande in Los Angeles. She was hooked from then on. “I was so proud of working in that hotel, my boss was an elegant, smart, quiet woman. I never felt this way when playing the piano.”

When she returned to Tokyo many years later, she worked at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay. After that, she decided to do her CPA and went to work for Deloitte Touche and later Price Waterhouse Coopers as a re-engineering consultant. But she returned to hospitality soon after and worked for a start-up called Space Design at a time when design service apartments were just beginning to emerge in Japan. She later joined Ishin Hotels Group as vice president marketing where she built the group’s marketing outreach over five years.

All this was in preparation for the “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow – to run her own hotel management company which on July 20 reached a major milestone she’d been working towards. On July 20, Tokai Kanko, the Japanese listed company, signed a memorandum of understanding with Hony Capital, China, and Hong Kong-based Far East Consortium (run by Tan Sri Dato David Chiu) to set up a hotel investment platform to invest in Japan.

At the same time, it signed an investment agreement to invest in Agora Hospitalities. Under the arrangement, Tokai will have the right to convert its investment to an initial 60% equity stake in Agora and has a further option to increase its stake to 90% in Agora. As a first transaction, Tokai acquired a 175-room hotel in Moriguchi, Osaka, and the hotel asset will form part of the hotel investment portfolio.

This is the breakthrough Aya’s wanted – to have a fund in which to invest in hotels in Japan and for Agora to manage them. Currently, Agora manages Nojiriko Hotel El Bosco and three ryokans, Imaiso and Nanzanso in Izu and Kikkatei in Kyushu. Agora will soon be adding another full service hotel in Osaka. The Nojiriko Hotel El Bosco was a former Prince hotel which was languishing. “I was looking at lots of hotels and I had a nice feeling when I walked into it. Its location is in an unknown place, it’d been open 27 years, its business was very seasonal and the customers were getting older and there were no new customers.

“Common sense said it wouldn’t work but I thought it was a great resource that needed to be reused, otherwise nobody would take it over and it would be forgotten someday. I wanted to preserve the great architecture, the beautiful nature around it. This kind of place is needed for people who lead busy lives.” So she took out a master lease and renovated the hotel which has 60 rooms in two wings.

“All I did was change the atmosphere, changed the energy and passion.”

Business was of course affected after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami but the hotel is now regarded as THE place to come to for young couples, single women and students on retreats. It’s known for its designer restaurant by master chef Makoto Ozawa who is famous for using fresh ingredients and whipping up marvelous concoctions. The meal I had there was intensely satisfying, unlike any Japanese meal I’d ever had. The flavors were subtle, the ingredients fresh and the blends creative.

“It’s not about luxury, but lifestyle which I see as a continuation of your daily life. It should be part of our life to experience something like this – to learn something about nature and food and keep it as part of our lives.”

Initially, she met resistance from the staff but after the hotel rebranded, the customers also changed and when employees saw the shift, they too adapted. “It took a long time but like good food, good teams need time to build,” said Aya.

Aya’s vision for Agora is to build an alliance of hotels and ryokans that represent the beauty of Japan, properties that “will help travellers experience the beauty of this country”.

“The beauty of Japan is in the seasons and we want to design travel experiences based on the seasonality – go at the right time and provide the right environment.”

She wants to build up the alliance into a network of 50 properties and with the new fund, this goal will be achievable. Having worked her way up the industry because she loved it, she is keen that a younger generation of Japanese regard hospitality as a rewarding career but she is concerned that the industry is not providing the right environment for young people to learn.

“In the past, hoteliers moved from hotel to hotel and you learnt new things. Under this economy, all hotels are trying to hire local people at cheaper wages, they are not giving a broader view to their people. “For example, with our hotel, when we close it in winter, we send the staff to a ski resort in Hokkaido and when they return, they change because they have learnt something. These opportunities are important for everybody – the best learning comes when you step outside yourself and your own environment.”