It’s a quiet morning at a little cafeteria in the Kannawa area. Katsutaro Shokudo opens at 9:30 AM, and is located along Ideyuzaka. For centuries in Kannawa there has existed a culture revolving around health and recovery, with many coming here to spend anywhere from a week to a month soaking in the hot springs. Even today the area is loved by many as a health retreat. “The other I had a customer at breakfast time who came on a health retreat who was 99 years old!” said the manager Hisako. I learned that many of her customers are over 90, and some of them can even walk without a cane.
“When I first started working here I tried my hardest not to make our customers wait,” she said. She took some rice in her hand and on it put sweet bean paste. Rolling it around fluidly in her hands, a perfect little ohagi* appeared before my eyes. “I can make 20 in five minutes. A while back there was a customer who timed me and told me that.”
*Ohagi are a Japanese sweet made with glutinous rice and sweet azuki bean paste.
Hisako was offered the job by a friend, and has been working here since that day — 35 years ago. Ten years ago the shop was inherited by that friend’s sister, Masami-san, and together the three ladies run the business.
Decorating the walls of the tea house esque interior are photographs of public theater performers. Because the public theater Young Center is just next door, theater fans began hanging pictures of their favorite performers on the walls here. Masami-san and Toshiko-san are also theater fans, and they say they can tell right away when a performer walks by their shop just by the wonderful smell.
Just in the short span of talking with them, more and more customers began to fill the shop. Many of them come for their famous ohagi, but some take a seat at the counter and chat with Masami-san while having a cup of tea. No cup of tea is complete though without an ohagi.
“Back in the day there were couples who first fet here and got married, and people who became travel buddies. Here there are no boundaries between people,” she said. I learned from her that the other day an old man who lives by himself brought in some vegetables — the ladies pickled them in vinegar and gave them back to him to try. “We made a few different flavors and asked him which he liked. I think he was happy to have something to go along with his dinner.”
The shop is bursting with a love for humanity, and is always filled with heartwarming stories. “Sometimes when you think, ‘I haven’t seen her for a while’ the next day there she is, here in the shop,” said Toshiko. While their cute ohagi are ever-popular, I think many travellers enjoy a brief feeling of being at home when they see the welcoming faces of these ladies.