What is it like to work in Japan? Of course, there is not one simple answer to that question. I decided to start interviewing people who work in restaurants, bars, or cafes and learn from their personal experiences. The third person in this series will be Azat. He’s Turkish and owns his own kebab restaurant in Kodaira, Tokyo.
**How did you end up living in Japan?**
Over 22 years ago, I came to Japan for the first time. My girlfriend at the time, whom I met in Turkey, was Japanese. I visited Japan and I liked it so much that I kept coming back. After visiting Japan four times, I decided that I wanted to live here. Now, I’ve been living in Tokyo for 21 years.
After moving to Tokyo, I had many different jobs. For example, I worked in construction and factories, but I didn’t like it. After four years, I helped my friend by working part–time at his restaurant. It was so much fun, so I knew that was what I wanted to do. That was the right job for me.
**Do you have any experience making kebab in Turkey?**
No, I never cooked in Turkey, I always only ate my mother’s food, haha! After I quit my job at the factory in Japan, I took a break and didn’t work for 3 months. Once, in the middle of the night at home, I got hungry. I was craving my mother’s food, stew to be precise.
Even though I didn’t know how to make it by myself, I went to the supermarket and I bought everything that I thought I needed. I had never made stew in my life, but somehow I knew what ingredients to buy. It was as if someone put instructions in my mind, and on pure instinct, I bought everything I needed. I bought lamb, eggplant, tomato, salt, pepper, oil, everything. I didn’t even own a frying pan—seriously, I had never cooked before. So, I bought a frying pan too.
When I got home, I just started cooking. Again, it felt like I just knew what to do. I ended up making a delicious stew, and I couldn’t believe it.
**When did you decide to open your own restaurant?**
After making the delicious stew, I made a small, simple pizza in a toaster oven. That day, I learned how to make the pizza dough, but everything else I did by instinct. This also turned out very well. Then I realized that I love cooking.
Some time later, I set my mind to making a truly amazing sauce. I bought many spices and kept trying, but I failed many times.
After about 6 months, I made the perfect sauce. After eating it, I became addicted to it and wanted to eat it with everything. After this, I decided to open my own restaurant.
Now I have three different sauces and I use them in all my dishes. I also like to mix these sauces, it’s very delicious. Looking back, I think I had a good sense of flavors. Coming up with combinations and cooking dishes from scratch comes very naturally to me. So now, I don’t only sell kebab, but also stews with pita bread, rice dishes, burritos, quesadillas, salads, and more.
**Who are your customers?**
About 50 percent of my customers are Japanese, and 50 percent are foreigners. Foreigners can be Turkish, other Europeans, Americans, anyone really. When I was first interested in renting this place, I didn’t know anything about the area or the station down the street.
Hitotsubashi-Gakuen is a very small station, so I had to do some research. I first came here in the morning to see how many people use this station. Later, I came back in the afternoon and evening. I noticed that most people walk on this main street on their way to and from the station. So I figured, as long as my restaurant is located directly on this main street, within a short distance of the station, it’ll be alright.
I knew the area had many students who live in university dorms near here. Besides that, I knew there would be many people commuting to and from work every day.
However, I didn’t expect the Japanese Self-Defense Force to be in this area too. So I luckily get many customers from there as well.
**How do customers find you, and why do they keep returning?**
Many of my customers were introduced by other customers. In my opinion, being recommended by other people is the best type of advertisement. For this reason, throughout the years, I’ve also gained many customers who don’t live around this station.
Also, regular customers come for my food and for me. People often tell me that I’m very friendly and I’m friends with everyone. On the street, I just say ‘Hi, how are you?’ in their own language to everyone. When I just opened my restaurant, this was a way to get in touch with many people in the area and to invite them to come inside.
Many foreign students come to me with questions, such as where to buy certain things, where to travel in Japan, and many others. Many people also tell me that this is a comfortable place to come and eat alone. Especially when girls say that, it means a lot to me.
Usually, when new people visit my restaurant, they are surprised that I speak Japanese well and that the food is good, so then they come again and bring their friends, which I’m always grateful for.
**What are your plans for the future?**
I want to open another restaurant. Many customers tell me that they would like to have this restaurant near their house. So, I’m planning to open a smaller restaurant somewhere else. I only need a counter with seats, without extra tables. Maybe when the other restaurant is smaller, I will only put kebab on the menu. No stews, rice dishes or salads for example.
This way, it’s also easier to train staff, exchange staff between the two different locations and let them run the restaurant on their own. By doing so, this restaurant will remain the original one with a bigger menu, and the other will be a ‘kebab branch’.
