A tasteful samurai who, though quiet,
happily engages in conversation and toasts!
A shop with such a samurai!
Exquisite okonomiyaki "Hagi Samurai" made by a
samurai who genuinely shaves his pate!

It's simple and easy to understand, but it's not commonly used.
Since I'm doing this in Hagi, I just used the name Hagi Samurai as is.
When posting on SNS, I can type the kanji "Hagi Samurai" right away, so I decided on it with that in mind too.

It's the name of the shop, but it's like I'm known that way by my appearance.
When I meet people for the first time, they remember me as "that samurai from back then!" so it's a win-win.

When customers call a taxi, they can just say over the phone "I'm at Hagi Samurai right now," and it goes through just fine, so I think it's starting to catch on a bit.

That's right.
Born and raised in Mihara.

Onomichi is about as far from Hagi as going to Nagato.
Mihara is very convenient, the Shinkansen stops there, and it's close to the airport.

It's a convenient town with active industry, but tourism isn't really a thing.
My hometown where my family is is even more rural though.

When I was around 25, I had a reason to want to become a samurai, and I searched "samurai work" on job listing sites. Hagi came up, and since it was relatively close, I thought I'd give it a try.
It was tourism-related samurai work, and I lived in Hagi for just a few months at the end of that job, then went back to Hiroshima once it ended.

After that, for about 2 years, I'd go to Hagi once every 2-3 months, and through that, learning both the good and bad sides, I thought Hagi was more interesting and fun than my hometown.

I'm a country person too, so the slow pace suits me.

I'm often told "Isn't Hiroshima or Mihara better?" but every place has its problems, and if it's going to be the same no matter where I go, I might as well do what I can in a place I like.
There aren't really any particular problems with living here either.

After graduating high school, I got a job at a local company, and then became a rickshaw puller on Miyajima.
When I was young, I was thinking of just doing what I wanted to do, but my boss at the time asked what I wanted to do in the future.
I thought, I love samurai, and I want to live as a samurai.

So I thought about how to live that way, how to make money, and after thinking about various options, I landed on food service.
At the time, a regular okonomiyaki restaurant I went to asked me to help out because they were short-handed, so I started helping. I thought it would be interesting if a samurai ran an okonomiyaki restaurant.
So I decided to open an okonomiyaki restaurant.

That's right.
People often misunderstand based on what I do and how I look, but that's just a result. I do like history though.

I have far more acquaintances and friends I've made as an adult in Hagi than in my hometown, so if I was going to run a shop, it made sense to do it in Hagi rather than my hometown.
It's not like if it fails I can just go back home. I thought I needed to be prepared to end my life in this land, to be that serious about it.

I shaved my pate in May 2020, and before that I always wanted to try it, but I couldn't quite bring myself to take that final step...

When I talked about it with people around me, they all said it would suit me, so while I still felt that urge, I announced on the shop's SNS that I would shave my pate, cutting off any way to back out.

Before, I just had long hair tied up.
I wore kimono for work, but wore Western clothes when shopping or on days off, so it was halfway.
When I shaved my pate, I decided to only wear kimono and keep my head uncovered and properly styled while living.

I started living with my pate shaved and in kimono for work, shopping, and days off too.
Surprisingly after that, people said things like "I used to hate it but now I like it," or "You're so rock," and some people even became fans.
I think people understood that I had made up my mind by shaving my pate.

Sometimes, yes.
Like student kids who saw me at the supermarket, asked friends about me, and heard "That's Hagi Samurai, an okonomiyaki restaurant," so they came.
Or people who saw me on the marru bus, searched for me, and found Hagi Samurai that way.

Basically people said "There's a samurai there so let's check it out," and came.
Some people thought "What does that mean?" but then came and found "Wow, it's a pretty serious samurai!"
That kind of reaction too.

We did before COVID.
Japanese tourists and foreign tourists were about evenly split, but after COVID, we have fewer than before.
Before COVID, a lot of people said they came by while passing through.
Or they said they found us through a search.

Now almost all of it is like this, but people who were referred by their accommodation.
Since we accommodate vegetarians and vegans as much as possible, a lot of people come through those referrals too.

If you explain it to me in detail, I'll try my best to accommodate it.
Right now we have a lot of vegetarians and vegans.

By doing "I'll try my best," it led to a flow where people say "Hagi Samurai accommodates vegetarians, so I'll refer people there."

A bit of a tangent, but...
After 8 years and having customers from many countries, I've realized that foreign customers don't have the same culture of drinking a lot with food like Japanese people do.

When I've been to restaurants in Hiroshima where foreigners often go and watched the owner's movements, once the customers' meal was finished and chatting began, the owner would approach and try to get them to order more drinks.

And they also have good ingredients and good alcohol.
Alcohol is strong, but they don't drink much and seem to enjoy conversation and atmosphere instead.
The habit of drinking alcohol heavily while eating is probably unique to Japan.

What's good is that people come from outside the city or prefecture on business, and foreign customers come fairly often, so there's stimulation every time.
Also, when I work hard to communicate with foreign customers and they eat beautifully, it makes me really happy.

Also, our shop is mainly a nighttime operation, but I try to make it a place with good safety, and that seems to come across—we have quite a few customers who are mothers with children or women alone, and I'm grateful for that.

After COVID, whether everyone's purse strings got tight or not, right now is difficult with customers not really coming back.
During COVID, apparently civil servants were told to get orders to go out in small groups and keep the economy moving, so civil servants would come even in small groups.

After COVID, that's no longer the case, so eating out frequency has probably decreased.
Also, you see foreign people and Japanese tourists around during the day, but not at night.

Our main focus is okonomiyaki, but I'd be happy if customers used the place in various ways without being bound to that.
Even regular customers don't eat okonomiyaki at all, and there are people who actually dislike okonomiyaki but still come.
Some people just come to drink alcohol, and some just come for juice or coffee.