A huge glass display case welcomes the customers that enter the diner. At lunch time, neatly lined up without leaving any extra space inside the case, are the main and side dishes, salad, Tofu, and pickles. Customers pick and place the dishes of their choice on the trays they hold. As soon as customers find a place to eat, a staff approaches them with hot tea asking, "What size rice would you like?" Rice is chosen from four sizes: from the very smallest bowl, to small, medium, and large. Miso Soup is chosen from three selections: Tofu, Asari Clam, and Pork. That completes the perfect lunch. Here at Trio Diner, the common style of ordering your food at your table and a cafeteria style as described above coexist.
February 10, 2009I began thinking how to put together my next feature story on Trio Diner while driving. Returning to my office, I wrote down what came to mind in the car. More than 20 pages worth of ideas were there immediately. This should be a good feature story. If I were to name a problem, it is whether the family who owns Trio Diner would accept my interview.
The owner of Trio Diner is Mr. Hideo Asano, age 62. He was born the third son of a farmer in Ariki, Kurashiki-City, a half mile from where his diner stands. Ariki was a typical pastoral district, and there was nothing but rice paddies around his house when he was growing up. The prefectural road to downtown Kurashiki was not paved and buses often got stuck in the muddy street. Hideo remembers helping the bus out of the mud whenever he ran into that situation.
After graduating from high school, he worked for the Fire Department of Kurashiki-City. He frequented his cousin's bike shop on his day off, and that inspired him to start a business of his own. Mr. Asano was only 21 years old then. He was itching to begin something new, rather than genuinely wanting to run a business. He quit the Fire Department and began a company in Okayama that sold cosmetics door-to-door. Answering an add he ran in the newspaper then was Akemi, who later became his wife. Akemi is from Tamano-City and the same age as Hideo.
March 2, 2009
I visit Trio Diner, bringing 3,000 yen worth of Dorayaki (sweets). Hideo, the owner, was having flatfish boiled in soy sauce at a table at the very back of the diner for lunch. I explained the purpose of the feature story and received his permission to collect material, but he kept saying, "Do you really think we'll do?
Around the time Hideo started his cosmetic sales company, his older brother, Yoshihiro, began a coffee shop at their home town Ariki. It was a time when there were only rice paddies in Ariki. Opening a café at such a location seemed nonsense. However, their grandmother, Shizuko, their parents, and brothers all supported his decision. The name "Trio" came from the three Asano brothers: the oldest son, Toshiro, the second son, Yoshihiro, and the third son, Hideo. According to Yoshihiro. "The name suddenly came to mind. It was a long time ago. I can't remember who started saying it". It was easy to remember and sounded right. Above all, as a symbol of the three brothers supporting each other, there was no other name better than "Trio."
Trio Diner opened next to Trio Café in September 1969, the following year. "You should open a diner around here," suggested a customer; that was the beginning. Back then, there were drive-ins on the national highway Route 2 that ran across Kurashiki from east to west, but there were no restaurants around Ariki. The oldest brother, Toshiro, and his wife, Yaeko, ran the diner right after opening. There were fewer menus, but the style of ordering was the same as mentioned earlier. Ordinary dishes served at home like fish boiled in soy sauce, broiled fish, and stewed vegetables were on the menu. Yaeko was responsible for the cooking. She has not received any special training. She simply made food that was served at the Asano household.
accompanied photographer Hiroki Domoto, to Trio Diner for lunch. The TV in the diner was broadcasting our Kurashiki Kogyo High School baseball team competing at the National High School Baseball Championships at Koshien Stadium. Hideo was standing in front of the register with a customer watching the game. The easy atmosphere was quite comfortable. At this moment I had a hunch this was going to become an interesting story. I was right to choose Trio Diner.
When Trio Diner opened, Hideo was still running his cosmetic sales company in Okayama. However, he thought he would eventually become the one to run the diner. This was an opinion shared by his parents as well as his brothers. According to Hideo, Trio Diner is a "Wakare-ya" which means a branch family. Just as Yoshihiro, the second son, was given a café to run, Hideo, the third, would be given the Trio Diner. Supporting to set them up on their own was the head family's role.
Hideo shut down the company at the end of the year Trio Diner opened, and he took over the diner business. It was the same year, 1970, he married Akemi.
June 9, 2009
Hideo and Akemi brought old pictures and merrily talked about the time they started the diner. The forty years since opening "just flew by." They appeared very satisfied saying that.
Hideo and Toshiro's wife, Yaeko, continued running the diner for a while. For Hideo, who had no experience running a food business, "It was difficult at first." He looks back. "I was young and reckless. I took over the business without giving it much thought, just thinking it would be all right if I could make a little profit out of it. I have never received any formal training, and it would have been impossible if it were not for Yaeko.
Akemi soon joined the staff. There were not too many custom-ers then and business was slow. After the busy noon time, Hideo would often disappear from the diner. He was playing pachinko (an amusement game resembling a pin-ball machine) according to Akemi. "I was young," Hideo does not deny.
It was 1972 when "Sanyo Heights" opened on a mounain just south of Trio Diner. It was a compound facility complete with wedding hall, conference rooms, and hotel, and the number of customers increased all of a sudden upon its opening. The construc-tion rush at the Mizushima Industrial Zone also contributed to the increase in number of customers. There was no time for Hideo to play Pachinko any more. The first oil crisis in 1974 also had little effect on the number of customers at the diner.
June 18, 2009The last day of shooting for photographer Miss. Yuki Watanabe, who came from Tokyo. Yuki spent three entire days at Trio Diner, becoming good friends with Hideo and his wife, Akemi. While taking her short break in the afternoon, Akemi came and gave her a gold necklace. When time came for Yuki to leave for Tokyo after finishing taking photographs, the Asano's came outside to see her off. The friendship that has grown between them made it difficult to say good bye.
In 1971, Takuya, who works in the kitchen today, was born. Hideo and his family lived in a room the size of only six tatami mats located behind the kitchen then. The diner did not have a bath tub, so they took little Takuya to the main family house to bathe every day after closing the diner. Yoshihiro, who ran the café, did the same. This continued for about three years, until Hideo built his house behind the diner when his second son, Shinji, was born.
At the end of the Showa era, business in Kurashiki thrived under the bubble economy brought about by the completion of the Seto-Ohashi Bridge. Trio Diner received its benefit as well. The number of customers reached its peak, but an unexpected challenge awaited them at the end of the 90's. "JOYFUL,"a family style restaurant, opened one of its chain stores right next door. Open 24/7, the low price they offered could not be beaten. The Asano were terrified before Joyful opened. To confront the challenge, it was decided to open the diner on Sundays - which used to be their day off. However, there was almost no change in the number of customers when Joyful was open for business. After all that, Joyful closed after five years. Since the diner had gained new customers who came on Sundays, it could not go back to closing that day and remains open seven days a week throughout the year since then.
July 11, 2009
A visit to Trio Diner five days after my last visit. "Haven't seen you around lately," Hideo first greeted me. That is how often I was here for the last month. I would enjoy a cup of coffee sitting across Hideo at the table in the back whenever I was there. I have become to feel at home.
Seventeen years has past since Hideo's oldest son, Takuya, joined Trio Diner. He originally planned on a career in interior design, but a motorcycle accident immediately before joining a company sent him back home to Kurashiki, and he has remained helping at the diner. He has never discussed his future plans with his parents. But it seems that his parents are already aware of their son's determination. "A customer would tell my dad once in a while'you're lucky to have a son succeeding your business' to which he would reply, 'Nah, can never tell what's on his mind' but he looked happy." This year, 2009, Trio Diner - which celebrates its fortieth year in business - suffers from its share of the recent recession. The number of customers is beginning to decline. However, the faces of regular customers who show up almost every noon time has not changed. The customers of this diner come for a safe meal, the diner's easy atmosphere, and comfort. I believe that the style of Trio Diner, which has become uncommon these days, would still be the same ten or twenty years from now.
