Hideo's oldest brother Toshiro and his wife Yaeko built the foundations of Trio Diner. Yaeko, in particular, was in charge of the kitchen for twenty six years. She established the flavor of Trio."I married quite young at twenty so my cooking is self-taught. I never learned it from anyone." Many customers were laborers so she added an extra dash of salt to her cooking. In any case, she stuck to homemade style food.
Toshiro, on the other hand, turned over the business to Hideo after only ten months from opening. "Hideo said he wanted to do it, so I said 'go ahead then.' I was rice farming on the side anyways. Hideo always takes his work seriously. He still works very hard which impresses me." Toshiro who heads the Asano family is ten years senior and close to a father for Hideo. He still remains the moral mainstay of Trio Diner.
Today, next to Trio Diner stands "Trio Real Estates." Running the business here is the second oldest brother Yoshihiro who founded Trio Café. After graduating from college in Tokyo, he returned to Kurashiki to open Trio Café. At the time, there was no electricity in the neighborhood, and eleven new utility poles had to be set up to transmit power to his store. "There was no water and sewage system either. I carried water from our house in barrels on a pushcart everyday. That continued for a year with help from my family."
Yoshihiro obtained his real estate agent license in 1975. He trusted his wife Noriko with the café business and set up "Trio Real Estates." For a while, the café, the real estate agency, and the diner operated side by side, but in 2004 Trio Café closed its business. Yoshihiro names "passage of time" as its reason. "Trio appears to be run by the three brothers but each business is independent. However, there is a notion that we all share the same feelings."
Hideo Asano's second son Shinji worked at Trio Diner for ten years from 1996. With four members of his family all sharing a workplace, "the work was challenging but things carried out quite smooth" he says looking back. Shinji, however, had a dream "to own my own store by the time I became thirty years old." He purchased a small truck and turned it into a ramen noodle stand when he became thirty. He worked at Trio Diner during the day and opened his ramen stand in the corner of the Diner's parking lot in the evening. This went on for two years. Then, in 2007, he became independent. Today, he runs "Shinakan," a ramen noodle stand with his wife Naoko at a parking lot of a liquor store 800m away from Trio Diner.
"To be honest, my parents and I had been moving apart prior to my setting out on my own. I would carry things out at totally my own discretion without seeking any consultation from them setting off clashes" says Shinji. However, today "I feel that my family is giving me full support." His mother Akemi calls his wife Naoko every day telling her to "come by and pick up something to eat." (Of course, the food offered is that served at Trio Diner.) Support comes not only from his parents and his uncles Toshiro and Yoshihiro frequently stop by at Shinakan. The entire Asano family backs up Shinji.
