Celebrity Treated as Regular Customer

"After this story became public, several people asked, “Why did Steve approach you?” but of course, we don’t really know. There’s no way to know now. But if I were to speak from imagination, maybe Steve liked Katsushige. Being such a famous person, he might be surrounded by noise wherever he goes, but at Katsushige, he was generally treated like any other customer. He was not a famous executive, but just a customer in the relationship with the store. Perhaps he found this atmosphere comfortable. And another one is probably sushi, which is Steve’s favorite. As sushi became more common and localized, Katsuzuki made an effort not to stray from traditional Japanese sushi. This seemed to match Steve’s preference for Japan, as he said, “Simple is best.” Looking back, I feel that the “selfish desire” to eat delicious sushi nearby was perhaps the catalyst."

"After a short lunch, he stood up as usual. Due to Steve’s request, we already had the credit card details of Steve himself and Laurene, so there was no hassle with the payment. Even for a celebrity like Steve, we did not provide any special treatment at Kaigetsu. If the bookings were full, we would refuse even if a reservation was called in or emailed, often asking to change to another date."

"A while before this announcement, an Apple representative inquired, “Will the store be open on January 9th?” After telling them we were on holiday, there was no further discussion, so I paid it no mind. But while watching TV that night, I couldn’t help but exclaim aloud. The presentation on that day in which Steve declared, “We are reinventing the phone,” featured a famous scene where he prank-called Starbucks asking for “1,000 lattes,” but there was this exchange as well. In the part introducing the iPhone’s messaging function, Steve demonstrated arranging dinner with Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Marketing. The place they discussed heading to was some Japanese restaurant in the suburbs of San Francisco. The unvarnished feeling upon seeing this scene was (Oh no). The recent inquiry was probably for this reason. Soon after, I heard that a certain store was buzzing with the “Steve special demand.” Since they imprinted “Thank you, Steve” on the receipts, they must have benefited considerably. (If I had known, I would have ended my vacation a day early…) I thought, but it was too late. It might be considered trivial, but such PR is crucial in intense competition. However, after some time, I also started to think like this: (Perhaps Steve didn’t want to reveal his real favorite place). The store tried not to pay too much attention to Steve and basically treated him as one of the regular customers. Steve also frequented the place probably because he liked this kind of treatment."

"At one point, a notice for customers was posted on the entrance wall with a joke added: “Seats are guided in the order of arrival, and even Steve Jobs will have to wait if there’s no reservation.” Larry, arriving earlier, keenly noticed it. Apparently, Larry told Steve, who arrived slightly later, about this, and afterward, they both burst out laughing."