Katsuzuki

"The other person was Mr. Arriaga, a major donor to Stanford. His daughter, Laura, is married to the notable investor Marc Andreessen and also lectured at Stanford. Laura had been a regular customer since Toshiz Sushi-ya, and she had visited Katsuzuki several times with Laurene, Steve Jobs’ wife."

"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."

"The Reason for 26 Years From opening “Sushiya” in 1985 to closing “Katsuzuki” in 2011, we ran a Japanese restaurant in Silicon Valley for about a quarter of a century. It might be a cliché, but it was full of ups and downs. At times it was enjoyable, at other times it was hard, but every day we ran with all our might. Through this process, we realized many things and acquired many skills. Finally, I would like to reflect on what we learned."