Junichi Ishida Reflects on One Year Since Opening His Yakiniku Restaurant and Passion for Ferraris
What kind of life is Junichi Ishida (70) leading now? ……
He opened his yakiniku restaurant “Jun Chan” on May 16 last year, and since then, some weekly magazines reported that he has been spending his days as the owner, traveling back and forth between the restaurant and his home by train every day, but we rarely see him on TV anymore. When we asked to interview him to find out what was going on, he readily agreed.
Ishida, who had gone straight from the sports club to the interview site, appeared in a T-shirt, shorts, and a towel around his neck,
I ran five kilometers again today. I run every day. At my age, I have to exercise to maintain my fitness.
Wiping off his sweat, he showed a fresh smile. He began by talking about his yakiniku restaurant, which has been open for just over a year,
Thanks to everyone’s support, our business is growing steadily. To be honest, I was a little worried because it is located a little far from Tokyo (Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture), but I think it is thanks to everyone in the industry, my acquaintances, and regular customers who have given me a lot of guidance. I am truly grateful.
He said he is doing well. As reported, Ishida still visits the restaurant almost every day before it opens and does everything himself, from cleaning to customer service and accounting, without leaving it to others.
After all, a restaurant has to be clean, and you don’t want your clothes to smell like yakiniku after eating it,” he said. So, I clean the ducts and other small parts of the restaurant every day. Yes, it’s fun. The restaurant is still in the process of evolution. We are planning to start serving hormones in early summer. I think it is very necessary in terms of variation. I learned about horumon from the owner of Hodori Yoga, a famous yakiniku restaurant in Yoga (Setagaya-ku, Tokyo).
He comes once a week and corrects various problems so that I can brush up on my skills. In the future, I would like to have a dual focus on horumon and yakiniku. We are not thinking of increasing the number of stores or anything like that. I want to make the Funabashi restaurant more and more pleasing to customers. I would like to continue to do my best at this one store.
