It's a dying industry in Hawaii, the Japanese tea house. But on the slopes of ʻĀlewa Heights,
you'll find a two story structure that was built in 1921, after a
husband and wife bought the property from the McInerny family. More than 100 years later,
Natsunoya Tea House is still in business. Now, Natsunoya wasn't the original name, and while
some traditions like sitting on the tatami mats have gone away, others remain like servers wearing
kimono and panoramic views of Honolulu. This is the last Japanese teahouse.
Teahouses, from my understanding is after the war, you know, the Japanese people didn't have
a place to really gather and someplace where they can eat something that they're accustomed
to and you know, enjoy their friends. We try to make it where it's like you
going to your grandma's house because you know, of course, naturally our buildings been here for
100 years. And we try to keep it clean, and we try to make it where it's comfortable. Yeah, I mean,
you know, the kids still can run around. And you know, you can raise your voices a little louder.
And just like having a party at home, but you don't have to clean up at the end.
Natsunoya Tea House started back in 1921 with my grandparents Shuichi and Taneyo Fujiwara.
Back then it was called Shunchoro. They had to stop doing the war. It was hard to for them to
get back into it. So I think they leased it for a while. Then my dad he was running a tea house
that was called Natsunoya. But that's where the H-1 now goes through by Foster Garden. And
so when he came up in 1956, he ran into 96 and that's when I took over and here we are today.
When I was growing up I wanted to go into,
I wanted to be an architect, actually, so it wasn't really my, my plans of running a tea house.
My wife first said, if you're going to regret it, then you should at least try it.
I decided to take over the business because I you know, wanted to well see the tradition. At least
go through me, you know, my, my lifetime, yeah. Staying open for 100 years. Yeah, our customers
are very, very important. And, you know, some of them been coming here from generations.
And they've been loyal to us, yeah. So it's, it's like, it's like, almost family already,
yeah. Especially in Hawaiʻi, here, you know, everyone pretty much knows each other, or,
you know, somebody from uncle or auntie. You can't really try to do a fast, quick buck.
Peek-a-boo. My family has been coming to Natsunoya
for years. I don’t know the exact number, but I know our family has been coming here
for five generations now. My daughter is here having dinner and my great-grandparents used
to come here to celebrate big occasions. The food is always so great. We’re never
dissatisfied because the food is always so tasty. I think that’s part of why Natsunoya has survived,
because it’s consistent. You know, it’s always the same. And you know when you come here or
purchase something, it’s going to be the way it always tastes. You know, that’s very important.
The way the tea house survived throughout these years is first you got to be hard
headed. You know, you have to have someone who is willing to, to go the distance. And
you have to be adaptable as crisis come along. For us it’s really important to support these,
these businesses that are like our family business because every year you see fewer
and fewer of these local family businesses that have deep roots here in Hawaiʻi.
My mom comes every, about four times a week. Of course she always bossing me around.
I think she's always going to be a mom who tells me what I'm if I'm doing something right or wrong.
Sometimes it's hard to swallow. But, you know,
when you think when I sit back and think about it, it's yeah, that's probably right.
Actually home is this business because I'm here every day and before I used to be here
10 to 14 hours a day. I'm
here with the old timers the new people and you know, we consider ourselves family already.
You take care of the employees, and then the employees hopefully takes care of the
business, yeah. I think Misa
she's going on 40 years. And we tell her, you know, we try to slow her down but, you know,
she, she has that, that old mentality that work, you know, work style. So, I mean, she's slowing
down which is of course normal, but you know, she she's still like, my right hand in the kitchen.
You have to have fun. That's what I tell everybody, you have to have fun in what
you're doing. You know, if you smile, and you cook, of course, the food's gonna,
you know, they're gonna smile for them. My parents never did influence for me
to take over, yeah. I mean, like, even for me, you know, you wanna,
you want your kids to always do something greater than you. So, my kids, I, you know, I,
I never did push them to even think about running the teahouse, because it's a hard business
and it's getting harder. Each generation, I think it gets harder.
The satisfaction I get is, you know, I made it last to a hundred. Yeah. And,
hopefully, my parents, my grandparents, you know, hopefully, they're proud of that.
Mahalo for joining us. For exclusive digital content from tonight's episode,
please visit PBS Hawaiʻi dot org. For Home is Here, I’m Kalaʻi Miller. A hui hou.
Everything was just covered in, in moss and you know age and um just this beauty to it right? So
really it was, it was dreamlike. It was in the mist. It was in the fog. You couldn’t quite see
it, you couldn’t quite make it out. You didn’t know where the building started and stopped where
the nature kind of started taking things over. When I first started coming here I was a little
kid. And we thought we were trying to help, help, help my parents but you know, we were
breaking dishes and and and you know, as we washed dishes, we used to break them, And so we kind of,
we used to run around the whole place and people would actually, accepted us as part of a party
because they didn’t know who we were. Oh my gosh, I would totally tell young
people to realize that you’re never too young to make a difference.