“I challenge, I challenge”
Arai-san repeated these words, almost like a mantra.
"Vu-san, how are you?"
Arai Masanori greeted me at the front entrance of C'est Japon à Suisha like an old friend with a hint of a smile underneath the mask. Upon later greetings, I would also be met with a warm handshake but this was March 2022. With the impact of COVID on the local restaurant industry being keenly felt and the recent trucker convoy that shut down the downtown core, we were taking as many precautions as needed to avoid costly repercussions for the restaurant.
Arai-san is the second owner of the Ottawa location of C'est Japon à Suisha, formerly known as Suisha Gardens. Arai-san is closely linked with the restaurant, having worked with Suisha Gardens as a bartender in the early 1980s, becoming its manager in 1991 and then its owner in 1995. After hearing the restaurant was slated to close, I had reached out via email to discuss the possibility of a documentary to pay homage to the restaurant. With the trucker convoy shutting down most of downtown Ottawa in February 2022, we only had a chance to sit down together in March 2022.
Masanori Arai, second owner of C'est Japon à Suisha, sitting in the main dining room of the restaurant and dressed in his usual attire.
As we walked through the hallway of the restaurant on a dreary (not helped by the rain) Monday afternoon, there was a niggling sense of cognitive dissonance . . . I had been here before many times throughout my life but as a customer. Instead of the gentle Japanese background music and the din of diners, the absence of sound made its presence intimately known, emphasizing the sharp yet foreign sounds of our footfalls on the floor.
Contributing to the cognitive dissonance was Arai-san. Having seen him many times in the restaurant in a suit and tie over the past twenty years, I remarked how strange it was to see him in regular clothing. He laughed and once again, a hint of a smile under the mask.
I had intended for this just to be an initial meet and greet to go over the proposed project and any concerns, but we would spend the next 90 minutes and meet each other numerous times in the following year to explore Arai-san's history with the restaurant. The following is a condensed summary.
Growing up
Arai-san was raised in Kakuda, a small city about 310 KM north of Tokyo. Most cities in Japan have a local specialty as it helps with promoting domestic tourism and Kakuda was no exception. While known for its sericulture; nowadays it is perhaps better known for the Kakuda Space Center, part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which leads research and development in rocket engines.
Kakuda City is located in Miyagi prefecture. And just like the cities, prefectures also heavily promote to benefit from the strong domestic tourism market. While this area of Japan is most famous for Matsushima Bay and Naruko Gorge during momijigari or autumn leaves viewing, it also holds the unfortunate distinction of being the region most damaged by the March 2011 tsunami.
Arai-san's childhood was vastly affected by his father's death at the age of 1. He and his elder brother were raised by his mother whose core value could be defined in one word: discipline. In addition to running the family's small tobacco store, which his father bought after he decided not to follow his family into the farming profession, his mother took on various side jobs and maintained an ungodly schedule of 2-3 hours of sleep per day to earn money and provide for the family. As Arai-san grew older, he was soon tapped to do various odd jobs including delivering Yakult and to mind the store when his mother had to go to work.
This upbringing would instill in him grit and perseverance, and would be the seed of his life philosophy, although he wouldn’t know it yet.
In Japan, it's not just a matter of submitting an application to your preferred high school. You also had to take entrance exams, which dictated whether you end up in school during the day or night. Unfortunately, Arai-san disliked studying and failed the entrance exams for his preferred high school. As a result, he ended up attending night school for four years.
One of the few things he did enjoy was kendo, which was an activity he had picked up during middle school. He was desperately searching for a kendo club at night school but there wasn't one to be found, not even a martial arts club. The only clubs that were available were swim, baseball, volleyball and tennis.
In the end, he picked volleyball, a sport that he disliked.
When I asked why he chose volleyball, he provided a simple yet profound answer.
"I challenge."
Knowing there was likely more to unpack, I returned to this point.
"My target is challenge for whatever I didn't like. I don't like study, volleyball,
abacus. That was challenge. I learn that if I want to be happy, I have to
challenge myself. So that's why whatever comes, that's why the feeling stays at the
bottom of my heart. In the end there's nothing else I can do so I have to take it."
After 4 years, Arai-san was the captain of the volleyball team and yet, he never grew to like the sport.
This life philosophy of staring down his dislikes through sheer determination and force of mind was applied to studying and carried him through his night school years.
Boston and the United States
Arai-san was nervously excited. With the assistance of a new English teacher and a subsequently renewed interest in English studies, his English had improved by vast leaps and bounds and he had been granted the opportunity to participate in an exchange program to Boston for three months. And now, he found himself on an airplane and travelling outside of Japan, which were both entirely novel experiences.
He arrived in Boston on August 26, 1977 at 10PM. The exchange school was supposed to arrange a ride for him to the school but as he walked outside of the airport, there was no one obvious in sight. Arai-san found a pay phone and repeatedly dialed the principal of the exchange school. At 1AM, the principal finally picked up the receiver but the instructions he received were baffling beyond belief: stay at the airport hotel and call back at 9:30AM.
"With what money?"
For his first night in a foreign country, Arai-san slept inside the airport, in the arrivals lobby. At 9:30AM, Arai-san called the principal again but instead of the expected offer for someone to pick him up, he was told to take a taxi.
Unfortunately, that taxi driver left him at the wrong address although he had no idea. Spying a field with buildings far in the distance, Arai-san slowly started to amble over. As an Asian passed by, Arai-san called out in Japanese, “Sumimasen! Where is this school?” While the person didn’t know any Japanese, he slowly got the gist of what was being asked with Arai-san gesturing at the pamphlet with the school’s address. He flagged down another taxi and spoke with the driver to ensure that Arai-san was dropped off at the right address
After thirteen and a half hours at his destination, Arai-san finally entered his exchange school late Saturday morning. Luckily, someone was in the office and came out to greet him.
“Would you like some coffee?” There’s a cafeteria. There are some donuts.”
And that was how Arai-san was introduced to donuts.
This small slice of time was emblematic of the trip as a whole. As Arai-san would put it, 80% of the trip was hard times and that remaining 20% was awe-inspiring and stands out in Arai-san's life as a focal point, sparking his curiosity about the world outside Japan.
Among that 20%, he would experience the following for his first time:
Eating hamburgers, french fries, pizza, canned soup and apple pie;
Riding in an American car;
Riding in a Greyhound bus from Boston to San Francisco; and
Experiencing the diversity of the United States from its cities, people and nature
Because of his experience visiting Boston, Arai-san would establish the Canadian Dream Experience Corporation in June 1998. Its mandate, as a homestay program, was to help smooth the journey for Japanese citizens who travelled to Canada. It eventually closed in 2008.
Journey to Ottawa
Arai-san was hired as a bartender at the then-new Narita International Airport, which had opened in 1978. A year later, in 1979, he was reading a magazine when an article grabbed his interest. The subject of that article? Suisha Gardens and its owner, Frank Teshima. Arai-san was so moved by the article that he sent a letter to Teshima-san in July 1979:
“Please hire me as a dishwasher.”
This was 1979. Responses back then weren't instantaneous and some time passed before he received a letter. Arai-san opened the response and read the following:
“No, you’re still too young and need to think about your future”
Undeterred, Arai-san would send two more letters to Teshima-san during the next year, but with no success.
However, in the spring of 1980, Arai-san received a telegram from Teshima-san stating that he would be in Tokyo to hire workers for Suisha Gardens. Excited, Arai-san called in sick at work and took the train from his then-home of Chiba for the interview. Little did he know that he would be joining 600 eager applicants who saw this as their chance to get out of the country.
Arai-san remembers one specific question from the interview:
“What would you like to do in the future in Canada?”
“I want to open a kissaten (a Japanese-style café)”.
“But in Canada, coffee is only 1 dollar!”
Arai-san was told to phone in the next day to find out whether he was hired. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the cut. While pondering what to do next, memories of religiously watching a Japanese travel TV show named Ohayo 700, where a vehicle caravan traveled from Fairbanks, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, fluttered to the forefront of his mind. And his recent experience in the United States had left a deep imprint on him. He knew he wanted to travel and just like that, he settled on settled on hitchhiking from Fairbanks, Alaska down to Chile, South America. But in April 1981, a telegram from Teshima-san was in his door with the following message:
“Now you can apply to Canada for landed immigrant status. We have permit
to hire you”.
Teshima-san's permit was just the starting point. Arai-san still had to obtain approval for his immigration paperwork and that meant even more studying. And even after getting all of the approvals, the gears of bureaucracy still moved at a glacial pace. He would only step onto Canadian soil in September of 1981.
Suisha Gardens
The previous night before he would enter Suisha Gardens, Arai-san dreamed of the interior of the restaurant. The one part of the dream that stayed with him the next morning was a shoji screen located next to the bar.
He was taken aback. That shoji screen was right there.
The shoji screen, behind the tanuki and drawers in the picture above, next to the bar that Arai-san dreamt about the night before stepping into the Ottawa branch of Suisha Gardens.
Suisha Gardens was actually a franchise with 6 locations across Canada: Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Halifax, London, and two in Montreal. Arai-san started as a bartender in Ottawa and would stay at the Ottawa branch until November 1983 when he was transferred to the Halifax branch to help out. During his time in Halifax, he met his wife.
In May 1984, he was told to drive to the Niagara Falls branch to help out the restaurant during the summer rush. This was supposed to be a temporary move but right after he returned to Halifax in September 1984, he was told to drive straight back to Niagara Falls with the company truck within two weeks.
Arai-san was promoted to the manager position at Niagara Falls and stayed there for four years from October 1984 to October 1988. During this time, a chef friend requested assistance in establishing a new Japanese restaurant but he refused due to a sense of duty and obligation at Suisha Gardens. However, he soon found that his management style didn’t mesh with Teshima-san’s and he quit at the tail end of 1988. Liking the ethnic diversity of Ottawa, Arai-san decided to move back.
Without a job, he applied for Employment Insurance but was rejected. The reason? The officer said he had a job elsewhere and nothing would convince him otherwise. Stepping outside, he realized he had no major prospects in Ottawa but also no obligations to Suisha Gardens. Arai-san took a server position at a friend's restaurant from 1989-1991.
Gaiden - Akio Morita
One day in May 1989, Arai-san recognized Akio Morita-san, one of the co-founders of Sony, as he, his wife and his personal assistant walked through the doors of his friend's restaurant.
Arai-san is a voracious reader, focusing mostly on philosophy and business management, best practices and acumen from leaders of large Japanese businesses. Access to Japanese books was understandably scarce in Canada so his mother had to send his requested books via post. One of the books that she sent over was Made in Japan by Morita-san.
Arai-san's hands shook nervously while greeting him (he was so big!) but Morita-san's demeanour and his gentle speech slowly put Arai-san at ease. With Morita-san in front of him, Arai-san knew he had to get his autograph. So he called his wife to bring his copy (Arai-san animatedly remembered this conversation with his exact words being "You know my bookshelf, top second shelf, blue colour and Made in Japan") to the restaurant. Thankfully, she only had to walk a few blocks.
Taking ownership
In the spring of 1991, while he was working at the restaurant, a friend informed him that Teshima-san wanted to see him at Suisha Gardens. Without knowing the reason for the request, he walked the few city blocks separating the two restaurants and was faced with the following question: “Would you come back as manager of the Ottawa branch?”
Arai-san came back in September 1991. During this time, Arai-san focused on instilling a culture of omotenashi, the Japanese word for hospitality, and improving the overall customer experience. To emphasize this, Arai-san prioritized a key phrase encapsulating his current thinking, "Cook and serve with hospitality in your heart."
In due time, the sales at the Ottawa branch increased significantly.
In 1993, with his wife expecting his first child, Arai-san needed more money to take care of his family. Working up his courage, he asked Teshima-san for his first raise since working at Suisha Gardens. To be clear, asking for a raise in Japanese culture is considered taboo. Raises are normally given based on the seniority and the business financials. Teshima-san refused and Arai-san considered quitting once again in 1994.
Demetre Athanassiadis, the owner of the building, noticed that Arai-san was upset and inquired why.
“Leave it to me. I will talk to Frank.”
And to his astonishment, Demetre walked out of the conversation with Teshima-san and told Arai-san that he can now purchase and own the Ottawa branch of Suisha Gardens. However, Arai-san still had to come up with the money to buy the business and he had no money.
Ownership in hand, Arai-san flew to Tokyo to borrow money from his senpai at Narita International Airport. To show his sincerity and to reassure his senpai that the money would not be lost should something happen to him, Arai-san brought his insurance policy to show that his debt could still be paid out.
With an influx of money, he became the owner of Suisha Gardens on February 15, 1995. Under the agreement with Teshima-san, the Suisha Gardens name remained and franchise fees were to be paid for 10 years.
In 2005, Arai-san was thinking long and hard on the new name for the restaurant. During his time in Ottawa, Arai-san had befriended the owner of another Japanese restaurant in Ottawa's Byward Market whose father was also a kendo sensei. The name of that restaurant was C'est Japon. Arai-san chose to pay homage to both restaurants.
C'est Japon à Suisha was born.
Kadeya
Those of us older Ottawans may remember a store called Kadeya next to C’est Japon à Suisha that carried various Japanese knick knacks. I remember going in here looking for yuzo kusho when I was on a yakitori kick and wanting some more specialized condiments found in a cookbook (now that I’m older, I realize that it was probably a good thing that I never used it with yakitori).
This store was born for a sole reason. Arai-san felt bad for asking his mother to send him stuff from Japan all of the time. In addition to books, Arai-san would receive clothing (because North American clothing generally do not match Asian sizes), snacks and other various things. However, as she got older, Arai-san wanted to give her a break from doing that and started his own store to import these goods himself. Arai-san opened Kadeya Mart Corporation in March 1999 on the second floor above Suisha Gardens. Eventually, the barber on the first floor moved out and he moved Kadeya downstairs.
There's not much out there in the Internet to suggest that Kadeya existed although there are fragments here and there.
He closed Kadeya down in 2009 due to lack of demand.
Emperor and Empress of Japan
In March 2009, the Governor General of Canada extended an official invitation to the Emperor and Empress of Japan. Emperor Akihito was the 125th hereditary Emperor, but no emperor before had yet visited Canada. This was to be a 12 day state visit, with the Emperor and Empress visiting Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria, and Vancouver.
Amidst all of the preparations, a single email from the Emperor's Office via the Embassy of Japan in Ottawa made its way to Yamaguchi-san, the then head-chef at C'est Japon à Suisha. It requested that the restaurant prepare the food for the reception at the National Art Gallery. Ingredients for the reception would be shipped from Japan to the restaurant.
The finer details of the menu escape Arai-san but he does remember that wagyu beef and fatty tuna belly were among the food sent from Japan. To round out the food ingredients Arai-san and Yamaguchi-san had to arrange for some local items such as Canadian salmon.
As part of the occasion, the ambassador to Japan invited Arai-san and Yamaguchi-san to meet the Emperor and Empress. Unfortunately, cameras weren't allowed so he doesn't have a photo. But they left a lasting imprint in his mind, especially the aura of the Emperor and Empress, of which he described as that of a god.
Lease negotiations
In the late 2010s, Arai-san was slowly making transition plans to hand over ownership of the restaurant to a group of senior employees. However, the building suddenly changed ownership without formal communication in 2019. Arai-san only discovered the change due to the company name changing on their rent payments.
In March 2021 and in the midst of the COVID pandemic, Arai-san intended to begin lease negotiations with the new landlord as the lease expired in July 2021. However, the landlord chose not to renew the agreement and put forward some rather tough terms. After some negotiation, both parties decided that the lease would expire July 2023 and that C'est Japon à Suisha had to vacate by July 30, 2023.
OB/OG Kai
With a closure date firmed up and no plans to open a new restaurant, Arai-san set forward to celebrate the restaurant's history over its 50 years as the first branch of the Suisha Gardens franchise.
And to do that, he was going to hold an event called the OB/OG Kai. OB and OG stands for Old Boy and Old Girl or in other words, the staff of the former Suisha Gardens. There were other reasons for holding the event as well. Teshima-san had just turned 86 and he was hoping to celebrate somehow.
Invitations were sent out to former staff who were now dispersed all around the world. Arai-san set the date for September 14, 2022 and feverishly worked on the event.
When I came to ask permission to take photos in March 2022, Arai-san asked me whether I would take photographs of the OB/OG Kai.
Photos from the OB/OG Kai can be found here.
January 2023 - July 2023: The last six months
On January 17, 2023, Arai-san posted on the website that the restaurant would close on July 1, 2023. Almost immediately, there was a post on the Ottawa sub-reddit and soon enough, the Ottawa Citizen would post two articles (Article 1, Article 2).
With only a month and a half left before the official closure date, Arai-san was fielding a veritable avalanche of reservation requests. A common complaint was that that he wasn't picking up the phone but most of the time, he was already on the phone with someone else. He also shows me the restaurant's email account and I see unread messages piling in at a prodigious rate.
And if that wasn't the only thing, Arai-san is also trying to handle the logistics of closing a restaurant. Official notice has to be provided to various parties of the impending closure and that is a long list including:
Liquor licence board
Utilities
Oil disposal
Credit card companies
Garbage disposal
Insurance
Taxes
Suppliers
Kitchen equipment
Most surprising of all though is that Arai-san has to notify the Embassy of Japan of its closure. The Embassy has used the restaurant as an official promoter of Japanese culture since it opened in 1974.
The space has to be empty by July 30 so Arai-san has to decide what to do with the restaurant furnishings and equipment. A few restaurants have tried to lay claim although Arai-san is waiting on a senior chef's decision to move forward with a new restaurant before releasing anything.
And finally, the decor. A lot of the decor was bought by Teshima-san back in the 1970s, and while Teshima-san at 87 years old was still quite sharp, the stories of their origins have understandably been lost to time. Arai-san was busy inventorying the decor and gathering as much information as possible to entice an auction company to come in.
So what's next? At this point, Arai-san doesn't know but he is adamant that he won't be opening another restaurant. He has plans for a vacation with his family. Or a long solo drive from Boston to San Francisco. Maybe volunteer with the local Japanese association.
If anything, I know he won't sit still for long. There are too many challenges out there.
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