"Noodle restaurant Izakaya Warabi" on the 2nd floor of Hirosaki Park Hotel (Tote Town, Hirosaki City, TEL 0172-36-3232) will close on October 19th.

The same store, founded in 1956 (Showa 31). We set up a store in a corner of Kajicho, moved to the 4th time, and entered the hotel in 1988 as a tenant. Currently, it is operating as an izakaya serving local Aomori cuisine.

Kimi Itagaki, the owner, was born in 1925 (Taisho 14) and is now 94 years old. He says, "Most of the dishes are handmade. The belief is not to use ready-made products." Even today, he prepares his own dishes from 15:00 before the store opens and continues to serve customers until around 22:00 when the store closes.

Kimi was born as Kikuzo Itagaki, the founder of Kikufuji, a restaurant of creative local cuisine, and went to Tokyo to go to a girls' school, but returned to Japan in 1944 due to the Pacific War. "I might have been in a Tokyo air raid if it was a year later," he said.

It was 31 years old when it opened as a public bar. It was said that he was independent while raising two daughters. Eldest daughter Michi helped her mother after graduating from high school. “I didn't have enough people at the time to increase the number of branches at that time, so I started working with my sister, Izumi, and before I knew it, I was working with my mother for over 50 years,” he recalls.

It was said that he had changed the business format to snacks. "At that time, the economy was good and there were many business travelers. I continued to open stores with Showa, Heisei, Reiwa, and I experienced many ups and downs of the economy," Kimi said. "There were times when blacksmith town was called a larger downtown area than Sendai in the Tohoku area, but now it's completely lonely," he recalls.

Kimi says, "My hobbies are reading and traveling." "I sometimes forgot the time and read a book until 3 pm," he smiles. "Recently, presbyopia has progressed, and the letters in the paperback books have become difficult to read. I have no hobbies other than reading books, so when I run out of books, I go to the library or a second-hand bookstore to look for books. It was also donated as "."

"I traveled to Hawaii three years ago and finally gave up on traveling abroad. The travel distance at the airport connection is great," Kimi said. He also visited Europe and America many times and was in charge of the column "Mama's travel abroad" published in a local newspaper.

Regarding the reason for closing the history of business for 63 years, Mr. Kimi said, "I have never thought of leaving the store, but my daughter is hospitalized and it is difficult for me to run the store by myself. I still have the physical strength to come out of the store."

On September 30, more than 100 people, including local regular customers, gathered for a "warabi good-bye party." Kimi enlivened the venue, saying, "I'm sorry for saying "Goodbye." Let's have a party, "I'll do it from now on."

About the future, Kimi smiles, saying, "I have lost all of my friends who go out to play with me. I will not be able to go out much in winter. Let's write an autobiography."