Kawaume

He was born in 1959 and raised in Mie Prefecture. After he graduated from college, he took a job at Hotel Taiike, which used to be in Toba, since he was going to eventually take over his parents' traditional Japanese inn that they were running at the time. During his time working at the hotel, he worked in the kitchen as well as the front desk, so he built experience with customer service in addition to cooking. After three years, he came back home to handle reception, cooking, and management at Kawaume. When his father passed away in 2008, he took over Kawaume as the 4th generation inheritor, and converted it from an inn into a restaurant specializing in unagi cuisine. Nowadays, he works hard to preserve the local traditions of unagi cuisine and has worked up a reputation for his original donburi (rice bowl) recipe.