Phanganist Catches Up with Nobu at The Zen Restaurant for their Seventh Anniversary

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Nobu and his wife from The Zen Japanese Restaurant will be celebrating their seventh anniversary today on the 1st of September with a free buffet for guests!

As an old friend of Phanganist, we took Leo Beer down to meet them, to catch up and find out how it is going for them…

Hey Nobu so tell us your Koh Phangan story…
I am from Japan and the first time I came was fifteen years ago. I don’t like government in Japan, I like Japanese people and the culture but not the government and also if I were to of stayed in Japan I would always feel pressure, I don’t know where from but there was a pressure.

I like travelling so since I was twenty years old I would go around Japan with my bike and a tent. After I did Japan I went to Bangkok, my job was freelance so I got two months off in a year. Then I went to India, Australia, Brazil and came here when I was thirty five so seven years ago.

Apart from being from Japan, what made you decide to open a Japanese Restaurant here?
I wanted to stay here so I had to think what I could do? Before I wanted a guesthouse but I would’ve needed a lot of money for this which I didn’t have.

My wife make really good food and so I asked her if she could make it for customers and she said ‘yes, ok, let’s make a Japanese Restaurant!’. Now she makes the food and I serve it!

Were you the first Japanese Restaurant here?
No, there used to be Kito near Tesco Lotus, they had ten years of business before closing.

Can you explain Japanese food for those that don’t know…
With real Japanese food you cannot make some taste for it, sashimi is just cut, tempura is just fried.

Some fish already have a really good taste and that is ok for us, we don’t need to add stuff or la la la…

With good fish we cannot touch it, it’s better that way but it is different on this island so we need to make a little bit of taste. Every person’s mouth is different, Japanese people like something but Europeans like something more strong.

Do you have many regular customers after all these years?
Yes after seven years of coming they are not customers but friends. We have two types of customers, friends and then tourists. As you can see Toshi is here, she is a friend not a customer…

Are you still happy and will you stay on Koh Phangan forever now?
Yes, yes sure! We are really happy now but what is happy, I realise more day by day, for example our friend Eri she told me that before when she would make bread, if she was angry then the bread would turn out bad but if she is happy then the bread is really good.

Now I know this because my Mum would make me rice balls called onigiri every day, I really like these and I realise that this is love from my Mum.

Do you still eat onigiri?
Yes my wife makes them really good! I make sushi (nigiri) but not onigiri.

What do you do when you’re not working at Zen?
I like to part still, I like Trance but every music is ok, I usually listen to Japanese Pop but in my shop we play sounds, slow Tech and things like that. It’s good for me as I have friends that are Djs and they have a lot of music so I ask them ‘can I get this as it’s good for my shop!’.

Do you still like being here by the pier?
Yes it’s nice, we see the tourists, see the ocean and it’s sunny!