It is no exaggeration to say that 30 years ago, when there was no Google Maps or Instagram, Enami-san was the legendary owner of Enami-ya, a place where all information about the city was gathered. Now, he has handed over the store to his junior staff and is enlivening the town by designing and setting up the store and serving as an advisor to popular jewelry brands. Our editor-in-chief, Mr. Yoshida, has known Mr. Enami for more than 25 years, and he and our sales manager, Mr. Harada, have been friends for about 15 years. We were embarrassed to talk about our shared memories and love for Leaf.

Yoshida: I met Enami-san when I was in college. A senior member of my circle was working part-time at Enami-ya.

Enami: At that time, Kyoto was still in a bubble economy, and university student clubs were renting out discos and holding events. I was adored by the college students who were always hanging out with their friends in the city.

Yoshida: At that time, I was working part-time as an event companion, and when I finished work at around 8:30 p.m., I would say, "I'm tired of pouring drinks while wearing high heels today, too! When the newcomers couldn't get a seat, they were told to go home and the party was over. It was fun. By the way, Enami-san, why did you start Enami-ya?

Enami's hometown is Kyotango, and he entered a university in Tokyo saying, "I'm going to Tokyo," but dropped out. The first time she went to Tokyo was to work at a bar in a small building in Shibuya, Tokyo. He stopped going to college because he admired the owner of the bar, where extremely beautiful and interesting people came every night. I moved from Tokyo to Kyoto, worked at a bar with a stage and karaoke for a while, and saved up enough money to set up my own business at the age of 20, with the help of others. On May 5, 1993, I opened Enami-ya in Kiyamachi.

Yoshida: The omelette omelette and tonpeiyaki were also specialties, weren't they?

Enami: There happened to be a teppan in the apartment I rented, and by coincidence there was an okonomiyaki restaurant owned by a relative in Karasuma Oike. I learned how to make leek balls and tonpeiyaki. After a month of helping out, I opened Enami-ya. At first, it was hell because the customers were really angry with me, saying, "Don't charge money for such a thing. But I said, "I'm sorry! I opened the store from 5:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., saying, "I'm sorry! At that time, there were no convenience stores and few karaoke boxes open until morning, so the number of regular customers increased. The owner of the kappo restaurant came to have breakfast before work, and he taught me a lot about dashi and cooking.

Yoshida: Indeed, back then, the only coffee shops in Kawaramachi that were open until morning were Aoyama and Karafuneya.
Enami-san was no longer working at the store, and I had started working, so we met again in 2007, I think. I was riding my bicycle along Teramachi-dori when he approached me and said, "What are you doing now?
I think it was right around that time that I was coming back to Leaf.

Enami: I think it was around this time that I began to hear people say that "Leaf," which carefully scrutinizes local information, was good, while magazines like "Kansai Walker," "Pia" and "Kyoto Club Fame.

Harada: There was no social networking service, and it was a good time when you could get an ad placed if you went to a store and cheerfully and earnestly expressed your passion for sales by saying "Hello. At its peak, one issue of the magazine had 496 pages. It was as thick as a town page.

Yoshida: From there, we connected again, and I started helping Enami-san announce the opening of COHAKU KAIRASHI, a jewelry company with which he has a business partnership, and we began to have more opportunities to meet.

Enami: The designer, Kaoru-san, also praised Harada-kun. She said that he has the guts to jump in with people who other people think he is not good at. He seems to work very hard. He seems to be passionate. He seems to work hard at 、、、、 (laughs). Being a good self-starter is a necessary skill for a salesperson.

Yoshida: At that time, Mr. Harada was taking a lot of orders for advertisements. Behind the scenes, I saw that he was also very creative in his manuscript proofreading.

Harada: What I did was to prepare two sizes of manuscripts, one in full size and the other reduced to A4, and give them to the clients. The larger size was for reading and checking, and the A4 size was for faxing back. It was just a little thing, but I often thought about what I could do to make it easier for the customer. I also tried to actively go to the restaurants of people I liked and the ones that were popular at the moment, and always thought about how to get advertisements from those restaurants. I never hesitated to go to my classmates who were in the restaurant business. This was because I truly believed that "Leaf" was a good product.

Yoshida: It was a golden age when Mr. Harada went to 10 advertisement offices and received 8 of them. When we were rejected, Mr. Harada would often say, "This is such a good magazine, why don't you submit to it?

Enami: As an editor, what were you thinking when you were making the book?

Yoshida: It is a matter of course, but before making an appointment for an interview, I always go to the restaurant and research the atmosphere of the restaurant. I introduce the store in a way that is neither more positive nor less negative than the reality. I want to convey the atmosphere of the place as it is. I wanted to convey the atmosphere of the place as it is.
In the last 10 years that I have been involved in editing, the way we gather information has changed drastically. You can look up what is available at a restaurant on the Internet. However, it is difficult to capture the atmosphere of a restaurant as it is, so I was very conscious of that. I was conscious of that. When I do an interview, I tend to get defensive, so it was a question of how to capture the natural atmosphere of the restaurant in the magazine.
I was able to meet Enami again because I went out like a fool when I was a student and got involved with "Leaf". In Kyoto, where many students live, I hope that university students will enjoy themselves to the fullest.

Enami: On the Internet, you only get information that fits your own interests and tastes, and you don't have many adventures. Flipping through the magazine, I found information that I was not interested in at all, and I discovered a new me. It was possible for me to become interested in French cuisine and become a regular customer, even though I had no interest in French cuisine. Life is more fun when you search for something you are not interested in at all. [The people who came to Enami-ya must have come here because they wanted to know a new world and to have an adventure.

Yoshida: Yes, I was going to talk with Enami-san this time, and I looked for an article about the Enami family to reminisce, but I just couldn't find it. You said it was on the website, didn't you?

Enami: I was in "Kansai Walker", "Kyoto Club Fame.", and in national magazines such as "POPEYE", "Hanako", "Shukan Kyofu", and all kinds of media.... I don't know...maybe "Leaf" didn't print it....

Harada/Yoshida/No way! Let's just remember that it was in the book. And let's end with laughter (laughs).