One day I chose to attend a meeting of the youth association of the German-Japanese friendship society DJG. It was supposed to take place at an expensive-looking restaurant called the "California Roll" somewhere on the outskirts of Düsseldorf's amusement district, the "Altstadt". It took some time until somebody of the DJG showed up and it was quite boring, but it gave me the chance to make the aquaintance of Arakawa Jinyu, the owner of the restaurant, one of the most interesting Japanese perons I've ever met. He was quite fed up with this kind of meetings and somehow he must have sensed that I was thinking the same way. So I learned more about him and the place I consider to be Düsseldorf's best Japanese venue, if not Düsseldorf's best venue at all.
Born in Miyagi-ken, Arakawa-san studied politics and German at Waseda University in Tokyo. During his studies he took part in a youth exchange program and stayed for a month in Augsburg. He got involved in the youth organization of the Liberal Democrats and joined the "left wing" of the LDP centering around Kawasaki Hideji, Matsumura Kenjo and others who - at that time - were laying the foundations for Tanaka Kakuei's first trip to China. He worked for the LDP paper Jiyu Shinpo at the party headquarters where he met Tanaka Kakuei, at that time general secretary of the LDP, at the press conferences which were held on an almost daily basis. Arakawa-san decided to become a politician himself. But first he wanted to go to Germany to get himself a PhD degree.
At the University of Bonn Arakawa-san started to think it over. It was 1973. His time in Germany gave him the chance to look at his country from outside. He didn't like what he saw. "In Germany I realized my plans to become a politician had been utter nonsense", he laughs. Actually he stopped to read Japanese newspapers in order to avoid getting angry. He married another Japanese exchange student. Living in a "ryou" he made friends with a lot of students from the Middle East studying medicine. He was deeply impressed by the responsibilities this job implies but decided to become a dentist: "If a dentist makes a mistake it's not deadly". Therefore he had to move to Düsseldorf. However he didn't manage to get the final "tan'i" which was necessary to get the "Staatsexamen" because he didn't get along with the professor examining the students on that topic. He tried to change universities but it didn't work out. So he decided to quit.
After that he worked as a broker for several years dealing expensive cars, doves - those birds delivering love letters you may have heard of. Actually the winner dove of a contest held in Barcelona is worth 200.000 DM. So you might get the picture. Then he joined Aengevelt, a big real estate company in Germany where he looks after Japanese customers in Germany and German customers in Asia. When the Great Hanshin Earthquake took place in 1995 he was in Shanghai doing business. Immediately after his return he went to the embassy and offered help. He had a good idea involving a new kind of toilet developed by a German company. But his proposals were turned down. Arakawa-san is still worried about the ignorance of the Japanese people towards earthquakes and the non-existing preventive measures. "We need a revival of the go-nin-gumi (a kind of neighbourhood watch created in Edo time)", he says, "a new kind of community spirit. People had to die because no one of the passers-by was willing to help them."
The restaurant he decided to take over two years ago is - more or less - his hobby. His wife and him were thinking about having a nomiya or izakaya in their old days, he says. And they had the intention to contribute to the cultural life of the city. That's why he handed over the ground floor to a group of artists who run it as a café-gallery on a non-profit basis. One of them is fashion designer Akiko Stiebeling, rock composer Ruediger Esch and artist Joe Brockerhoff are the others. There is a small stage where modern dance artist Sasaki Mitsu already did a performance with an American friend and co-artist. But the restaurant has a strong connection to the fine arts as well: The chef de cuisine has been trained in Susukino, Hokkaido and spends his leisure time as a Jazz singer and drummer with Watanabe Pro. Even the part-timers of the restaurant in the cellar (what a cellar! a 250-year old cavern dating back to the days of Napoleon) study at the arts academy. What a difference compared to the restaurants run by the big companies like the "Edo"(Kirin) or the "Daitokai"(Kikkoman).
Contact:
California Roll
Bilker Str.4
40213 Düsseldorf
Germany