When you go to a local okazuya, a Japanese deli, you’re there to indulge in finger foods that deliver the tang of shoyu-sugary, salty and vinegary flavors recalled from childhood picnics. Dozens of dishes fanned out in display cases seem to call your name, especially those deep-fried tempuras. Then there might be some Hawaiian, Filipino or other local favorites thrown in.
You choose a little of this and a smidgen of that, and end up with a glorious mix-and-match plate at an affordable price. That’s what keeps customers coming back to Masa & Joyce Okazuya since they opened 40 years ago in Kaneohe.
“People’s happiest moment is when they eat the good stuff!” says Masa Tobaru, who with his wife, Joyce, opened their first deli at the Temple Valley shopping center in 1979. “We try to make the best food, so people are satisfied 100%, so they keep coming back.”
Tobaru was a fisherman before opening the shop, and had good sources for the fresh local fish he sold in addition to the okazuya when not too many stores back then sold both, he said. Two years later, they opened their second (current) location on Kamehameha Highway, which Joyce Tobaru ran until she retired several years ago. They closed the first store after 25 years in 2004, and old customers still urge him to open up again in Temple Valley.
Sushi and poke bars may have replaced some of the old-time okazuyas over the years, but Masa & Joyce’s has not suffered the sting of competition from trendier restaurants, he said. Maybe because fresh seafood (never frozen) and sushi have always been on the menu, and adding hand-rolled sushi like the popular California roll with avocado, was easy to do.
And on top of the musubi and tempuras, the restaurant offers standard plate lunches, such as hamburger steak and chicken katsu; and an assortment of Hawaiian lau lau and kalua pig plates. They added pork adobo to the menu, and sometimes, pastele stew after a new cook started working there. Then there’s the old-school, hard-to-find soups like Okinawa soba or rice, pig feet and oxtail. Joyce Tobaru, who was a cook for the former Sandy’s Coffee Shop, came up with all the recipes that are still used today, she said.
It’s hard for Masa Tobaru to name the bestsellers when there’s so much to please different taste buds, but if he had to pick one thing, it would probably be the Spam musubi: on weekends, he sells close to 700 a day! “On slow days, it’s three to four hundred.”
With 16 employees, the restaurant makes all the food except for lau lau, which is now purchased ready-made. (The lau lau used to be made in-house, but Masa Tobaru can’t find enough labor to continue to do so.) Everything in the non-refrigerated case must be turned over after two hours according to health department rules, but everything usually sells out by the end of the day.
Hilde Broadbent, who’s been behind the counter at Masa & Joyce’s for over 20 years, has noticed that “the young people like the fresh fish, and they don’t care that the price is high. I know a lot of them; their grandparents used to come.”
Broadbent could actually retire, but the longtime customers like her, so she stays on part time, said Masa Tobaru. Broadbent continues to work because “I like the boss, and I like the customers. But I think some of the (original) regulars are in heaven.”
“Lots of places these days, there’s no human contact. Our type of business, I like people to talk story,” Masa Tobaru said. “Some of our customers have been coming for 40 years; they used to be kids, now they bring their own kids. On weekends, people come from all over the place. I cannot close (even) one day!”
Regulars Wesley and Carol Masaki drive from Hawaii Kai about every other week or two, often for the Okinawan soba or oxtail soup, though they used to come once a week. “It’s homey, local, and we like the food,” Carol Masaki said.
Aimee Imai brought her son Clarke, 7 months old, from Enchanted Lake for a sampling of what his father enjoyed as a child. “It has a good home-cooked feel to it, and it’s one of the only okazuyas on this side of the island. They have a good variety, and they’re always pretty well-stocked — they don’t run out like a lot of places.”
Masa Tobaru could retire as his wife did, but “I don’t want to stay home.” At least the days are shorter, not the 15 to 18 hours he used to put in. He arrives at work every day at 3 a.m., and stays for five or six hours, trusting his staff to run things the rest of the day. “I’m a morning person. My mind is clear, nobody bothers me. … It’s a lot of work, but I like it, so it’s OK.”
Joyce Tobaru said she misses working at the restaurant, but her body can’t move around as adeptly as before. Every Saturday she comes in to “talk story” with everyone and sell her handmade jewelry and ribbon lei. “I don’t sell a lot, but some people stop by and I sell enough to make me happy,” she added.
Their four children all helped in the restaurant as they grew up, and two daughters are still working there part time. One of them is interested in carrying on the business once Masa Tobaru retires, but he says “this old type of business, I don’t know how long we can keep it up.”
“I’m so thankful for the customers, they keep coming,” he said.
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MASA & JOYCE OKAZUYA
45-582 Kamehameha Hwy., 235-6129
Hours:
>> 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays
>> 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays
>> 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays
>> 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays
