Our Story
We’re Mike & Lei, the husband/wife co-founders of Nana Ai Katsu. Our daughter, Nanami, is the little boss and food critic for all our dishes. Her favorite menu item is the spam katsu musubi.
We opened up during the pandemic in August 2020 when we both found ourselves with a lot of free time. It was the scariest and best time for us to start our family business together. A few years prior, Mike wanted to open up a food truck after practicing the layering technique but we put it on hold. While we've always loved to eat, we are both from different industries. I've been in the technology and start-up space and Mike's been in retail and the wellness industry.
A few serendipity moments had to come together for us to be able to open a food stand coupled with naive optimism. We were able to open in a local marketplace within 30 days with a very cheap rent with electricity and trash included, product prices weren’t yet affected due to the pandemic so we could start with lower amount of cash to buy inventory, our kind neighbor for Mike’s other business worked in construction and wanted to help us build our food stand without cost of labor, the amazing Thomas Obungen featured us in a few articles, and most importantly the local community wanted to eat, be happy and support local businesses more than ever during the pandemic. We feel very lucky that life unfolded the way it did. We will never forget your kindness and love and hope to continue our family business for many years.
Thank you for supporting our local katsu shop, for including us in your communities, and for growing Nana Ai Katsu from a food stand in a marketplace to a restaurant in Kaimuki!
#communitymade
Local katsu shop with the purpose of bettering our community
2025 Organizations we are working with:
Aloha Animal Sanctuary, Hongwanji Mission School, Welo Ka Hae (Roosevelt High School), HUGS, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, Hear for Hope, Noelani Elementary School, Hawaii Foodbank, The Manoa 8U All Stars, Manoa Japanese Language School, Kuakini Health Foundation, YO! Youth Outreach Hale Kipa, Kaimuki Middle School PTO, Jarrett Middle School, and Friends of Waialae School.
Photo credit: Stacey Sawa
Nana Ai Katsu is named after our daughter Nanami and means, “Nana loves Katsu”.
DA-gashiya by Nanami
Nanami opened up her own dagashiya stand in Nana Ai Katsu!
Items for sale will be inexpensive small snacks and toys from Japan.
It’s honor box system and you can put your coins in the box before packing up your items in the bags provided.
Nanami is saving some money for her future trips to Japan and some will go into her savings account.
Update: New items from Japan added to the shop 10/8/25!
instagram: da.gashiya.by.nanami
Nanami’s Free Kids Library
Come and visit our free library located inside the shop! Most book donations are for elementary keiki but we sometimes receive young adult books too. You can also find coloring sheets designed by Tiny Hearts 808 and origami paper.