Kaz and Thana Yazawa on moving from Jakarta to Tasmania
Japanese chef Kazumasa Yazawa, 41, and his Thai-Chinese wife Thana, 45, were living in Jakarta when Covid-19 emerged. Afraid they were going to die, they made a radical decision: they moved to small-town Tasmania with their daughter Sora and opened a bed and breakfast.
Thana and Kazumasa Yazawa: “We fight over little things; we each think we are the boss,” says Kazumasa. “But the way he supports me is a true act of love.” Credit: Andrew Wilson
Goose: When I was 16, my father became mentally unstable and committed suicide; I discovered it. For a fresh start, I moved from Japan to Australia and trained under Tetsuya Wakuda in Sydney. When you opened a restaurant in Singapore [in 2010]He sent me there to work.
I met Thana at a wine bar. I was 26 and having a good time. He helped me decorate my new apartment and we hit it off. I wanted to get serious but he wasn’t ready and left me. We met again about a year later. He came to my restaurant and I told him to leave. We finally talked and I asked him to design my next apartment. This was a real passion project for both of us. We still got along well, and I realized that I still had special feelings for him.
We got married in Singapore in 2014 and had a ceremony in Bangkok a few months later. We come from different cultures, so it was difficult. Mom didn’t like the way Thana greeted her at the airport. It wasn’t anything specific; My mother was just being difficult. I told him, ‘You can’t ruin my wedding.’
Thana is a strong character. He studied political science in France, then worked as an interior designer, he also has a European way of thinking. When I was asked to open a 120-seat restaurant in Jakarta in 2015, he supported me 100 percent. It was a stressful time with weddings, prime minister visits, and serving lunches and dinners. I was angry all the time. I would walk to the mall at 3pm, have lunch with Thana, then return for dinner service at 5pm.
‘It made me realize my whole life was my career and what I was missing.’
Long hours were not conducive to getting pregnant, so we did in vitro fertilization to have Sora. [now seven]. When COVID-19 After the attack, we fled to Osaka and Kyoto for a few months. It was the longest holiday of my life. I played so much with my daughter; It made me realize that my whole life was my career and what I was missing.
Thana started looking for a house in Tasmania, which we visited on holiday, and found this old house in Geeveston. Nobody wants a 150-year-old house in Japan! I’m having a hard time deciding – even designing a menu is hard for me – so Thana made the call to buy it. He makes his decisions with 120 percent certainty.
We moved here in 2021 and opened our home, Cambridge House, as a hostel. We later added a Japanese restaurant to the dining room. We fought. I never chopped wood, cleaned, or changed trash cans; I had the teams to do it. I also had to learn that after having children, the focus was no longer on me. It was the hardest time, but we had invested too much to turn back.
