Sakae area, the center of Nagoya City. Located one street off the main street, deja-vu is a flower shop which is like a hideaway. This year marks the 25th anniversary of this much-loved local flower shop.

The shop is filled with seasonal flowers and plants, including fresh flowers, dried flowers, ornamental plants, and arrangements that the owner, Mr. Okumura, purchases with great attention to the place of origin and producer. We interviewed Mr. Kazushige Okumura, the representative of the store, about the story behind the store's birth and the particulars of purchasing.

Deja vu is about a 6-minute walk from Yabacho Station on the Meijo Subway Line. It is on the 1st floor of the building where the apparel shop is located.

It seems that the layout of the store is frequently changed so that repeat customers can enjoy it.

Dried flowers are basically made in the store.

Houseplants come in a variety of sizes.

There were no flowers that I wanted to give

Mr. Kazushige Okumura, Representative of Deja Vu

Mr. Okumura originally worked for an interior design company. Why did he decide to open a flower store? First of all, he told us about the birth of the store.

Okumura: "I first became interested in flowers when I visited a flower shop with a friend. He wasn't the type of person to give flowers to, but I was impressed by how happy his girlfriend was. I myself liked sending flowers, but at the time, they were all red roses, gypsophila, and pink ribbons. There weren't many flowers that I wanted to give myself. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought it would be good to have more different flowers.

Okumura: “The next opportunity came when I started thinking about owning my own shop.  I imagined what I would be doing 10 years from now, and the shape I envisioned was a florist. That same day, I went to buy a part-time job magazine, but at the time there was no job posting for a flower shop...

After much thought, I came up with the idea of a flower market. If you go to a wholesaler, you can learn the names of flowers. You can communicate with suppliers and make connections. You can also get to know many florists. I thought, "There is no better place than this! I was hired right away and worked there for about three years."

Overcoming frustration.
The road to opening the shop.

Mr. Okumura started working at the flower market. At the age of 22, about a year into his career, he reached a turning point.

Okumura: “A group of my colleagues who worked at the flower market in the same generation opened their own business around the same time. When I asked them how much it cost to open a business, they told me it had cost 15 million yen, 20 million yen, etc. I didn't grow up in a very wealthy family, so I didn't have that kind of money. At that time, I understood. I realized that we were standing in the different starting points. It was very frustrating.

From that point on, I just worked hard to save up the funds to open the business. I had no time to play. I spent two years just to start my own business. I was so frustrated. There were times when I slept only two hours a night.

Then, when I was 24, I happened to have a chance to open my own shope. ”

Thus, in 1994, deja-vu opened near Nagoya Station. It later moved to its current location and celebrated its 25th year in May of this year.