KHARKIV The market square in the Saltivka district is bustling, even though some of the stalls are in ruins after the war. A cafe called Fumi is particularly popular, where dozens of people queue up.
– We have something like this every day between noon and three o’clock, when we distribute food, says the executive director of the cafe Natalia Grama.
Grama from Kharkiv opened a Japanese cafe in April Fuminori Tsuchiko with. A Japanese man came to Kharkiv to help people suffering from the war a year ago.
Tsuchiko and Grama don’t share a common language, but they share a desire to help people. According to Grama, they have learned to read each other’s expressions and gestures.
– Good morning, thank you, Mandarin, Tsuchiko enumerates partly in Ukrainian and partly in Russian.
– I only know a couple of words, but in three years I will already be speaking Ukrainian.
The cafe he founded offers free hot lunches to locals. 500–600 people have lunch there every day.
Meeting in the subway
Fuminori Tsuchiko, 75, retired 15 years ago. Since then, he has been touring the globe.
In January 2022, he traveled to Kyiv, but the visit was shorter than expected. At the urging of the Japanese authorities, he left Ukraine for neighboring Poland. Tsuchiko was in Warsaw when the Russian invasion began.
The huge wave of refugees from Ukraine to Poland made such a big impression on the Japanese that he decided to join the group helping the Ukrainians. For the first week, he worked as a volunteer at Warsaw’s main railway station, then he went closer to the Ukrainian border to Rzeszów, where he spent a few months.
There, he heard from the refugees that there are many people living in the Kharkiv subway who are hiding from the Russians’ gunfire. In June 2022, Tsuchiko left for an unknown city of millions, which was then the front line.
In Kharkiv, the Japanese explored the subway stations, one after the other, getting to know the people living there, until he reached the terminus of the blue line. A few hundred people from the nearest Saltivka and Pohjois Saltivka neighborhoods lived at the metro station called Herojiv Pratsy, or Heroes of the Work. The Japanese stayed to live at the station and help people as much as he could.
One of those who lived in the subway was Natalia Grama, 41. Before the Russian invasion, she had a rented apartment in North Saltivka, but at the very beginning of the war, she and her family had to move out. Grama was never able to return to the old apartment.
He is a chef by training, and while living in the metro, he did volunteer work helping NGOs feed metro residents.
Tsuchiko and Grama became friends immediately because they both had a burning need to help people in need. The woman started giving the Japanese man tasks to support the people of Harkov, and he carried them out as best he could.
Japaneseness does not appear on the menu
Grama lived in Metro until the end of last year, until he found a new rental apartment nearby. Tsuchiko also decided to settle in Saltivka.
In the spring of 2023, they came up with the idea of opening a cafe. Grama found an empty property at the local market, but needed money for renovations. The money was found in Japan.
Tsuchiko left her Tokyo home and organized a fundraising campaign in Japan. The Japanese were generous, and the cafe owners quickly fixed up the dining room and kitchen. The name of the cafe became Fumi Cafe, because Fuminori is more familiarly called Fumi.
Even though the cafe owner is from Japan, it doesn’t appear on the menu.
– Fumi says she wants our borscht, our rolls and our meat dishes. He doesn’t interfere with the menu and is happy with our dishes. We put meat, soups, porridges, salads. Usual home cooking, Grama says.
Japaneseness can only be seen on the walls of the dining room. Behind the counter, there are notes with the names of the donors in Japanese characters. Tsuchiko’s main task is to collect funds to run the cafe.
– Donations are already coming from Ukraine as well. Sometimes even our customers bring raw materials and say that this is their contribution to the common good, says Grama.
The popularity of the cafe surprised the founders of Fumi Cafe.
– We thought that 200-250 people would visit us every day, but already on the first day there were 200 diners. We realized that we need to expand our operations, Grama recalls.
To prevent abuse, visitors record their name and contact information in the guest book.
– We want to help those who really need it, says Natalia Grama.
“Winning does not remove the need for help”
Fuminori Tsuchiko and Natalia Grama have more plans to help people. Grama would like to rent space for the cafe’s warehouse and hire more people.
– There are now few jobs available in Kharkiv, so we could support local residents in this way. At the moment, my acquaintances, acquaintances of an acquaintance, and interns who we found through an advertisement work in the cafe.
In Grama’s opinion, the need for aid will not go away even with Ukraine’s victory.
– A challenging time awaits us. We need two wins. The first is the liberation of our territory from the occupiers. And the second will come when we live the same way as before. But it will certainly take several years, says Grama.
Tsuchiko agrees. He has severed almost all his ties to Japan and wants to settle permanently in Kharkiv.
– My physical condition suits the conditions in Ukraine very well, he says.
His goal is to continue helping Ukrainians as long as he can.
– This war will end with Ukraine’s victory, but help will continue to be needed. I would like to build a school here, for example.
The subject can be discussed until Tuesday 4 July 2023 at 11 pm.