- It is now five o'clock.
I've washed my hands twice, sanitized three times,
and have maybe teared up about five times.
It is just so insane right now.
(sad music)
My name is Sakura,
and I am the CEO of a family-run Japanese restaurant group
in Manhattan, and we have 16 different locations
with 12 different concepts of Japanese food.
It's been four days since the city decided to shut down
all restaurants dining in, and for the past four days,
I've barely slept.
I have a daughter who is 15 months.
She just woke me up, and I just put her back to sleep.
Now I am on my computer, trying to log much my nanny worked.
I'm a single mom, and because I've been working a lot
through this coronavirus crisis,
my nanny has been very essential.
So that's what I'm doing at 4:33 in the morning,
as well as trying to get ready for the day.
It's been a very, very crazy four days.
I know it's very different
from what a lot of people are experiencing right now.
I just wanna show you what my day looks like.
Trying to create an online infrastructure.
For example, at Hi-Collar, we do not do takeout,
and to suddenly have to close our doors
means we have to set up something
to support that kind of business.
Things are just changing every single day,
so we, as a company, we're also changing every single day.
I'm hoping that today we'll see an uptick
in online orders.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.
All right, guys, it's almost 5:29.
I need to get some sleep
before I rush off to the office tomorrow
to tackle another day.
(alarm beeping)
It's 8:20, and I've pressed snooze ample enough times,
so it's time for me to get up, take my temperature.
97.3, so we're all set.
And now it's time to get ready.
(upbeat music)
Done.
Picking out clothes for my daughter.
In order to keep my family safe,
in order to see my daughter, I have to put on a mask,
wash my hands, and then say hi to her.
And I try not to hug her or kiss her.
Just, it's hard not to.
No hugs.
That's probably one of the hardest parts.
Even just patting her head
makes me feel better.
(speaking foreign language)
I try to maximize my time with her in the morning.
So the nanny, I told her not to come into the city anymore,
'cause I also don't want to get her sick.
Luckily, my mom is watching her.
I'm trying to enjoy these little moments with my daughter.
It's 10:14, and I am leaving my apartment
after having a very heated discussion
about what to do with each restaurant.
It's a family business, and it's very difficult
when you're talking about closing businesses
that have been part of a family,
and so to talk about what are we going to do,
how are we going to take care of staff,
it's a very difficult conversation.
I have to say goodbye to my daughter,
who, you know, screaming and crying and says "Mama."
It's just hard to tape.
Now I'm going to bike to work.
I am on 10th Street now, making my first stops,
places that are open.
Make sure everyone is doing okay.
Only takeout at Rai Rai Ken.
While I was at Hi-Collar,
we had a few neighbors stop by say,
"How can I help?
"Would buying a coffee help you guys?"
We said, "Yes, yes, of course."
Even a little bit helps for your local places.
So this is my office.
Washing my hands.
It's 11:34, and so far, what we've done is
set up so that our graphic team can clock in
and clock out remotely.
We've talked about finalizing the phone number,
so that any employees who have questions
about unemployment and things like that
have one central phone number.
At 2:30, I got a call from my boss,
telling us that he has made the decision
to close all of the locations,
and then how much we'll need to sustain the business.
I'm trying to make myself feel better with omurice.
This is my ultimate comfort food.
It makes me feel like a kid that's happy.
Trying to turn this off
so that we don't get any more locations.
This is what it looks like now.
I've been working on these New York Warn paperwork
just so we are in legal compliance
with letting the state, as well as our employees,
know about our sudden closures.
It is now five o'clock.
I've washed my hands twice, sanitized three times,
and have maybe teared up about five times.
I think that's the right decision,
but I really wish that it was communicated better,
or if we had more of a plan in place.
But this is the reality of what our situation is like.
From just a legal standpoint,
from an operational standpoint,
from an emotional standpoint, it's just insane.
Now our conference room has become a vegetable shop.
We have all these vegetables,
as well as things like homemade mayonnaise.
We have still so much stuff,
and so we're asking the employees,
who are choosing to come in to pick up their checks,
to bring a bag so that they can take home some stuff.
I am at Sakagura, East Village,
picking up the last batch of bentos.
And I'm going to package them for delivery.
It's six o'clock in Soho,
and look how empty the streets are.
It's just always so wonderful to see friends,
especially friends in the industry.
They just still put a smile on a face.
So now what I'm doing is getting the reports ready
to close out everything.
Bring that to the office tomorrow morning.
I'm not gonna be serving my friends who come and eat here,
and that's really sad for us in the hospitality industry,
because that's why we're in it.
Seeing the customers excited to be here,
and it's really the industry
where you need social interactions
and to be physically be together.
Especially in New York City, where we don't have any space,
restaurants are where we come together,
with friends, with lovers, with coworkers, with...
family.
And to not be witness to all those celebrations
and gatherings and not be a place for that,
that's what this virus has done to us.
I don't know when.
But in some shape or form, people will be back.
Hopefully, we will be back.
And we're going to celebrate.
You know, be together again.
I'm locking up the door for Sakagura, East Village.
Just making my rounds to make sure
that all of our places are closed.
Tomorrow, I'll be coming back
and making sure that anything that can be turned off
will be turned off completely
so we don't waste any unnecessary energy,
and also money.
- Bye bye, Mari-san!
- Bye bye!
- Yo-san, bye bye!
(woman speaking foreign language)
- I'm walking home.
I'm just excited to get home, wash my hands,
take my shower, and see my sleeping baby.
My parents are over there.
And I am staying here.
Nice and clean.
I've washed my hands, used alcohol to wipe my hands
and my phone.
Wear my mask.
Scan, 96.9.
I'm okay to go next door.
I finally put my daughter to sleep,
put the laundry in the machine,
and having a minute to kind of reflect on the day.
It's just hard to kind of wrap my mind around everything,
and I don't think anyone can.
I'm just at a loss of knowing how to support the people
who make our business run,
but what I can do is try to come up with several plans
to put into place when things change.
But maybe closing will give us the peace of mind
to exactly know that our staff is healthy,
and I'll get to spend more time with my daughter.
I've probably seen my daughter maybe a total of three hours
in the past four days.
So I'm looking forward to spending time with her.
And my job still continues.
Before I sign off, I wanna say,
"Thank you for your support."
I truly hope that I and my staff
will able to welcome you back to our restaurants.
Whether that's in two weeks or a month or months,
I hope to see you again soon.
Good night.
(gentle music)