[Cost Breakdown] 21yr Old’s Successful Countryside Japanese Restaurant

[Cost Breakdown] 21yr Old’s Successful Countryside Japanese Restaurant

She’s the little sister, but acts all bossy. Yeah, let’s go! Good morning! I’m 21, and I run this place as the owner and head chef. We opened up in February, so— —it’s only been about five months. Thankfully, we’ve been getting a ton of customers lately. All of us are in super high spirits! I used to work at the main shop in Nagasaki— Then I moved here. Back in Sasebo, Nagasaki, I started out just helping my mom out in the kitchen. And now I’ve somehow ended up running this place. Good morning! Morning! Good morning! You made it early today! Shh! Don’t let them know! Good morning. We’re all dressed in white. This is my mom and my little sister. Nice to meet you! My mom’s always helping out here— and my sister comes in to train the staff on making cakes and stuff. We’re heading over to the organic farm now— to harvest some veggies. We’ve known the farmer since before the shop opened. We go every day to pick fresh veggies. We even use these carrot greens— we’ll use them for making the broth for miso soup and such. Everything’s pesticide-free, so it’s all super safe to eat. Whoa, today’s catch is huge! Since it’s organic, there’s a lot of bugs. Looking good! And now… These can be eaten just like this. Let me try one real quick. It’s super fresh. Delicious. You should try too! Thanks! The farmers are pretty busy, so— —we just ask, “Can we pick what we need ourselves?” We don’t want to create extra work for them. So we take only what we’ll actually use. And send them a photo of what we picked. That’s how we work with them. The taste is totally different when it’s freshly picked. Like this cucumber, they’re sweet. You’ll get it once you try it. Even the color is different. That’s why freshness is so important to us. We’re surrounded by mountains and rice fields, and people used to say that restaurants in this spot don’t last. But we want to prove them wrong. We’re fired up. All of the staff. Just got changed. Kairi-kun, what’s the staff meal today? Today’s… Isn’t it a bit early to talk about eating yet? That’s always the first topic! Today we have fried horse mackerel, steamed egg custard, and seasoned rice. YAAAAY!!! That’s what they said they wanted! Alright, let’s start the meeting. Starting today, we’ve got curry. It’s a test run for curry menu. And the staff meal is based on these two’s request. Very, very demanding requests. Let’s hit that $1500 mark today—it’s Saturday! Let’s give it our all! Yeah! Ready? One, two… LET’S GO! Let’s do this! We do this every single day. We’re not messing around! I honestly don’t wanna do it anymore. So the whole “Let’s hit $1500” thing— If we make over $1500 in sales in a day, we bump everyone’s hourly wage up by $1. It gets the team hyped. Good morning! Thank you so much, as always. He’s a farmer from Rikiriki farm. He also grows everything organic. He puts his veggies here, and when we run short on veggies during a busy day, we just grab what we need right from here and pay him after. Lots of people come just to buy their veggies from here too! They’re super popular. Kneeling on the ground like that, makes you look like you’re getting scolded or something! I picked these fresh this morning. (Farming without pesticides or chemical fertilizers) How much is this? That one’s $1. Thanks again, every single morning. It’s like a win-win for both of us. You’re acting like a couple who just started dating. We use the cabbage core for the Miso soup broth too. Nothing goes to waste. Now the carrots I picked today. This broth here is made with only organic veggies. We scrub the morning harvest super clean, and toss it right in. We pull all the flavor out of just the vegetables, even the skins of daikon radish We make these balls from special miso, and customers can mix their own soup however they like. Even just the broth alone tastes amazing. Some customers literally just drink the broth. Back in junior high, I used to kill time watching fish-cutting videos. It looked fun! So I started trying it myself. I studied cooking in high school, too. I got my chef’s license when I graduated. Then I worked at a traditional restaurant in Fukuoka for a year. Came back to Nagasaki, helped at the main shop… and next thing I knew, here I am. My mom used to teach cooking classes. So I always watched from nearby. I think I picked up a lot from her. I always say this to people— when it comes to my mom, the one word I think of is ‘respect’. This is for the staff’s meal. I just really love cooking. So I put real effort into our staff meals too. This shop only works because we’ve got good vibes. So I put the staff first. Staff-first, for sure. Absolutely. She wasn’t listening. Thanks! Seriously, thanks! It’s always delicious! We’re not even open yet. Go get to work! We use rice flour, too—thinking about everyone’s health. This is rice breading. Kairi-kun, are you gonna cut all of these? If I can, yeah. Kairi-kun, this here’s for the brownies. We cook it in a pressure cooker, then let it ferment. That’s kind of our thing. The beans we use haven’t been genetically modified, We always use these: Black Senshoku Soybeans. I’m still learning though. So it’s kind of hard to explain everything. Every morning, we get fresh chicken breast— It’s called Aritadori, a premium local brand from Saga. There’s no specific way we cut it, really. I usually work over at the main shop— making their cakes. I don’t come to this location much. I pop in now and then to coach the cake staff. Since middle school, I’ve learned by watching our mom at work. Ever since Kairi became the boss— I can really see how much he’s grown. She’s the little sister, but acts all bossy. Hang in there, big bro! I’m two years older than her. I’m 19 right now. No matter how often I hear that, I’m still surprised. Kairi’s always up late prepping ingredients, and wakes up early too. And goes to the farm by himself. Stuff like that really makes me respect him. We actually made it to the national finals for a parent-child cooking contest. We started by learning how to clean horse mackerel, then worked up to sea bream. Yeah, our mom had us learning how to cut fish— when we were still in elementary school. Over time, I got more and more into baking and sweets. And now she’s way better than me. She’s so careful and detailed. I’m a blood type B, so I tend to be messy. Hey, no need to diss B-types! Haha, sorry, sorry! Whoops, kinda messed that one up. But hey, just barely made it! Thank god. Yeah, we’re good. Good morning! Come on in!
….Huh?
Go on, come on in! Welcome! I’ve been really looking forward to this! Long time no see! Welcome! Go ahead! Where do I order bread? Should I reserve it or something? Yeah, that’s probably best— otherwise it sells out fast. Lots of people order cake at the start, then enjoy it after their meal. I’ll take 20 eggs, please! Thank you!! I’m getting these. These are called “space eggs”. People say they’ve got cosmic energy… I totally made this up just now. They taste amazing with just a pinch of salt. No funky smell or anything — I highly recommend them. Our most popular dish is the hamburger steak. We use this steam convection oven for that. So no added oil. It’s all about the natural flavors, and we use Aritadori chicken for it. It’s insanely popular. This one’s the teriyaki dish. A teriyaki and egg combo. Is is ok if you handle the curry too? So we’re just ignoring the curry now? No, don’t ignore it! The curry has a right to exist too! Don’t ignore the poor thing! These go into pretty much everything we make — on the left is soy sauce koji, on the right is mushroom koji. We make all of it from scratch. We buy the koji starter, and use additive-free soy sauce. I’m picky about using only sun-dried salt. It all comes together in about six hours. It’s great for gut health too. It’s something we absolutely can’t do without in our kitchen. These eggs are from free-range chickens. If chicken get stressed, it will affect their eggs. The ones raised in wide, open spaces have way better quality. So we choose those kinds of eggs for our cooking. We always use coconut oil here. It’s way more stable and doesn’t oxidize like regular oils. So it’s better for the body. Here you go, Ema-chan! It’s ready! Here you go! Looks like 4 new guests? Welcome! (Parking area is packed!) Today is our first time serving curry! This here’s the chicken curry! It took me quite a while to get the recipe right. This one here’s based on chicken bones — a space-chicken stock. And it’s made lectin-free using taro instead of regular thickener. Thank you very much for coming. Was the spice level okay for you? Oh yeah, I even added more chili! Extra chili, huh? Respect! Just seeing him cook with so much joy makes me happy, too. Thank you so much. Every time I come in, I see him bow through the window. (Imitates his bow) He posts the staff meals on Instagram every day. They always look so good. I keep thinking, “I wish that was on the menu!” Totally jealous! Join us as a staff member then! Sometimes I come three days in a row. It takes me over an hour to get here by car, but the staff is always full of energy, and the customers that come here are all really warm people. It just feels like a fun, healing space. I used to have really bad acne. And after giving birth, my meds stopped working. No matter what I did, it wouldn’t get better. So I decided to change my diet from the ground up. The meals here really worked for my body— they’re nourishing, but never feel heavy or overwhelming. The restaurant offers two types of subscriptions. “Mu-Fami” ($22) and “Mu-Fami Premium. ($45)” I went for the premium plan. It gives you access to exclusive quick and easy recipes, and sometimes you get early access to new dishes like the curry. They even taught us how to make their secret sauce! The legendary one that goes with everything. I come here two or three times a month. My daughter loves the food here too. Whenever we go out to eat, this is our top pick. We’re on the $45 subscription plan. The recipes are super easy, quick, and delicious. Even my daughter can make them. Originally, I used to run a cooking class, but people had to come in person. I started getting tons of messages from people outside the prefecture asking, “Can you do it online?” So that’s how I came up with the subscription idea. About 400 people signed up right from the start. I honestly didn’t expect such a big response. Now we offer things like two cooking classes a month, and lots of other perks to give back to everyone. Our goal is really to make our customers happy. So we share a lot through social media, too. Just from the subscriptions alone, we make around $15,000 a month. We really want to return that value to everyone who supports us. There’s a boy that said he wants to be Kairi’s apprentice. How old are you? I’m in eighth grade. Eighth grade, huh? Why do you want to be my apprentice? I want to learn how to cook with organic ingredients. Oh, you’re interested in that? Yeah, I’ve been really into cooking. When you’re in high school, come work here part-time! Looking forward to seeing you in a few years. I’ll do my best! Thanks! We’d love to hire more young people who want to work here. Maybe we can open a second, even third location someday. If more people join us, who love food, that would be amazing. We want to grow our team. That’s a big part of our goal. Let’s work hard so we can open more shops in the future! We’ll be waiting for you! Boss, can we get that next order going? Boss is super busy today! Thank you very much! The flavor might be a bit tricky today, though. Thank you very much. Thank you! Thank you, I’ll be back! We’ll be waiting! Thanks a lot! We really care about our customers’ health. And just seeing their smiles, that’s honestly what motivates me. That’s what makes me happiest, personally. Where’d that onion go from earlier? What onion? Ah, here it is. What’s he on about, I thought. Kairi-kun’s hallucinating. This is our cream cheese chicken set meal. Wait—it’s not a set meal. It’s a rice bowl with curry noodles hidden underneath. Coming through. You should be able to show this without any cuts! Impossible! Yeah right! You’re definitely gonna ask for edits later. Ok. Awesome. Here’s today’s staff meal. Thank you! Thanks for the food! Thank you! Thanks for the food! THANKS FOR THE FOOD! You’re so loud. Whoa, that’s not the seasoned rice we talked about! You’re fired. I look forward to this every day. Even on my days off, I’m thinking about it like, “What are they having today?” We always take a picture of the meal, an Kairi-kun posts it on Instagram. Not sure if he posted everything… here’s our past staff meals. Sometimes it’s sashimi, sometimes it’s Chinese-style dishes… We have super outgoing people like Yui on the team, but the three of us here? We’re not really the extrovert type. We do love working in service. It never feels uncomfortable working here. You feel accepted just the way you are. Like, “It’s okay to be whoever you are.” That kind of vibe. Everyone gets to do what they’re good at— or what they enjoy. I really love that about this place. I’m not great with customer service, so I mostly stay behind the scenes. I help out with food prep, and I’m really grateful for that. He always does this! “How is today’s food?” “Midori, today’s isn’t spicy, right?” I rely on all of them. Like, a lot. I’m the second youngest here, too. Everyone here is really good at their job. I think we were supposed to say “Aw, it’s nothing,” right? But honestly, I’m super grateful. Right back at you. I’m really thankful for the connections we’ve made. One of the reasons we thought of opening a shop here, was because we truly fell in love with the town of Ureshino. It made us want to give back and help bring more energy to it. Of course we still love Sasebo—our original home— but we really want to thrive here, too. “Passing things on to the next generation”—has been my mission for the past 15 years.
Right now, I really feel like young people’s relationship with food is in danger. When I talk about it, people my age get it— but I want younger people to be the ones sharing the message. My son had a strong desire to do this himself, so I decided to let him take the lead. I’m trying not to get too involved, and watch from the sidelines, posting on social media, and support my son. I’ve left the cooking to him completely, but still help out with developing new menu items. My son has grown so much. The way he talks to people now is just night and day compared to before. His whole attitude has changed. Now, you can really feel that he’s speaking to customers from the heart. He didn’t have that before. Now that I see he’s doing this with real love and care— I feel totally at ease. I want my son to carry on our mission of passing things on to the next generation. Food really is everything. It’s life itself. We sold out everything today. We had 45 customers come in. And had about $1,000 in sales. That’s actually a little below our usual average. When we first got started, setting up the space, buying equipment, and all that— everything together cost us around $28,000. Our monthly rent is $900. We’ve got six staff members total. They’re all working in a part-time capacity. Our total monthly expenses come to just under $7,000. And our monthly sales are around $20,000. That’s been pretty steady from month one. To make sure we started strong, we put a ton of effort into prep before opening. Posting on Instagram, building the menu— taking photos and sharing them in Stories before we even launched. That helped us build interest even before we opened our doors. We’ve had a lot of customers come in from the main store, too. Some of them stop by almost every day. That’s been huge for us. After accounting for ingredient costs and everything— our monthly profit is around $7,000. To keep that going, we try not to let anything go to waste. So when something sells out, that’s it for the day. We also try to avoid overtime for staff as much as possible. We make sure things like water and electricity aren’t left running. Those little things make a big difference. Honestly, I just got started with all this— I’m only 21, and there’s still so much I don’t know. I know I need to keep learning how to run a business. My mom’s not really good at this stuff either. So I’ve taken over that part. But we’ve got a solid accountant now, so it’s all good. Right now, what I’m focused on for the future— is learning everything my mom teaches me. I want to lead my generation and share all of this with them. I want to be the one at the front, carrying it forward. Alright, I’m off! I’m so excited! Let’s gooo! We’re heading out into the fields today. It’s our first visit to Rikiriki Farm. We’re going to see where the veggies we use and sell are actually grown. Summer heat is intense, but we want to experience it for ourselves. We’re really looking forward to it! Let’s go! I’m super excited for this! So fun. I’ve never really had the chance to visit a farm like this— and since they don’t use pesticides I’m super curious on how they manage bugs and all that. So yeah, I’m excited. Let’s gooo! Please drive safe, okay? Usually, stores set their own holidays— and staff just have to adjust around that, right? But not us. Everyone decides on their preferred days off, and then we decide our shop’s holiday schedule. Kairi-kun really sets that kind of positive tone. It’s a great place to work. Oops—I took the wrong road! The staff here— they get to rest when they need to, and I want them to enjoy what they do. That’s what matters most. G’day! Thanks for always supporting us! We just met this morning though! This is where we’re planning to plant carrots. Still working on clearing the land—it’s not quite ready. Oh wow, so the field’s gonna get way bigger? Wanna try? Let’s harvest and try it right here! This one? Is it ok to cut it here? Cutting now! This is a pretty rare variety. It’s called Bateshirazu No.3. Go ahead, try it. You’d think a cucumber is just a cucumber, right? This is so good. Really sweet! Isn’t it sweet somehow? Sure is! So good! It’s really good. Thanks for the food! Delish. It’s huge! Look at that thing! That’s massive! Huge! This one’s called “Matchan.” You can have it! Not sure about eating it raw, but they said it works great for pickles. Wanna eat it raw? Uhh, maybe not straight raw! Oh wow, so easy to cut. I’m gonna try it! Show the camera! Thanks for the food! Wait, what!? It’s actually really good! What’s it like? The inside part is super tasty. You should try too! Isn’t that way tastier than you’d expect? What’s the flavor like? Mhm… Yeah, kind of reminds me of cucumber. Wait, my tongue’s tingling— Wha-? Maybe you can’t eat the skin? It’s like an underripe melon or something. What are you gonna feed us next? Nah, that’s not what this is. These are Japanese honeybees. A local beekeeper nearby taught me how to keep them. The hive builds downward from the top. It probably stretches down to around here by now. Eventually, I’d love to get into food processing too— like baking bread. And I’d use this honey instead of sugar. Wouldn’t it be awesome to bake “Riki-pan”? I’m doing this alone. Before we got married, my wife said she’s help out too. But now she’s like “I don’t want to get sunburnt”. Did you put on sunscreen? Nope. Oh no! I’m just taking in all the sun, full blast. The field I’m renting is one tan, so about 1,000 square meters. But one tan just doesn’t bring in enough income. Ideally, I’d like to do about five times that — around 5 tan. I’m doing this because I love it. At first, I actually dreamed of living self-sufficiently. But my wife told me— “You better make a proper living.” You can really feel her influence in everything. You got into farming back in school or something? Not at all. My life had nothing to do with farming. But I got interested in environmental issues— And I thought maybe farming was one way I could contribute. But back then, I didn’t want to farm at all. Then I just decided to go for it— And it turned out to be fun. Now I do it because I really enjoy it. That’s so cool. That chili’s a Takanotsume. It might blow out your taste buds. Let’s break it and everyone try some. You too, Riki-san. Thanks for the food. Wow, the smell… Oh man, that burns! I yelled “HOT!” and it literally flew out of my mouth. I totally spat it out. Our channel really cares about sharing the skills of true craftsmen with the world, and passing them on to the next generation. Through our videos and products, we want to show their charm,
and share their pride, philosophy, and what makes them so cool. If even one person watches this and thinks “Japanese craftsmen are awesome!”
that’s already a step toward preserving Japan’s fading craftsmanship. That’s the mission we stand by on our YouTube channel.
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Inspiring story of this 21year olds successful countryside restaurant in Saga prefecture where he gives us an insight into his operating costs and how he runs such a delightful and friendly cafe/restaurant.

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0:12 Intro
1:42 Ingredients straight from the Field
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25:37 Visiting the farm with the staff!

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