How a Homeless Man Built Okinawa’s #1 Burger Shop

How a Homeless Man Built Okinawa’s #1 Burger Shop

Come on, touch it. Touch it! Welcome back, dear customer! My parents were way too violent. So I ran away when I was 8. I was really lonely. I had a lot of dreams. And I’ve always wanted a family. Hey there, big bro! Welcome! How’s it going? Let’s start with these three. Thanks! Thanks as always. It’s dangerous inside the kitchen. There’s bacteria—really dangerous. Things like chicken and raw meat— I don’t want anyone getting sick. Hey there, welcome! Please choose what you’d like to get! The menu is on the wall on the far left. Pick what you’d like, and then unhook the rope to come inside! Could you wipe this here? Here’s the BBQ cheese. I’ll ask now. Sis, hurry up! How many kids are there? Co take a look in the park. 7? So 7! Hang on a second, okay? Here you go! Go ahead. C’mon, put the phone down. Thank you very much. Share them with everyone, will ya. Off you go! I work out of respect and gratitude. Money’s not the point. Any money I get goes to people struggling to eat. I’m working with volunteers. They come, take the food, and bring it to the park. To Naha Park—and give it to the elderly there. And to single mothers. There are so many kids out there with no parents. These kids— We support these kids in the orphanage. You can tell when someone’s struggling, right? You’d want to help them, right? That’s a given. I can tell they are struggling, so I help. We do this every year. I get stuff ready for the kids when they come back from school. Like frozen treats and popsicles. For the grandmas, I buy coffee and cake. Every morning and evening, they get together at the park. But that park didn’t have any place to sit. So me and my wife we bought two big tables for everyone. And we wrote a note saying— “This is for the Miyazato ladies.” The next day they pulled up, got together, and started sitting down on the bench, reading the note. They were all grinning from ear to ear. They looked so happy. Hello there, dear customer! There’s a note with instructions. Please check the menu. The menu’s on the left. Once you’ve picked, unhook the rope— and come on in. For the pancakes, first I fry the bacon. Then I pour out the bacon grease, and only use a bit of it, to cook the pancakes. Doing it like this, the edge of the pancake will get all crispy like cookies. So after I fry the bacon, I fry the bread in the grease too. Hi there, come on in. One cheeseburger, got it. Here you go! Thanks for waiting! Here’s some steak sauce. Enjoy the food. A messy kitchen is a no-go. How is it? It’s super tasty! Want another one? Why not? You didn’t like it? If it’s good, you gotta have seconds! Where are you visiting from? Saitama! There were a lot of folks from Saitama yesterday too. For real? Maybe you were on the same flight! Long time no see! Doing good? How have you been? Thank you very much! Make sure you leave a nice review, okay? If you don’t write it, I won’t believe you! Take care of yourself, alright? Hope to see you again! Come again sometime! Gonna head upstairs for a sec, take my meds. I’ll be right back. Time to take my meds. And I need to drink 2L of water while I work. Hey big bro, welcome! First check out the menu, then pull the rope and come on inside Hey there! He always comes here, so he’ll get some extra mustard. I always value my local community. He didn’t order fries, but I’ll throw them in for free. The local community is the most important. When I opened this place, it was thanks to the locals. To me, the local culture and the village itself is super important. You want this? Want me to make it and put it in? Alright? For example, people from the mainland— I moved to Japan 35 years ago. I was 25 back then. Still a punk. Still immature. I was a terrible person. Totally selfish. I moved into this country, without any appreciation. I wasn’t mindful of anything. I didn’t care about anything. And then one Japanese person, a young person, came up to me and said: “You’re the one who came to Japan.” “We didn’t ask you to.” “No one asked you to come.” “You came here on your own.” “Whether you stay here or not— that’s none of our business.” “But if you’re gonna live here— you can’t just stay the same.” “You have to understand Japanese common sense.” That’s when it hit me. After that, I studied and in 2 weeks had down hiragana. I started reading— learning how to read hiragana— and I pushed myself to learn Japanese. And since then, Japan has been my home. But still, people from the mainland— some of them still call me a foreigner. That really pisses me off. Hey sis, this here is parking for tourists and rental cars. For you, please turn to the left parking. There’s a menu over here—check it out first, then come in. Thank you very much! Alright, that’s two groups—four people and one solo. These fries are amazing. Delish! Yeah, super tasty, right? It’s really good! Seriously delicious! Thank you very much! He carried it like this—WTF?! Dude, c’mon man. You guys sit right over there. Thanks man. Appreciate it. Thank you, have a good day. Don’t ever leave stuff lying around! Anywhere, anytime, by anyone— always clean it up! Tidy up right away. No one’s here right now— so let’s put away the meat. You need space when you’re cooking— so always keep the space clean. You need to be able to move fast. Even if 20 people showed up right now—I could handle it. Thank you. There’s more? These are the last ones. Alright, let’s do this! So I always hand out popsicles to the kids, right? That’s just who I am—it’s how I live. Like when I treated homeless folks in Taiwan to a nice meal— or saw a car accident— and stopped to help because they needed it. Everyone’s always like, “Why do you do it?” I mean, why don’t you? It’s not about the why— it’s just the normal thing to do for me. When people feel good, they share that with others. But we all have bad days. We all have it tough, every day. My email address it written on the box. My email. Are you gonna eat at the park? Hold on—would you like a popsicle? Come back to get it after you’ve finished eating! Make sure to eat your meal first, yeah? Did you finish it all, big bro? Nice! Here you go. You really ate it all? I can tell just by looking! Your tummy looks just like mine! Thank you. Thank you! Thank you very much. Thanks for today. Come again sometime. Bye-bye! I’m just taking a little break. Where are you visiting from? Hokkaido. Hokkaido! I just went to Sapporo. Just got back from there. I went last week. This is my 2nd time at your shop. I came here 3 years ago. For real? But you didn’t leave a review! You didn’t write one! I don’t think so. Totally not cool! Huh? It’s not coming out? Here, bite it on this side— then pull it out with your hand. Yeah, that’s it. Alright, you’re good now. Did you send me a mail? Want a popsicle? Then go get one, quick! They’ll totally get it for takeout. One of them’s a Fighters fan. I’ll get their beers, you take care of the check. So once you do this… …you flip it like this— and boom, perfect pour for the beer! When I’ve got free time— I always come sit over here, and customers will show up. Tell me about the time you were homeless. How old were you when you were living on the streets? From 15 to 25. Yeah, it was lonely. But I had so many dreams. I wanted a family. I always wanted a family. My mom and dad were very violent. I ran away when I was 8. Back then, the police— they’d always catch me and send me back home. I started working when I was 8. That was back in the Showa era. Back then, kids had to work from a young age. We were being trained. We’d get home after school— do all the laundry, clean the rooms— we had to do it all. I did hunting when I was young. And fishing. My dad had another job, but— we’d also fish with nets in the river. We’d go out together, collect the nets, catch the fish— then clean them up. My dad would sell them. That was the job I did with my dad. We also did grass mowing. In Louisiana, where I’m from— everyone’s got huge yards. So I’d go to neighbors like, “Excuse me—” “Can I mow the lawn your you?” And I’d earn money that way. I did all sorts of jobs—it was out in the countryside. The longest I went— was 13 days without eating anything. The absolute longest stretch was 27 days, and I only ate 3 times. From the trash though. Someone had tossed out leftover pizza. I saw it in the garbage— and I took it out and ate it. Even though there were ants and cockroaches everywhere. I know what this kind of suffering feels like. That’s why I help people now— people who are in a tough spot. I’m not strong at all. I’m not special. I’m not kind. I’m not a good person. I just know what it feels like. I see their loneliness. I see their hardship. Being homeless back then was really rough. One time, I lost all my nails. Because I was outside all the time— I got burned so much. From sunburn. Big blisters started forming on the back of my hands— they were everywhere. Then they slowly moved to the front— and all my nails just fell off. They just fell off. For half a year, I had no nails at all. It was scary. It was dangerous. Even when I slept, I had to be on alert. Back then, I taught myself things like karate, just to survive. My whole life has been about survival. When you guys were kids, you watched baseball, right? You do all kinds of sports, like soccer too. I didn’t have that kind of life. I don’t know what it’s like. People say, “That person’s famous.” But I don’t know who they are. My wife wanted to open a shop— so for about a year and a half, we worked on recipes together. We practiced at a previous restaurant, worked hard— and once the recipes were finally ready— right at that time, my wife found this place. We renovated it for about two months, then opened. Now we make about $1000 a month. Before we’d make $2000 to $2500. But because Japan takes a lot of taxes, we don’t open for nights anymore. Now we work within our limits— just enough to support ourselves. Sorry if my Japanese sounds weird. Before, we had 120 to 150 customers a day. But I won’t do that anymore. It’s not the Japanese people— it’s the country. Too many taxes. So we quit that. Now we can’t even make $2000 a month. So we just aim for $1000 to $1500 each month. This is my chill spot, you know? I’m always sitting here. Spring and fall are the best to sit out here. You get the breeze from the sea. I sit here in the evenings, having a beer— and the kids are on their way back home from school. They are heading home. The school’s over that way. And when they walk by— they say, “G’day, Uncle!” They don’t call me a foreigner. They just say, “G’day, Uncle,” with respect. That’s human respect. That’s basic decency. We don’t use dirty or discriminatory words. Kids don’t know those words— adults teach them. So when they pass by— they smile and say, “Uncle, can we sit with you?” or— “Can we talk for a bit?” Do you know why I work with my wife? Touch me, go ahead. Touch me! I’m drenched in sweat—I stink! Come smell for yourself!

He was homeless for 10 years and through hard work build Okinawa’s #1 favorite hamburger joint and a favorite of the local military personal stationed in Okinawa.

🏠 Shop Name: Warren’s Place 2.1 Burgers & Beer
📍Location on Google Maps:https://maps.app.goo.gl/ewLj5apwA9Ny7EVd6
📸Instagram：https://www.instagram.com/warrensplace_home/

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0:00 Intro.
0:28 Rules for Entering
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19:09 Homeless for 10 years⁉︎

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