Today we’d like to introduce you to Yoko Hasebe.
Hi Yoko, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m originally from Saitama, Japan. My first cooking job was at a family restaurant five minutes away from home when I was 15. I always loved being in the kitchen as a kid, but I didn’t think about pursuing a career as a chef because dancing had always been my first passion and priority. In 2016, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my dream to work as a professional dancer. I was taking a lot of classes and training hard while at the same time working three jobs; I was waitressing at two restaurants and was a sushi chef at another. I was not sleeping well, and I was struggling with financial fear. I felt like I wouldn’t have enough money and never work as a dancer unless I worked myself to complete exhaustion. I remember in 2018, when I got to a dance studio one day, I just started to cry in my car and didn’t go into the studio.
When I think about it now, I was simply exhausted and burnt out. I put extreme pressure on myself to become a “successful dancer”, but I realized I was making my life smaller and smaller by overworking and isolating myself. I decided to take a break from dance classes, quit being a waitress, and focused on working as a sushi chef for a while. I realized I needed to be happy outside of my career or achievements. During this time, I started to become more interested in eating and cooking plant-based foods. Working as a sushi chef gave me a sense of contributing to others, which I felt I lacked when I was training in dance full-time and looking in the mirror all day in dance studios. I slowly began to feel balanced as a person, which led me to feel stronger as a dancer, and eventually I started to train again.
As soon as I made the determination to start dancing full-time again, the pandemic hit. I lost my job as a sushi chef, the performance I was doing choreography for was cancelled, and a meeting with a dance agent was postponed. The dance studios where I trained were forced to shut down. I asked myself, “what can I do now?” Before the pandemic, I had already been creating a vegan menu for a sushi restaurant and became very passionate about making food that tastes great and was also sustainable. Eventually, I started to deliver plant-based sushi boxes for free to my close friends and received uplifting feedback. This was the beginning of Plant Sushi Yoko. I created my own website and promoted myself on social media. I was able to connect with so many Plant Sushi lovers during this difficult time. It made me very happy to see my customers’ smiles and hearing them talk about how they enjoyed my food.
The past couple of years have been nothing like I planned, and I received a lot of unexpected opportunities. I had an opportunity to work for Chef Morihiro Onodera, the legend of traditional sushi when he began dine-in service again in Atwater Village in 2020. In addition to that, I was featured in a show called “Best In Dough” – Episode 10 on Hulu as a cooking show competitor. I was able to have pop-ups at Brain Dead Studios and Stage and Screen Show at Stomping Ground. Recently, I worked with Mrs. Naoko Takei at a New York Times cooking event. I met many chefs who have unique insights and lifestyles, and I started to see there are unlimited ways to live as an artist.
Although I had amazing opportunities as a chef during the pandemic, my passion for dancing still kept growing. At the beginning of this year, I attended a professional dance program in New York to further my training and was able to get signed with an agent as a dancer. My current goal is to create a sustainable career as a dancer and chef. I want to see if I can thrive in both careers, and I want to keep growing as a person through the process.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No, it has not. To be honest, every day is still a battle with my own negativity and doubts. I have struggled with comparing myself to others since I was young. It has gotten much better now because of my Buddhist practice, but I still find myself envious of those already ahead of me in their careers. I ask myself, “Am I crazy for starting a sushi business while being a dancer?” I left Morihiro to focus on my dancing and Plant Sushi business at the end of 2021. Being independent gave me more freedom with my schedule to take classes, send self-tape auditions and planning orders for Plant Sushi Yoko. On the other hand, it’s definitely more challenging than working for someone who is already established and having the financial stability of a steady income. Despite this, I’m learning to take 100% responsibility of my own career and life. When things get rough, I always go back to this quote from Daisaku Ikeda, “Each person has a unique mission that only they can fulfill, their own special contribution to make. A spirit of respectful and spontaneous collaboration toward a common ideal creates the environment in which each person’s unique qualities and talents can be fully realized.” Having a Buddhist community that always encourages me and keeps me in perspective has been the key to never giving up on all of my goals and dreams.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a dancer, I grew up training in ballet, and since I came to the states trained mostly in contemporary and jazz. I love improvising and choreographing. I have been fortunate to have amazing mentors such as Dana Foglia, Sheila Barker and Malaya since my move. I have dreams to be featured in dance films and commercials, but my ultimate goal is to become a choreographer and teacher who is able to provide the same encouraging environment that I was fortunate enough to receive. I would like to be a leader who is able to welcome young artists as they are and help each artist blossom in their own way.
As a chef, I specialize in plant-based sushi. I love using seasonal vegetables and fruits. I try not to cook too much or season too much so you can actually taste the flavor of vegetables. Just like sushi is with fish, I think about how to bring out the texture and flavor of each vegetable as well. During the pandemic, delivery was very busy, but I’m planning to move on to private catering and sushi-making classes very soon.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My happiness and the happiness of the people around me. I used to think that selfishly accomplishing goals was the most important thing in life before I started to take my Buddhist practice seriously. Now I learned that treasuring the people around me while helping each other achieve our goals is the most important thing. This is a really challenging concept to practice when we are focused on our own goals. But thinking about only ourselves is not a sustainable strategy and often leads us to burning out. I learned that working towards my goals while supporting other people brings unlimited life force and joy which can lead us to having a happy life together even when life gets challenging.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.plantsushiyoko.com
- Instagram: @iamyokohasebe @plantsushiyoko
- Other: https://buddhability.org
Image Credits
Marcella Bastos,Alyssa Mae Cancilla, Dustin Heindl, Lauren Kate, Tyler Weinberger
