Temporarily Closing Shop

Aloha, we regret to inform that we are temporarily closing shop again as we received a cease and desist from the building management and home owners association for the Waikiki Sunset on 2/14/19 Valentine's Day. Other than vacation rental businesses, we discovered too late the building's house rules prohibits operating professional and business services in the building units. We are so sorry. The loss of livelihood for therapists, our reception and losing a newly completed space to be of service to repeaters, guests turning away dozens of requests and bookings in the aftermath 12 days after reopening hurts the most.

How this mess happened

We tried to take all necessary precautions and have been requesting for the house rules for the building weeks prior during the end of 2018 during the prospecting phase for spaces from the Waikiki Sunset building management with the help of our previous property manager for the Waikiki Banyan unit. Requests for clarification and disclosure through our current property manager for the Waikiki Sunset before and after finalizing the lease were made. However the response was "we did not read the house rules", "we do not have a working copy on file and have to ask the building management". The best and most recent reasoning was "we never had to deal with this type situation and never needed to supply the house rules".

We are cognizant dealing with various commercial and residential property leases throughout the years how important the house rules for buildings are, however our current property manager failed to furnish and disclose the complete copy after numerous requests. We received the first 2 pages which are the operative sections regarding occupancy on 2/15/19 , a Japanese copy on 2/16/19. To date we do not have a full English copy of the house rules in possession, which we understand is supposed to be accompanied with the rental agreement and must be disclosed. Even if the Waikiki Sunset was our only option for space prior to our notice to vacate on 1/31/19, we accept responsibility for our part in deciding to move to this unit. We also respect the collective decision of landlords and their rights to do as they wish with their private property and disallow businesses other than Vacation Rentals from operating in the building.

What to do next

We have to break down reforms completed for the shop interior, move furniture, fixtures out, move original furniture back in, clean up and leave this unit as soon as possible. Before we do, we wished to post how the new shop looks for memory and as a gratitude for the many man hours our friends and cohorts expended in labor transforming the shop.

An approximate $10,000 loss was taken including the reform materials, labor, helpers moving furniture and lost revenue opportunity costs from cancelled bookings and requests from guests over the last 2 weeks. We are truly sorry for things turning out this way despite our every effort to prevent such events as we are in now from taking place. Even if we are unable to recover the costs to sustain another move at the moment, we continue to search for new space.

Many many businesses come and go like the cycles of seasons. We totally feel compassion for the feeling of missing something. We learned recently about the closure of Yukoro Onsen at Hirafu Niseko. Their situation similar to ours seemed to be destined, a postponing of the inevitable outcome. The owner suffered an ailment and there is no one in their immediate family to succeed their business as the owner's children are unmarried without children and an heir to succeed the current head, forcing closure. We will really miss this family run onsen, a staple of the community that we used to frequent since 2006 as tradition every winter to receive therapy from the 100% pure undiluted mount Yotei sodium chloride and hydrogen carbonate saline mineral hot spring and bath. There is a feeling of an empty void in our chest, perhaps this is heart ache when traditions, places, and people you look forward to visiting so much are suddenly gone and exist now as a distant memory.

What will you want us to do?

We wish to confer with you the guests and repeaters who have kept us alive all this time, what will you want us to do? Continue, Stop, Do not care either way? Your insight and comments will be greatly appreciated. We will keep everyone posted with new updates and changes or progress.

Mahalo

Luka