Happiness is slice of pizza
Everybody who eats at the Hub knows Yasuko Brown. She’s affectionately called the pizza lady and she makes a killer barbecue chicken pizza.
From 10 a.m. ’til 2 p.m. each day, she works at Pasta LaBella in the Hub, hawking pizza by the slice with a cavalcade of enthusiastic pitches.
“You like pizza? Pizza here! So yummy!” Brown will call out in an endearing Japanese accent to all who can hear her.
Her sales technique works; her managers say she sells at least 60 whole pizzas per day on average. Amber Schoenfeld, who has worked as Hub operations manager for the past year, said that during one day this past February, Brown sold about 114 pizzas, though Brown herself will tell you she sold only 108. Students helped her reach this goal by starting a Facebook page, “My Favorite Hub Pizza Lady.” The group now has more than 500 members.
“Yasuko is the most generous person I’ve ever known,” Schoenfeld said. “If it’s somebody’s birthday she’ll bring in cards or cake.”
Schoenfeld said after the Facebook group helped her reach her sales goals, Brown gave free candy to the first 200 customers.
Brown’s co-worker, Laura Johnson, an English education major who works in the Hub said Brown is one of the friendliest people she has ever met.
“She loves the students and always invites them to join her Facebook group,” she said.
So who is Brown? What is her story, and why is she always so enthusiastic?
Brown said she was born in the countryside outside Nagasaki, Japan, but moved to the city when she was 11 years old. She grew up in Nagasaki during the ’60s, and eventually met her husband, a U.S. Marine, in 1971. They lived in Hawaii for many years until moving to Cache Valley in 1986. Brown began working at the Hub just over a year ago.
“I’m not famous,” said Brown when asked if she knows that she’s famous around USU. “I just try my best.”
Brown said she gets up each morning at 3:30 to start her day. Brown said she practices a form of Buddhism called Soka Gakkai International in which she spends time each day chanting the sacred phrase “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo” in order to bring her mind and body in harmony with the universe. The phrase translates literally as “Devotion-Mystical-Cause and Effect-Sound,” Brown said. The translation of the phrase is difficult to render in English, because each word contains a multitude of symbolic references in Oriental culture. Brown suggested that it might mean, “Devotion to the rhythm of the universe.”
“Chanting will make you be in the right place at the right time,” Brown said.
She explained that in her belief, a person’s past actions are responsible for where he or she is in the moment. She said that her mantra generates positive energy which she carries throughout the day.
“Everybody has treasure inside,” Brown said.
In the front room of Brown’s home in Hyde Park, prominently displayed, is a beautiful Japanese carved mahogany shrine, or “Gohonzen,” with a hand-painted scroll placed inside. Brown said the scroll is written in three languages: Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. She said the scroll represents a symbolic mirror, showing the reflection of the person who chants toward it.
Brown said she’d like to thank the USU students for their support as she sets goals for herself.
“I think of the students as my kids – they look like my daughters and son,” she said.
–butler.brendon@aggiemail.usu.edu