It’s around 9 a.m. on a cool December morning in Tokyo.
A man, visibly agitated, walks into Mia Mia, a cafe opened by Vaughan and Rie Allison in the spring of 2020.
Vaughan greets him, like he does with all his guests. The man responds with pleasantries; he then gets to the reason for his unease. “My wife is pregnant,” he says. “She just went into labor at the hospital.” Because of COVID restrictions, he is unable to be there with her, adding, “I can’t be at home. I’m a bit nervous.”