Help with a permaculture project in the ancient imperial city of Nara, Japan

Details

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  Description

  🌱🌿🌳! Hello Everybody ! 👋
  AVAILABILITY:
  🔎👁️Last minute -3 weeks-Oct 20th to Nov 9th, 1 or2 futons in shared living space (No one or two weeks stays)
  Then, from Mid-February 2025 onwards, 2 to 3 futons
  
  For the upcoming availability we will reply first to fit candidates with a track record in either tree trimming experience or applied landscaping skills like drip system installation or wood work, ideally able to team up with an other volunteer with no experience.
  
  We generally seek commitments of three weeks or more for volunteering, unless you possess exceptional proficiency in a specific skill.
  Please mention your preferred arrival dates as first information in your message header.
  If this is you, don't hesitate to contact us.
  
  PREFERRED SKILLS:
  Experienced in gardening/Tree trimming/Florist/DIY with wood or water piping
  and/or Vegetarian/Vegan cooking at restaurant chef level will get shortlisted.
  英語が話せない日本人を受け入れます.
  
  Please state your exact dates if possible.
  Thank you for your interest!
  
  OUR MISSION:
  We are a new hub for local practice of natural farming, permaculture and food forestry*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
  
  Humanity is facing the global 6th biodiversity extinction, we are acting to preserve what we can while educating the people about resilience and the natural ways to grow local food.
  
  RESPONSE TIME:
  We will read your mails and may answer something straight away but please understand that depending the season we may have many requests and it takes us a while to sort it out.
  
  Thanks!
  
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  We have a rotating teams of workawayers, around 2~3 at the time, usually 3 weeks or more, all joining to help us build a sustainable, constant food supply using some natural techniques plus some root enhancement science.
  
  Jerome is teaching the basics of companion planting and soil management.
  
  A “Food forest” system is a farming method aiming to plant vegetables, fruit trees and berries in an intricate way that minimizes the recurring efforts while maximizing the food availability.
  Our objective is to share the knowledge of "Food Forest" making and management to workawayers, guests and friends living here or just passing by. The garden/forest already acts as a biodiversity reservoir and will gradually grow on 7 levels for maximum yield, in the middle of Nara old imperial city, and less than one hour from Osaka and Kyoto by train.
  
  Join us!
  
  Help us grow and learn to plant a food forest in your garden too!
  
  Example activities: Companion planting and guild making close to perennials and fruit trees - Multiplication of plants, seed harvesting, potting and replanting - Bamboo forest management - Tree pruning and wild bush uprooting - Soil protection and enhancement aaaaand selective weeding in the Japanese garden.
  
  *️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️We are not official practitioners of Permaculture per se, but are adhering to the philosophy and trying our best to evolve towards its principles. Minimal or no till, organic farming. We like to follow the lunar calendar too (biodynamics).

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are a French/Japanese couple with international background. You will learn useful things about natural farming and what are the steps to build a resilient home. Don't hesitate to ask questions. Depending on what you are interested in, you could also join some of our weekend music/food expeditions around Osaka/Kyoto.
  On weekends, we sometimes play board games such as Terraforming Mars, Root, Concordia, Gaia project, Funkenshlag. If you have Magic cards, feel free to bring them along and we can play together or introduce you to other players in Nara and Osaka.
  
  Jerome attends a free Japanese school in Nara on Thursday mornings departing at 9:20 am. You are welcome to join if you are interested in learning Japanese. One limit though, the teachers only accept students that join the class for at least 3 weeks so if you are not going to commit for the duration of your minimum 3 weeks stay we won't be able to bring you to the class.

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  Help

  We are looking for dedicated individuals with good ethics and stamina to join our team for a minimum commitment of 25 hours per week.
  
  The main mission is early morning 6 am to ~12.15 with two ten minutes breaks, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The fields are just outside the house and there are possibilities to be in the shade at some point. After we finish outside, you can help with intellectual tasks like planning the planting plan or designing the space evolution. While it is not mandatory any help is appreciated, and we welcome your input.
  
  If you have experience in landscaping, permaculture or forestry skills, your skills would be useful because we have some extra land that needs to be planted with fruit trees and an adapted plant guild. We will organize the plantings for maximal interactions between plants, and we will plant annuals while the trees and bushes are growing. Please read about permaculture/food forestry before you arrive so that you can participate actively and offer suggestions, particularly about fencing and plant positioning.
  We can provide some study material if you need them.
  
  If you are good at renovation tasks, there is a lot to do, including setting up a roof water collection then drip system (urgent!), fixing and painting some walls, installing an aquaponic system (not just the theory, but also installation with available materials), and building a hen house. Please come prepared, as we want to do it but have no knowledge of how to do it. We will rely on your experience. We also have a lot of sorting and cleaning of house equipment to do. If you have experience with that, let us know.
  
  If you can help with the day-to-day maintenance of the house let us know. This mission includes deep cleaning with an attention to detail, such as dusting, cleaning up food drops, finding hidden hairs in corners and under furniture. We need someone who is thorough and takes pride in their help, ensuring that the house is always clean and comfortable for everyone. If you have experience in house cleaning with a strong attention to detail, we'd love to hear from you.
  
  If you are a professional Vegan/Vegetarian Chef you should apply and teach us new recipes (at least one new recipe per week for a shared meal). We'll ask you to take the lead and prepare something with seasonal vegetables. We cook with herbs or spices that are not ordinary including Japanese traditional ingredients, many of those growing here at home. Please send us pictures of your favorite recipes & bring some vegan/vegetarians recipes for everyone to try.
  
  If you are willing to help us in making an attractive online presence, please take pictures or short videos to share on our social media. At the moment, we need an update of the WordPress website, app design related skills, content marketing creators, experts of crowdfunding & cute character designers or AI prompt magicians.
  
  If you have a genuine motivation and the will to serve a cause bigger than any of us, you can apply to help in the garden and the house, making things go faster and smoother until we have a working local food bio-machine. Please enjoy the tasks given to you, our delicious homegrown food, and do your best!
  
  Also, please don't oversell your skill set just to come here because it will lead to frustration on both sides and make our exchange complicated. Please state your number one ability and expectations clearly so that we can plan our teams around it and use our shared time together to progress the overall plans smoothly.
  
  To increase your chance of selection you may send in your initial message 1 reference point from a company or person you worked with in the fields you believe will be useful for us, along with a contact number we can use to call them or if you don't have, a description of what you did at their place.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  Japanese: Fluent
  Chinese (Mandarin): Intermediate
  German: Beginner
  Spanish: Beginner
  Portuguese: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  !! IMPORTANT, NO ARRIVAL ON FRIDAY OR SATURDAY !! Please plan your travel accordingly to arrive between 2:30pm and 5pm on Sunday. Please plan to do full weeks, it is difficult to accommodate team members that arrive or leave mid-week.
  
  Staying with us in Nara, you will get to experience the Japanese life the traditional way, in an old house with some paper doors, tatami, futon and Japanese garden. We have a fully equipped renovated guest apartment with a separate shower, toilet and kitchen, within the walls of the 400 years old property with Japanese garden.
  
  The rooms are either shared with another volunteer of the same sex or couple room, or, one futon in the shared space/living room. We don't offer strictly private rooms for single individual. Keep a flexible mind, it's only a few weeks in your life.
  
  On helping days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday), we'll have breakfast and lunch together, as well as dinner on Monday and Tuesday. At least 2 times per week you'll help to cook, solo or in a tandem volunteer team. For other meals, we provide rice we bought from a neighbor, rice oil for cooking, olive oil for salads and garden herbs. If the volunteers want some other special food they should sort their groceries and cooking by themselves. There is an affordable supermarket just 5min from our house with our bicycles (if they are not used by the family guests,) through the rice fields. It's a beautiful scenery. We like to cook vegetarian and vegan meals and try to have at least half of our meals at least vegetarian. It's good for us and the Planet. We also enjoy preparing classic Japanese or fusion-style food, and take pride in making a variety of delicious meals.
  If you're an epicurean like us and would like to share wine and/or European cheeses, please let us know and we'll happily buy and enjoy them together.
  
  If you want to go out and explore the region during your free time just let us know the day before. You don't need to stay for every lunch, just tell us in advance so we can adjust our grocery and cooking plans accordingly.

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  What else ...

  Nara is super central in the Kansai region, so you will be able to travel very easily to Kyoto, Osaka or Kobe during your free time. Our place is about 10~15 min by car/bus from the Kintetsu station.
  
  About messiness/personal hygiene: Japan is a well organized, ordered, conscious country. You must be able to maintain personal and shared space in good shape at all time. Some participation in the house day-to-day cleaning chores is expected but not more than a fair share. On Tuesday afternoon you will do a bit of more specific house cleaning, mostly commons like kitchen and bathroom. It won't take more than 2 hrs per week. Observe, ask questions, and please give us feedback if something is missing or wrong. Personal guests are not allowed in the house unless agreed with us beforehand.
  
  If you consider or know yourself as a messy or inattentive person, if you are used to stop half way, waste precious helping time or are sloppy with the missions given, do not apply because it will quickly lead to frustration on both sides.
  
  We will do our best and provide You with the best so we expect reciprocity.
  
  When we are in the garden: Give energy and do your best to archive the missions at your best possible speed. We don't want to constantly monitor you to make sure you apply the instructions correctly and at a good pace. This volunteering is a great occasion for a workholiday in a privileged place (400 years historical Japanese manor) so please don't take one of our very few gardening positions from someone much more focused and motivated.
  
  Also, don't take it personally if you are given a task that doesn't fit your main competencies and go for it enthusiastically. Tasks vary and program can literally change according to the weather or the moon but there is always some weeding or cleaning to do at some point. Sometimes Jerome is busy so we will count on you to be responsible and perform what we planned for you independently. We are not willing to deal with either lazy or confrontational temperaments, It either flows and everybody is genuinely happy about sharing that time on this planet together or it won't work.
  Important note, you need to have some natural balance to climb a ladder and be willing to handle electric tools.
  
  If you are passionate, respectful, clean, joyful and want to experience life in Japan with a friendly family, don't wait anymore, please send us your details & tell us what are your skills and what you want to do!
  
  When you arrive here, we'll ask you to provide some personal identification info (passport) so that we can make sure who you are as well as a copy of your personal insurance.
  Personal insurance is mandatory. It can either be provided by your credit card or a traveler type insurance. Finally, we are not an employer so you don't need a working-holiday visa to stay with us.
  
  Please insert your phone number or social network contact in your mail as we will need to contact you for a short phone interview before confirmation. We will send you travel info a few weeks before you arrive here.
  
  日本で会いましょう！

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  We offer super high-speed, unlimited WiFi internet access, and a dedicated desk for your convenience. However, please be considerate of others and moderate your usage during peak hours. We share the internet connection with our family and other volunteers, so please avoid excessive downloads or streaming from free sharing platforms. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Plenty of space to park your camping car just outside the main door.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  ~5 hours a day (sometimes 5.30h), 4 days a week, in the morning / +1 and half hour cooking per week / +20 min kitchen cleaning after shared meals / +2 hours house cleaning once per week. Flexible but regular. Total ~25 hrs

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