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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
15 May 2025
Reply rate
94.2 %
Usually responds within 1 day
Feedback
41
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Details
Description
***UPDATED April 15th 2025***
We will be hoping to plant 50 fruit trees this year with the help of syntropic agriculture, agroforestry and permaculture.... but also developing our old mandala garden and creating a new one.
Buckle up people - come up for some fun, to learn, to do, to create, up for a change and a brighter future.
We would be asking you to do around 40 hours per week which is best for us so we can see progress in the project.
Every year we are looking for people like you, who are keen to work, happy to do research, independent, without skills or with hidden skills even better to come and help us out with whatever we have going on.
YOUR CHALET - YOUR STAY
Renovated in 2021 and fully furnished, you will have your own bedroom with comfortable proper bed and mattresses.
The house is big and has 5 bedrooms, a fully set up kitchen (rice cooker, toaster, etc,) a living room and an office.
Of course there is a bath/shower and a toilet on each floor!
Our mandala garden is right at the back where we also have a secret path where a river flows by!
All utilities are included fiver optic internet, hot water, gas, etc
We live 5 minutes drive away from you.
We are located in Akakura, Myoko, Niigata ken.
One of the snowiest place on the planet with more than 15 mts of pure powder average a season!
Great hiking paths, mountain biking, 7 golf course, check out the Nojiriko lake for SUP and all water-sports, just down the road from us.
Contact us for more info and let's video chat about it - even better!
Have fun out there - it is still a great world after-all.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity Work
Art Projects
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Elderly Companionship
Teaching
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
Interests
Farming
Self development
Sustainability
Carpentry
Cooking & food
Gardening
Plant care
Music
Art & design
Architecture
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Mountain
Outdoor activities
Hiking
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Come and experience living in an onsen mountain countryside village in Japan !
Learn on how to use power tools and work in an organic garden
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Host offers payment in line with the minimum wage
This host offers accommodation and payment.
Help
From April to November, the work would be helping with our organic garden, seedlings, planting, grass cutting, harvesting, transforming, and also working on renovating buildings, smashing, sanding, painting, cutting, drilling, ... Want to have fun with tools and learn on how to use them, we always have plenty of renovation to do.
From December till April, it is housekeeping, guests relation, driving, and snow shoveling, let's call it chalet concierge.
As we are paying wages you can work as long as you want - want to make some money then work... there is always plenty to do.
SUM UP OF THE WORK
SUMMER
From April to November, the work would be helping with our organic garden, seedlings, planting, grass cutting, harvesting, transforming, and also working on renovating buildings, smashing, sanding, painting, cutting, drilling, ... Want to have fun with tools and learn on how to use them, we always have plenty of renovation to do.
WINTER
From December 1st till March 31st, it is housekeeping, guests relation, driving, and snow shoveling, let's call it chalet concierge.
You would need a valid working visa a well as your international driver license.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
Japanese: Fluent
Indonesian: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
We have a 7 yrs old daughter - who speak English, Japanese and French - come and teach her another language and share the experience.
Accommodation
It varies... but you will definitely have your own room or sometimes even your own house!
The chalet was renovated in 2021 and fully furnished, you will have your own bedroom with comfortable proper bed and mattresses.
The house is big and has 5 bedrooms, a fully set up kitchen (rice cooker, toaster, etc,) a living room and an office.
Of course there is a bath/shower and a toilet on each floor!
Our mandala garden is right at the back where we also have a secret path where a river flows by!
All utilities are included fiver optic internet, hot water, gaz, etc
We live 5 minutes drive away from you.
Now it depends sometimes you might end up with your private house or sometimes sharing facilities.
It is always pretty cozy - you need to live in a nice environment in life :-)
What else ...
We have 3 bikes that you can use.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
For our friends digital nomads - UPDATE July, 1st 2024 We are asking for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, in exchange of staying in your own house, you have your own bedroom in a shared house / depends how many workaway sometimes it s your own house. Fiber optic internet and an office to work from. The work consist on mainly gardening, renovating, housekeeping and of course random tasks...
Space for parking camper vans
Plenty of parking around here in the mountain of Myoko :-)
Can possibly accept pets
Maybe... depends on how many and what type, monkeys, donkeys, girafes, ... ? But pets live outside.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (16)
I appreciated Matthieu's human touch. If l had to do it all over again, I'd stay longer. See you soon Buddy.
Thanks for all these… read more
There was no shortage of work to be done, which made for a huge variety of tasks. In just a few weeks, I was able to do cleaning, tidying, woodworking, painting, grass-cutting, staining, grinding... Both renovation and maintenance… read more
I didn't spend a lot of time with Matt and Jen, but they were in… read more
Photos
Feedback
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Accuracy of profile:
(4.9)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(4.9)
I appreciated Matthieu's human touch. If l had to do it all over again, I'd stay longer. See you soon Buddy.
Thanks for all these… read more
There was no shortage of work to be done, which made for a huge variety of tasks. In just a few weeks, I was able to do cleaning, tidying, woodworking, painting, grass-cutting, staining, grinding... Both renovation and maintenance… read more
I didn't spend a lot of time with Matt and Jen, but they were in… read more
I worked with wood, helping in the garden and helping Matt, he was really good with me and teach me some things, he is a good person!
I learned a lot. I only had 2 days with snow but is simply beautiful the mountains!
there's a waterfalls and some hikes you can do.
About the acomodation was perfect you have all you… read more
He learned some carpentry skills while he was here and did it very well. Otherwise David work on plenty of electrical work around the house, set up sensors which are just the future of lighting ;-)
What a guy, walking across Japan! I hope you made it to Hokkaido, it must… read more
What a team. Just brilliant - they stayed with us nearly 2 months.
What a bunch of random tasks they accomplished. And just dedicated, hard workers, all of the above.
Super happy, super friendly, respectful, .... one of the best french people I ever met, and I m French!
I hope you both are going well and will meet again after… read more
But she prepared us some tasty dish and made a bunch of preserve which we will so appreciate this winter! Thank you for your warm hearted food.
Maddie… read more
He mainly work on the electric part of it, working on sensor (which are so amazing), but also did a whole of interior cladding.
Riley has great input and it was very nice to hear his opinion.
I would definitely recommend to have Riley, although he might be busy for… read more
You both were dedicated and accomplished a great mission. They had very little to not much renovation experience, but they built a floor, built a pantry, paint,… read more
She is a quiet person but very nice and calm person to be around.
She helped us for about 3 weeks and did a fantastic job at cleaning deeply that crazy house full of cracks!
Work on staining, painting, all sort of random jobs, and accomplished all those tasks very well. She is very dedicated to what she… read more
She was amazing - I wish I could have spend way more time around her and learn her knowledge on cooking and Ayurveda.
She helped us in the garden and that was fantastic. Great timing!
Of course Cristina was very respectful of our house.
I wish you all the best for your adventures in… read more
All the best for your traveling and rock climbing with Xavier!
Saru came for about 4 weeks in September to help us working in our garden, as well as renovating our house. Some staining, painting roof, cutting grass, cutting wood, ... all sorts of random jobs.
He was great having him around.
I would definitely recommend to have… read more
Paul came out of nowhere, at the right time in my life and will stay in forever.
We had great chats together and definitely not enough.
He helped us with a lot of tasks, garden, house reno but also just great feedbacks and opinion.
He is good at whatever he does - that what he does.
I mean you can just look… read more
He mainly work on the electric part of it, working on sensor (which are so amazing), but also did a whole of interior cladding.
Riley has great input and it was very nice to hear his opinion.
I would definitely recommend to have Riley, although he might be busy for… read more
He worked on CMS - I have so no idea... but little by little I m able to make some change and it s so easy !
Thank you Marko!!!!
I would definitely recommend to have Marko. Always have a big smile, friendly, easy going, ... a great guy all around!
Marko was very respectful of… read more
I would definitely recommend to have Kei. Always have a big smile, friendly, easy going, ... a great guy all around!
Kei was very respectful of our house rules and a great… read more
First of all, thanks Matt for being such a flexible host.
We could all mostly decide when to start and when to stop working - as long as we did the minimum required. So, when to take the days off was also up to us. Just telling it… read more
Stephi the garden is looking amazing today - hope you will make one soon... please… read more
While Rhi spent 4 weeks in the garden where she did a fantastic job - the garden looks unreal today. Rhi please share photos of your garden one day!
The pair of them worked well with us… read more
He did a fantastic job at everything is was doing, chopping wood, painting, cutting grass, cleaning, organizing, cleaning, etc.
So many random tasks!
He was very respectful of our house rules and a great house mate. We would have him again and… read more
There's not enough space to write all that could be said. They were incredibly kind, and have a very special ability to bring sets of strangers into their lives and show them the joy of life and Myoko Kogen. There was a lot of freedom in the work, and autonomy was a great skill to have. From… read more
We highly recommend taking on Nicolas and Cecilia as… read more
It was our first workaway and we couldn't imagine better start for our trip in Japan. We stayed during winter season and it was wonderful.
Myoko is really nice and cute city, with a loooot of snow and definitely something to experience in your life. If you like skiing or snowboarding it's perfect ! There's a lot of nice… read more
Ru is very personable and a joy to be around. She is competent, skilled and is dedicated to contributing to the role at hand as well as bringing joy to the staff… read more
He did a fantastic job at shoveling and housekeeping as well as driving in full snow condition.
Theo was very respectful of our house rules and a great house mate. We would have him again and again.
We wish you all the best and hopefully see you again!
Good… read more
I stayed fort one month, the snow was great, the resort is beautiful and perfect for walking in nature.
A car is provided perfect for doing activities in the area.
I enjoyed my stay and hope to return one day!
I planned to stay 1 month but ended up staying 5months !!
They gave me many chances to experience new things.
They were willing to teach me.
They were always energetic and shining.
They are loved by the local people in Myoko.
Matt, Jen and Kai,
I am really happy to have… read more
Fumika is a gem and I cannot thank her enough.
She came here for 1 month and end up staying 5! October 2021 to March 2022
We have had more than 100 people working for us in the past 10 years… no one has excel what Fumika has done for us.
She is strong, always willing to help, does not matter the time, how many hours, she… read more
It's really the snowiest place on earth.
I stayed nearly 2 weeks, and I helped out with some house renovations and computer work.
It was an excellent opportunity to explore the areas in my free time.
Matt was also very flexible with the work hours, so it was really helpful for me.
The town is so beautiful… read more
To start off with Myoko is such a beautiful place! Great nature and the ocean is not too far away for a wave craze like Nikolay. And so many mountains to explore if you love hiking like Ai. The people in Myoko are what makes the small village extraordinary as well!
Matt and Jen were… read more
They both did an extraordinary work - lots of different work: some carpentry that Nikolai is really good at, he installed our kitchen too and do much more...
They also did some sanding, staining, varnishing, painting, moving things around, heavy lifting, cleaning,...
It was so good… read more
The tasks I did such as painting and plastering the wall, gardening such as seeding were pretty much activities I have never done before; however, I enjoyed doing so every time!
While… read more
They were hard workers with initiative and did a fantastic job.
Entrepreneurial and a big can do it attitude, those girls rocks.
We wish all the best and hopefully see you again this winter!
Good luck with… read more
Most of the work we did was in the house- staining wood, plastering and painting walls, tidying up and doing some things here and there in… read more
There are various work that you can do at their houses where they’ve been renovating. We helped them cleaning up their rental, tidying up the storage, painting walls, peeling off wallpapers, some… read more
Koyuki and her sister Ko-chan were absolutely amazing.
They came for 1 week to help us with our self contained chalets.
Some housekeeping, some painting, some cleaning, some organizing and some random tasks.
But they also loved playing with our 3.5 yrs old daughter and that was such a lovely bonus!
Overall it… read more
