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Help us on our journey to building the best hackerspace/makerspace in Hokkaido, Japan

  • Favourited 685 times
  • Last activity: 29 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    ABOUT ME

    I am a married 28year old living in the remote countryside of Hokkaido Niseko. I have recently started a sustainable manufacturing company with my wife and a childhood friend. We use 3d printers, lasers, cnc`s and all kinds of modern high tech machines to manufacture our products and we mainly use locally sourced wood as our resource.
    Besides my business, I am a big outdoors person and enjoy hobbies such as snowboarding, kayaking, mtbing, fishing, hunting, hiking, as well as indoor activities like volleyball and karate.

    Besides all the physical activity, I am also a big nerd for high tech gadgets and often find myself watching 3d printers, arduino projects, or any STEM related youtube videos and love tinkering and making things on my free time.

    I own a very old house that i renovated, and currently live with our business partner (my childhood friend) and a couple of chickens.

    This is actually my second time being a workaway host. My first time being a workaway host was in Etajima, Hiroshima which I ran an aquaponics farm and helped with local community projects etc. You may find all my workaway reviews to be from that era.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Art Projects
    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Animal Care
    Farmstay help
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
    Help with Computers/ Internet
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Our goal is to make the best hackerspace in Hokkaido. We want to bridge the education gap between the city and the countryside, and our goal is to make a sustainable and community friendly business. Right now the goal is to build up our business so we have better recognition within the community and also to gain enough capital to start our first hackerspace. We mainly work with wooden products, but am eventually thinking of expanding our product line up to using upcycled plastic, and more. Ideas are always welcome and we encourage tinkering and exploring when you are with us. If you have projects you want to do, please feel free to let us and know and lets make it happen.

    Niseko is a big tourist destination, and there are tons of ski/snowboard bums looking for accommodation. If you are just looking to Ski and a place to stay, this is not for you. We are not looking for tourist!!!!! We are looking for people who really want to be part of our team and enjoy our local lifestyle with us.

    How can you benefit from your stay with us?
    -see how start ups operate
    -STEM knowledge
    -Machining knowledge
    -Language exchange
    -Living in the remote, almost self-reliant living
    -environmental awareness
    -local and simple living

    AT THE SAME TIME
    There is sooooo much to do in Niseko, that you will not be bored. Many plan to stay for a few days but end up staying for months. In the summer I go kayaking almost every week, so if you are interested bring your swim gear or wetsuit!

  • Projects involving children

    Projects involving children

    This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

  • Help

    Help

    We ask all volunteers to help out with indoor and outdoor projects for approx 3-5 HOURS A DAY. The time is flexible, so you can help any time of the day or work really hard one day, and rest a day. We have a ton of jobs to do.

    I have done multiple different workaways myself, so I know what it feels like to be a volunteer. I try to keep my workaway as interesting as possible, and not just jobs like weeding for 8 hours everyday. We have simple jobs, but also very complicated jobs as well!

    We are currently looking for people who have a strong DIY background. Having artistic skills like photography, designing, illustrations are also a big plus! We are a small workaway that can only host one or two at the time, so we eat, work, and all live together so being nice and cooperative is what we look for the most!
    Try to be specific as possible when it comes to dates and things you could do. I get messages almost everyday, and do not reply fast. (I also do not reply to copy pasters, and just to give you a hint you should read everything on our profile!)

    Also we usually have a zoom call before officially accepting any workaways.

    list of help for DIY workaways:
    -Build a chicken coup
    -Build a garage
    -Build a workshop
    -Farming
    -designing
    -hobby level prototyping
    -Help out neighbors, We have plenty of friends and neighbors around that need a hand. And we usually ask volunteers to go help out 1-2 times a week!

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent
    Japanese: Fluent
    Urdu: Fluent
    Chinese (Mandarin): Fluent
    French: Intermediate

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    We live in a 50year old house that we reformed ourselves next to a very wonderful forest. We have very few neighbors, none in the vicinity of 200meters. We have one guest room that can fit 2-3 people. The room is a tatami style room so we ask guests to sleep on the floor. We also have a huge plot of land with a bunch of camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, camping car) if you want to sleep outside.

    We have wifi, we use starlink.

    Commute
    There are few buses around our area, we can initially come pick you up at kutchan or niseko station. If you want to go places you must rent a car or go with a bicycle. If you have a japanese/international license we have a scooter you can use, but please pay for your own gas. For people planning to come in March or April, the ski slopes are about 10min away from our house. We usually go to the slopes 2-3 times a week, but if you plan on going more you will have to get your own car.

    Roommate Situation
    Currently there is 3 people living in the house. Me, my wife, and my childhood friend. We are all super friendly, welcoming, and open-minded. We have our own private rooms so you won`t be needing to share a room with us. We share the kitchen, living room, bathroom together and every week we make sure to clean up the mess we make.

    Please realize that we are living right next to the forest so there will be insects and wild animals, etc.

    What I Can Share with Guests
    A tatami room
    hot water
    electricity
    bicycle you can use
    guitar
    refrigerator
    sauna
    3d printer, laser, CNC

    A NOTE ON FOOD:
    We will provide 2 meals a day lunch and dinner. Nothing fancy. We get most of our veggies from local farmers, and eat alot of wild deer meat.

    If you are vegan or vegetarian, we do not reccomend coming to our place!!!!!!!!!

    Cooking food for us would be very wonderful, you are welcome to use our ingredients but please ask if you do. Also chipping in on the grocery would be very nice, since we just started a business and we are trying to be frugal!

    Also there are plenty of ways to gather food around the house (fishing, gathering, lots of mushrooms in the forest).

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    Things to do at our house when you are free! Its Niseko the best tourist destination in Hokkaido!!

    -Hiking up the mountain
    -Fishing (there is a beautiful stream near our place)
    -Onsen (tons of different onsens around our area
    -Ski slopes 10-20min access by car to 5 different ski slopes
    -backcountry snowshoe/skiing right next to our house
    -Sauna (yes we do have a Sauna)
    -Go visit the town (tons of bars and good food near the slopes, great place to make friends)
    -Edible plant gathering
    -Also there are many local events and meet ups of all kinds.

    Thank you for reading the information. Now if you are still interested in staying please message me and start the message with "ZOOM ZOOM" So that I know you read all the information.

    THANK YOU

    Jin

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    We use starlink, it may have connection issues depending on the weather.

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    We have more than enough parking space.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    Two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    Maximum 3-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Host ref number: 768163623946

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Accuracy of profile: (4.9)

Cultural exchange: (5.0)

Communication: (4.6)













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