Share a home and daily life on an island with a bilingual/mixed mother and daughter in Fukuoka, Japan

Infos

• 

  Description

  I'm a single mother with a 10 year old on a small island in Fukuoka, Japan only 10min from the mainland by ferry. I am not a business and am looking for a housemate to share our everyday life and many hobbies. Join me in Japanese festival drum music (taiko and shinobue) or tea class, go to the pottery kiln, relax on the beach and enjoy the slow life of the countryside with us.

• 

  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Projets artistiques

  Pratique d’une langue

  Enseignement

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général

  Aide informatique/internet
• 

  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Culture

  

  Bricolage / artisanat

  

  Art et design

  

  Musique
• 

  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Wed 7pm~ Taiko at public hall (I play shinobue, Kyli plays drums. You can watch and probably try the drums if it’s not before an event.)
  
  Fri 9~11am Tea at public hall Nanbouryuu Sado class held in tea room. It’s usually just me and the teacher, with occasional visiting students from off the island. I will wear a kimono. Advance notice needed, sweets charge ¥1000
  
  Sun 9am~2pm Pottery Kiln on the island. This is a co-op kiln where once a year we use a wood burning kiln. It is mostly elderly people so depending on the season there may be things to help like stacking the wood to dry. ¥1000 per person
  
  On weekends we often have events and festivals to go to, and would love it if you join us. If you are studying Japanese, I can help you with that, too.

• 

  Aide

  *There is no availability on months shown in red. I am only looking for November and December stays as of now.
  
  I am hoping for a cousin in town staying over kind of vibe, so I would like to be more like a housemate than a host. I'm a single mother and always busy cramming way too much in my schedule, so I hope to share my hobbies in between my hectic life. I would like to share my house with someone who wants to experience country life in Japan. If you can help things run smoothly and mostly take care of yourself, that would be great. We'll share chores, which would be about 3 chores that take 3-5 min each such as sweeping, watering plants, etc. Also, please pick up after yourself and wash your own dishes after eating, etc to keep the common areas tidy. My daughter is part of the household so you will need to be ok with living with a child. Kyli is 10, speaks English fluently and is very independent, so there is no teaching or babysitting required, but she will love playing with you, doing crafts or teaching you about our island and Japan. Please keep in mind she is rather hyperactive and starting puberty so there is occasional violin practice/yelling/crying, or homework and cleaning fights. She tends to be more comfortable with chatty energetic people but gets a little too bossy sometimes so you will need to have the skill to tell her “no” on occasion.
  
  **Updated- food shopping and sharing
  Having had about 10 workawayers in the last 7 months, accommodating each person's lifestyle and eating habits and the additional costs depending on the workawayer have been difficult. To make things as simple and sustainable as possible, we will go shopping at a supermarket once a week (usually on Tuesday) and split the bill half and half. As I live on a small island (no convenience store or supermarket on the island) and don't have a car, everything has to be carried by bicycle and needs to be well stalked in case the ferry stops due to weather. You will be welcome to everything in the kitchen and bathroom, toilet, and generally live like it's your own house. We should discuss what foods you like or don't like, allergies etc before going shopping and buy 6 dinners worth of seafood/veggies, and bread and dairy products etc for breakfast and lunch. I only coordinate dinner (18:30~) with workawayers, so you can help yourself when you want for breakfast and lunch. To make things equal, I like cooking 3 dinners each and the person who doesn't cook washes the dishes that night. I come home late on Thursdays so I usually ask that you cook that night, and maybe one weekend day if I have studio practice. If we eat out, we'll each pay for ourselves and transportation and entertainment will also be at your cost. The supermarket trip generally costs about ¥10000-¥15000 so your half is approximately EUR45/week. Other than the supermarket trip, I buy rice directly from a farmer on the island. Depending on the workawayer (how much rice you eat) I will get a delivery of 5kg/¥2500 every week or two and would like to pay half and half for this as well. Please understand there is a big difference in utilities as well as the general food budget, so after living with different people from different countries, this is the easiest way to accommodate everybody and share costs.
  
  Community help
  As is the case in many islands in Japan, the population is decreasing and aging, and the public areas near the beach have been more and more neglected on Noko island. My father, who lives near by, has been voluntarily taking care of the area, cutting bamboo and removing vines, etc. and I've decided to go out twice a week for about 3 hours to help. This is not a project, I consider it part of island life and doing what I can as one of the younger residents. It is dirty, sweaty work but helps a lot with holding back the dangers of hornets and wild boars. Neither my father nor I receive any money from anyone, it is just doing the work that someone needs to do. I would like the workawayer to have the same attitude about volunteer work and join me. I try to go Tue and Thurs 9am-noon, but this is affected by weather.
  
  Skill sharing/work (10h/week)
  As I am not a business, my intention with workaway is to share my space (home) and time, and would like you to do the same. I realize this is a little vague for some, so to clarify I have decided to specify the number of hours as 10 hours per week. Your task can be anything from painting, DIY, gardening, fixing things(?) whatever you are good at and can benefit our home or life. I've painted cabinets with workawayers, made shelves, had an artist do a piece on the wall, a pianist helped me by making recordings for each part of a duet I plan to play with Kyli, etc. I want this task to be something you are good at and enjoy, so we can discuss it on a video call or when you get here. In Japan there is a saying "Kita toki yorimo utsukushiku" meaning leave the place more beautiful than when you came. This is a common phrase used for kids on school trips to encourage them to pick up extra garbage before leaving the park or area, but I hope to apply this to workaway. We share a house, you make it a little nicer before you leave. Your project can be done at your own pace on your schedule, so after we decide on what you are going to do (and make sure you have what you need), I will not micromanage. I don't consider playing music with me to be a "job" but anything tangible left I can use like accompaniment recordings, or properly edited videos (editing is definitely work) would be very much appreciated. Even though there is no babysitting, during school vacations I prefer having workawayers who have experience with kids, and do a project together like making a drum set with beach findings, or science experiments.
  
  Please let me know in your message if you play any instruments. I would love to jam with you on my shinobue (Japanese bamboo flute). I am working towards my goal of becoming a traveling flutist and am looking for any opportunity to practice with other musicians. Right now, I am trying to make short videos of playing music with different people, preferably at the beach during sunset time.
  
  As an aspiring Japanese bamboo flutist, I love talking about Japanese culture and am taking classes in kimono and tea. As a mixed person who grew up bilingual/bicultural mostly in Japan, I am also happy to share my skills and experiences with you.
  I taught English for over 15 years, taught Japanese in Mexico for a year, and lived in Canada and Mexico. I speak some Spanish, so I love talking about language comparatively, too, and can help you with your Japanese or English. Kyli and I speak English at home but can try switching to Japanese for you if you want.

• 

  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant
  Japonais: Courant
  Espagnol: Intermédiaire

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  I grew up speaking English with my American father and Japanese with my Japanese mother. I worked as a teacher (mostly ESL but taught Japanese in Mexico as well) and love talking about language and culture. If you're studying, I'd be happy to help you with Japanese or English.
• 

  Hébergement

  The area is beautiful, but the accommodations are very basic and some things may be inconvenient. Please be sure you are going to be comfortable before you come. I am currently looking for stays of 2-4 weeks but can be flexible.
  
  The Island
  Noko Island is a 10min ferry ride away from Meinohama port in Fukuoka. With a population of about 500 and 12km around, there are no supermarkets, convenience stores, or even traffic lights. There are ferries hourly (sometimes more) from 5am-11pm, so many people on the island work off the island, and many kids from off the island come to the elementary/junior high school on Noko. The flower park and beach are tourist spots people visit for day trips. It is a beautiful quiet place to live with easy access to the city, but planning is required for shopping. I only leave the island 2 times a week and can only buy what I can carry on my bicycle, so essentials should be purchased ahead of time, also in case the ferry stops because of bad weather.
  
  The House/ Room
  My house is very small and old but not in the cool traditional way, more in the shabby 70's way. You can have access to the first floor, which is the kitchen, bathroom, toilet, and the 12 tatami mat room. This is essentially the living room but I have the left side for guests and can hang a curtain down the middle, and the right side is only used during the daytime sometimes. You can close the sliding doors to the entire area during the evening. There is a futon, desk, and an old TV with HDMI cable you can connect your devices to. I have a bicycle available for you. The house is 1.2 km from the port, about a 15min walk or 5min bike ride. It is also a 2 min walk from the western beach of the island, where the sunset is beautiful but almost no one goes to. Weather permitting, I try to go as often as possible to play my flute and watch the sunset.
  
  Food
  In my house, my daughter eats rice or bread with natto or egg and goes to school, and I often don't eat breakfast. She is a pescatarian, so she doesn't eat meat but eats seafood, eggs and dairy. I eat meat. During the day she has a very well-balanced school lunch, and I eat like a university student visiting home for the holidays (leftovers, junky noodles) so unless I am doing something with you for the whole day (DIY?), I'd like you to cook for yourself. Please indicate you're ok with this in your message and let me know if you have any allergies.
  
  Please be prepared to spend some money on food as I cannot pay for you when we eat out, and we tend to buy stuff on the go (sandwitch, obento etc) when we get busy.

• 

  Autres infos...

  -We have a cat
  -We don't have AC.
  -I smoke but not downstairs where you stay.
  -sometimes small critters like frogs, crickets, crabs, and a neighbor bully cat come into our house. re: insects, there are occasional (5-10 a year usually in summer) centipedes or cockroaches and you can kill them, but the big spiders (they don't bite) are believed to protect the house so please don't kill them. Bees and mosquitos can also be a nuisance, so we use Japanese mosquito-repellent incense coils in summertime. My house isn't gross, but the outdoors does come indoors.

• 

  Informations complémentaires

  • 

    Accès Internet

  • 

    Accès Internet limité

  • 

    Nous avons des animaux

  • 

    Nous sommes fumeurs

  • 

    Familles bienvenues

• 

  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  I work online and have flexible hours. I use my pocket wifi for everything so I take it when I go out to work, but you can use it when I'm home. It is very quiet and a great place for digital nomads.

• 

  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Un

Sécurité du site

Feedback (3)