Cultural project helping preserve and share Japanese traditional culture 🎌🏮
Location: Tokyo , Japan
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
We are doing a fascinating project in traditional Japanese culture, working with dancers, musicians, and artists. You will get a wonderful insight into Japanese culture that you could not get elsewhere. I am an anthropologist researching traditional Japanese culture and also doing some work with the media.
We are a small operation and have a family-like atmosphere in our house with our helpers. We usually have several helpers at once, so it is a lively, communal experience. You will almost certainly need to share a room. Though you will have a large tatami room when we have no guests, sometimes we need to move rooms or sleep in a quite small curtained-off room when we are full with guests. Flexibility is key, and we appreciate people who can adapt to the rhythm of the house.
We have a wide range of different tasks that we may ask you to do, and we like flexible people who are willing to pitch in with anything and can get on well in a group.
THE PLACE
The house in Tokyo is a little Japanese-style house in Tokyo's downtown area, near Akihabara, or an apartment near Yanaka, one of Tokyo's most fascinating old neighbourhoods. Yanaka is a district with 120 temples in one area and many narrow footpaths without cars. It is in inner Tokyo, 10 minutes from Nippori Station on the Yamanote Line, very convenient for sightseeing. Helpers will sometimes stay in the main house near Akihabara, but if we are full, we may be in the little apartment in Yanaka.
RIGHT NOW – SHORT-TERM PROJECTS 🛠️
Sometimes we have a space for people even if only for a few days or a week. If you are in Tokyo already and can start work immediately, you can call us on the phone on our listing to check if we need someone right away. Don't apply for short-term unless you can start immediately. Skills we currently need:
- Someone for simple secretarial tasks
- Someone to find music on YouTube (need own laptop)
- A skilled handyman or carpenter to help take down a delicate wooden ceiling without breaking it, put precut insulation into our ceiling, and put the wooden ceiling back again
- Someone to help make applications for university courses (from beginning April, need own laptop)
- Someone who can teach solo samba (from beginning April)
- Someone who can do good, neat hand sewing (from March or April)
- Someone extremely knowledgeable about anime (not just Ghibli!) (from beginning April)
LONG-TERM OPPORTUNITIES (3 months plus preferred) 🌟
We always need longer-term people with any of the following skills, or plus any of the skills listed above.
1. House Mum: Cooking delicious vegetarian, vegan, or no-grain food for the owner and other volunteers, cleaning, looking after our homestay guests, and if there is any time left, some secretarial or general tasks. Next start from the end of April.
2. Social Media Manager: Helping with computer, social media, marketing, PR, sponsorship, photography, and general tasks. You will need your own computer and be able to negotiate the host's Mac. Very good photography skills are a plus. We prefer 3 months or more, from April to the end of June, or even longer. People on working holiday visas for one year are especially welcome, or students who can work with us in the mornings.
3. Personal Trainer: If you have your own ideas about how to help us stay fit through hard exercise, great. Otherwise, we especially welcome someone who wants to travel out of Tokyo to go hiking on the weekends, or who wants to train in Thai boxing five days a week. If you choose Thai boxing, you will get free accommodation, but you will need to pay for the gym, a one-off join-up fee and 12,000 yen per month for unlimited training with top trainers.
We are also very happy to host for a year or so, but you need to be from one of the twelve countries that can get a working holiday visa for Japan, or be on a student visa, or be able to afford to stay for a year.
WINTER IN NISEKO, HOKKAIDO ❄️🎿
We may be in Niseko Ski Resort in Hokkaido for December and January, and some of our helpers may go with us, while others stay in Tokyo. In Niseko, we usually work after 1pm and can ski all morning. We particularly need:
- Friendly people to go around and market our activities to local people. Japanese speakers are especially welcome, even conversational Japanese
- IT and social media marketing experts
- An internationally qualified ski instructor, as long as they can work with us in the morning
- A cook, cleaner, or house mum, especially for vegetarian or vegan cooking
If you joined us and committed to a whole year starting at the end of March or the end of September, it is possible to work something like Tokyo from October to November, Niseko or Tokyo from December to February, March off to travel, Tokyo from April to June, and summer off to travel.
We are a small operation and have a family-like atmosphere in our house with our helpers. We usually have several helpers at once, so it is a lively, communal experience. You will almost certainly need to share a room. Though you will have a large tatami room when we have no guests, sometimes we need to move rooms or sleep in a quite small curtained-off room when we are full with guests. Flexibility is key, and we appreciate people who can adapt to the rhythm of the house.
WORKING ARRANGEMENT
We offer two options: 2 hours of work per day in exchange for free accommodation, or 5 hours of work per day with food included. We prefer to work in the mornings in Tokyo, starting around 8am, so that the rest of the day is free for you to explore, study, or relax. Sometimes I am away and there is much less work, and other times there is a lot to do, and we take holidays to make up afterwards. Please be prepared to be flexible about hours.We have a wide range of different tasks that we may ask you to do, and we like flexible people who are willing to pitch in with anything and can get on well in a group.
THE PLACE
The house in Tokyo is a little Japanese-style house in Tokyo's downtown area, near Akihabara, or an apartment near Yanaka, one of Tokyo's most fascinating old neighbourhoods. Yanaka is a district with 120 temples in one area and many narrow footpaths without cars. It is in inner Tokyo, 10 minutes from Nippori Station on the Yamanote Line, very convenient for sightseeing. Helpers will sometimes stay in the main house near Akihabara, but if we are full, we may be in the little apartment in Yanaka.
RIGHT NOW – SHORT-TERM PROJECTS 🛠️
Sometimes we have a space for people even if only for a few days or a week. If you are in Tokyo already and can start work immediately, you can call us on the phone on our listing to check if we need someone right away. Don't apply for short-term unless you can start immediately. Skills we currently need:
- Someone for simple secretarial tasks
- Someone to find music on YouTube (need own laptop)
- A skilled handyman or carpenter to help take down a delicate wooden ceiling without breaking it, put precut insulation into our ceiling, and put the wooden ceiling back again
- Someone to help make applications for university courses (from beginning April, need own laptop)
- Someone who can teach solo samba (from beginning April)
- Someone who can do good, neat hand sewing (from March or April)
- Someone extremely knowledgeable about anime (not just Ghibli!) (from beginning April)
LONG-TERM OPPORTUNITIES (3 months plus preferred) 🌟
We always need longer-term people with any of the following skills, or plus any of the skills listed above.
1. House Mum: Cooking delicious vegetarian, vegan, or no-grain food for the owner and other volunteers, cleaning, looking after our homestay guests, and if there is any time left, some secretarial or general tasks. Next start from the end of April.
2. Social Media Manager: Helping with computer, social media, marketing, PR, sponsorship, photography, and general tasks. You will need your own computer and be able to negotiate the host's Mac. Very good photography skills are a plus. We prefer 3 months or more, from April to the end of June, or even longer. People on working holiday visas for one year are especially welcome, or students who can work with us in the mornings.
3. Personal Trainer: If you have your own ideas about how to help us stay fit through hard exercise, great. Otherwise, we especially welcome someone who wants to travel out of Tokyo to go hiking on the weekends, or who wants to train in Thai boxing five days a week. If you choose Thai boxing, you will get free accommodation, but you will need to pay for the gym, a one-off join-up fee and 12,000 yen per month for unlimited training with top trainers.
We are also very happy to host for a year or so, but you need to be from one of the twelve countries that can get a working holiday visa for Japan, or be on a student visa, or be able to afford to stay for a year.
WINTER IN NISEKO, HOKKAIDO ❄️🎿
We may be in Niseko Ski Resort in Hokkaido for December and January, and some of our helpers may go with us, while others stay in Tokyo. In Niseko, we usually work after 1pm and can ski all morning. We particularly need:
- Friendly people to go around and market our activities to local people. Japanese speakers are especially welcome, even conversational Japanese
- IT and social media marketing experts
- An internationally qualified ski instructor, as long as they can work with us in the morning
- A cook, cleaner, or house mum, especially for vegetarian or vegan cooking
If you joined us and committed to a whole year starting at the end of March or the end of September, it is possible to work something like Tokyo from October to November, Niseko or Tokyo from December to February, March off to travel, Tokyo from April to June, and summer off to travel.