Study trip to Nagano!(1st)

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on 27th to 28th july, part of our NPO members had a study trip to Nagano pref. to see how the other town offices or NPOs work on rural depopulation problem.

Isumi city office is also working on this depopulation probrem as we need to deal with,  the trip this time is held by city office.
there are many types of members on one bus, almost all of them are concerned to community development like Society of Commerce and Industry, community consultants of ‘Kurashi salon’, opened consultation place in Isumi .

Nagano prefecture attracts many people who want to move in countryside of its beautiful mountains, snow activities and clean pure water.

So there many retired couples and young families are moving in this area, of caurse there also many associations are trying hard to call them in or supporting them.

We first visited ‘Shinano town’ where NPO Zaigo is having an action by introducing/managing empty propaties.

they are looking for all empty propaties in this area by asking locos, renovate and lease them.
they only introduce those propaties(they can’t be a broker because they don’t have any licenses) to people who want to move in this town.
So, their income is come from rent(some percentge of rent is paid from house owners) and fees for introducing(paid by real estate agents).
though they have to pay for renovation(renovation costs 500,000 yen average, they are paid back in about 4 years/ one house), members are working as almost volunteer.
they also have one house called ‘Tanoshi-so’, they lease this house from owner and use as ‘Living countryside trial house’.

although cityside people dream about countryside, there are always many kinds of big differences between city and country.
they found the way to fill these gaps by renting a house in short term.
anybody who are interested in living here can use this house.
there are ‘2 nights plan’ and ‘1 week plan'(both are free for rent besides kerosene fee for stove in winter time!) and 1 month plan(you will need some fee for electricity and stuff).
they set the day for consultation first, then they support you to move in this town.
‘We think most important thing to live this area is making strong communications or communities. We all members want to support new people to have their new sweet hometown.’ Kazuhiko Shirahama, vice chief director says.

though they are working almost as volunteers, they are having fun working on it all together.
‘Now we have a big community which have barbeque partys and so on, we can’t be all lonely.’ Mr.Shirahama had a big smile.

 

our trip went on…

 

(Aiko)

“Let’s see the real life in Isumi!” was held on July 26, 2014

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On July 26, a tour “Let’s see the real life in Isumi, Boso!” was held in a very hot summer day after rainy season.

This tour was the second time this year.

It has been a sunny day since the morning.
As it was too hot, some people canceled to join the tour on the day.
Some people also came late, so the tour started with a small group.

We first visited Gyoganji Temple.

We heard a “real story” from Mr. & Mrs. Tsurubuchi who newly became farmers last April. They are growing rice at the paddy field beside the temple.

Mr. Tsurubuchi was born in Isumi and once lived in the city and came back his hometown, Isumi. Mrs. Tsurubuchi was grown up in Tokyo and came to Isumi.

They keep the paddy field chemical-free environment to preserve biodiversity. There were creatures in the field that you cannot see in the city♪

I saw the egg of jumbo pond-snail for the first time!!

Participant asked many questions, so that I also learn a lot.

What Mrs. Shuko Tsurubuchi said was very impressive to me.

“After I came to Isumi, I obtained some kind of affluence that I cannot have in the city.”

It may be nature, or the fact that time passes slowly, or else. Everybody may think differently but I thought there was something that I have the same feelings.

Time passed fast. We had to move on to the next place.

We were planning to have lunch after this, but… !

We decided to visit a share-house “Hoshizora no Ie” before lunch!
It was not in the tour schedule, but some participants were eager to see the place, and the caretaker of the share-house, Ms. Mitsuhoshi, was in the tour, so it worked out.

At “Hoshizora no ie”, we could have met participants who came late, so we all together moved on to “Former Chimachi nursery school,” where our lunch was ready.

Am event “ANELA” was held in Chimachi on the day, so there were more people than usual in Chimachi.
We had a lunch of local specialty prepared by local mom and grandma of “Isumi Kyarabuki Promotion Group.” The dishes looked nice and we ate till we were full.

After lunch, we spent some time to see the event “ANELA” and to talk with these local mothers.

Then in the afternoon, we visited a cafe of eco-apartment, “green+,” ran by Mr. & Mrs. Onda. They are both from Hokkaido, but met in Isumi and became family.

We had a round table talk while having tea.

The Muraki family who relocated to Isumi joined this round table talk.

They could have given comments to the participants’ anxiety and questions as they had relocated already, and the participants are considering relocation in the future.

We had fewer participants than we first expected but it was good as they could have talked in-depth.

Then after we viewed the eco-apartment, we headed to the final destination of the tour,

“Taito beach”

Some people went into the sea to let the heat out of the body of the day.
The beach was pleasant.
Time passed very quickly. Thank you for joining us on the very hot day.

Comments from the participants—
“I had a very good time,” “It was a good tour as I could have heard details of the relocation,” “I thought I had to be decisive in order to relocate.” Thank you for those comments. We are much appreciated.

( Akko / Yasuko )