Communication and relationship-building with local residents
The renovation of the house was done and it’s time to think about concrete plans on how to use them. I live and work in Tokyo and the houses are located in a less-populated village (10 hours and 300USD for a return trip from Tokyo), I have to find new users outside from the village. Then things are coming up: how to get along with the local community. I can invite someone, but nobody will visit the houses on a regular basis, if the ambience around isn’t good. In the first place, I myself am an outsider, though my mum grew up in the village. At the offset, I organized: 1) a small event for introducing the tea house last September; and 2) a workshop to collect the memory of the village last December. More precisely, I proposed but practically Mr. Matsuda, an expert of the local authority organized them. Such ambiguity in the organization is a result of the fact that, even though local authorities value the spontaneous actions by private figures, most residents put their trust in the pu...