Time to think about the present and the futureLearning and living in Kamiyama
~Kamiyama Monosasu Juku, 3rd batch student report~

Nice to meet you. I'm Iwai, a third-year student at Kamiyama Monosasu Juku.
It has already been three months since the school started in July. After a month of communal living at Ski Land, the 10 students moved to five houses and were already getting used to life there, but they are now at the halfway point. Following the first term of training for coders and the second term for training for web writers, the third term is a program for training front-end engineers. Currently, members from all over the country are learning a wide range of subjects, starting with HTML and CSS.

What are the students of this term studying and living on a daily basis? I'm sure there are some who are curious about not only their studies but also their daily lives. So, this time, as the first of the articles written by the third term students, I would like to introduce "Learning and living in Kamiyama today" from my perspective.

This time's Kamiyama Monosasu Juku reporter

Before entering Monosasuku
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Since coming here, I have often been asked, "Why did you come to Kamiyama?" Each of the 10 students has their own thoughts and experiences, but what they all have in common is that they came here seeking some kind of "change" from their previous jobs and lives. I am one of them.

The main characteristic of this year's students is that they are mainly studying web production, and it seems that many of them ended up in Kamiyama by chance. However, through interactions with the warm-hearted local residents, they are enjoying their daily lives while having the opportunity to have valuable experiences that can only be had here, such as picking tea leaves, harvesting rice, and butchering deer.

The reason I came to Kamiyama: I wanted to change my environment

Before joining Monosasu Juku, I worked in international air freight at a company I had started working for as a new graduate. It was an industry with a lot of people coming and going due to irregular shifts at the airport that extended from late nights to early mornings. In my third year, I had gotten used to the job and was settling in, but then some of my peers started changing jobs. As I was doing the kind of work I had experienced in logistics, I thought about what I really wanted to do, and I began to feel that I wanted to be involved in work that involved "creation."

With the collapse of the lifetime employment system and the trend of changing jobs becoming more commonplace, if you want a flexible way of working, a job using the web is a good choice. With this in mind and a lot of things bothering me, I suddenly stopped to think about my future way of working and my life, and I remembered a website called " Nihon Shigoto Hyakka " that someone I met while traveling had told me about, and I started looking at it.

Among them, I came across a recruitment ad for "Monosasu Juku" for those who want to become front-end engineers. As for my level of knowledge about the web and computers, I had no experience in coding. I was familiar with editing photos and travel videos as a hobby, and with using Office and Mac. It was a valuable opportunity to learn practically from an experienced web production company, even though I had no experience, while being in a completely different environment from now. I decided to apply with the momentum of "now or never!". After I decided to join the school, I quit my job and moved in about a month, which was a hectic month, so I joined the others a week later than everyone else.

Even if you want to change your environment, if you don't take action yourself, the status quo will remain the same. The honest reason why I became a student was because I thought it would be a good idea to think carefully about my future in a relaxed environment while being soothed by the nature of Kamiyama. I've always loved traveling, and have been to many remote islands in Japan, so I think I had the energy and drive to jump into an unknown environment.

It's been three months since I joined Monosasu Juku.

1. Classroom

A scene from class. Everyone is working hard on their assignments.

Details of the curriculum are posted here , but I will summarize the specific content learned over the past three months from a student's perspective.

First, here is a summary of what has been covered in the lessons so far.

• HTML/CSS Basics and Applications
• jQuery Basics
• Liquid design / responsive design
• Faithful reproduction of the assignment site
• Custom website creation based on the theme
• Website creation in a role-play format with separate teams for the client and production sides
• Group work in which roles are divided among directors, designers, and coders to create a website requested by another group.
• Yoyogi Headquarters Site Check Experience

The first month is lecture-based, and after that it's practical. Students practice by repeatedly creating websites of their own design and recreating pages given in assignments. I feel that the most effective way to learn is to actually create a website, rather than just reading books and taking in the information. Try making one first, and if you get stuck, ask questions. The school's director, Mr. Ito, places emphasis on a practical style that teaches students to solve problems on their own. Thanks to this, the majority of students were beginners, but now they are able to do a much wider range of things than when they first joined the school.

In addition to being on the production side, the participants also participated in role-playing from different perspectives, such as from the client's perspective and the perspective of the person in charge of checking the completed site, allowing them to experience the entire flow of site production.

In addition to regular classes, there are also occasional guest lectures. To date, Monosus CEO Hayashi, Vice President Nagai who runs a satellite office in Suo-Oshima, and Manabe who is involved in the Food Hub Project have spoken about their views on work and life and their careers leading up to Monosus.

A joint workshop of four schools (Kamiyama Juku, Engawa Juku, Week Juku, Monosasu Juku) was also held, organized by Yoshiaki Nishimura , a working style researcher who focuses on the work of "creating, teaching, and writing". The workshop was a place where students from other schools who were simultaneously working in Kamiyama could meet face to face and deepen their relationships. As expected, the conversation started with each other asking "why did you come to Kamiyama?" It was interesting and entertaining to hear the stories of the members who had come together through various circumstances.

In this way, students do not just learn skills; they also have the time to think about how they want to live and work, and what they want to do after they graduate, by listening to and interacting with the various people who gather in Kamiyama, making it an important learning opportunity.

2. Lifestyle

Living together at Ski Land Hotel

Living at the Ski Land Hotel (commonly known as Ski Land) for the month of July in a new place with people from all different backgrounds, dialects and ages, and meeting people I'd never met before, was a strange experience, like a training camp. We all ate meals together on weekdays in the mornings and evenings, worked on assignments in the lobby while helping each other out, and looked up at the stars together at night (the title photo of the starry sky was taken at Ski Land). Now that we're living separately, I already miss those days.

I was touched by the kindness and warmth of the parents at Ski Land, and ate delicious, well-balanced meals at set times. I was soothed by the nature surrounded by mountains and rivers, but I was constantly aware of the gap from my previous life, where I was under time pressure, and the difference in the way time passed. On weekends, there were some kind of events, such as BBQs and gyoza parties, a real pizza party using a pizza oven made by a former Kamiyama student, and special movie screenings where we borrowed a projector. The fulfilling month passed by in an instant.

Authentic pizza baked in a pizza oven. All the students worked together to make it very delicious. It was quite difficult to stretch the dough thinly and evenly.

We had the opportunity to try chopping firewood under the guidance of a father from Ski Land.

In late July, I photographed the waterfall upstream near the ski resort (upper left) and from a bridge with a capacity of five people (lower right). The rusty bridge shook moderately and was frightening, but I overcame it with my passion for photography (lol). It was cool and pleasant even in midsummer.

Life at the Nishibun House

Starting in August, three students moved into a new home ^called "Nishibun House."
*Sumihajime Jutaku is the first house completed as part of the old house renovation project led by Kamiyama Tsunagu Public Corporation. It is a share house in a single house, but on the first floor outside the residential area there is a kitchen and a shared space that can be used by local residents, and it can also be used as an event space for a fee. For more information, click here .

The shared space has a large kitchen, so students who love cooking can come over and cook and eat meals together, and we also hold events such as chair-making experiences and sudachi drinking parties, so the students live in an environment where they can naturally interact and connect with others without having to leave the comfort of their own home.

Also, since moving here, I have been influenced by two of my roommates, who are Irish music lovers, and have started playing a small flute called a tin whistle. Sometimes, I have a lot of fun playing our favorite songs together on my tin whistle with one of my students or one of our violins. She has the special skill of being able to play a song as soon as she hears it, and she can play any song I request right away. When I wake up in the morning and hear the sound of the violin before going to class, I feel very elegant.

The photo of the three of us lined up is, from the left, Kadochi (who only started playing the Irish flute in July, but is a great violinist!), me (holding a tin whistle), and Ayu-chan (who recently purchased a violin and is currently practicing under the guidance of Kadochi).

How to spend time after class and on holidays

In the first month, I was searching for a house after my stay at Ski Land, so I gathered information and went to look at various properties. After I found a house, I also helped with farm work, and experienced picking tea leaves and harvesting rice for Awa Bancha tea. During summer vacation, when you think of Tokushima, you think of Awa Odori! So I enjoyed the lively dance in the front row of the box seats. For some reason, I never get tired of the combination of the rhythm and dance of Awa Odori. And at the end of summer, there was a "secluded memorial service" at Shozanji Temple. The fireworks, which were launched from the top of the mountain and were so close that it was beyond my imagination, were the most shocking thing I've seen this summer. I think they were probably the closest in Japan. I also went to the unusual Koufuku Shrine in Kamiyama, and took a day trip to Iya's Kazurabashi Bridge, Scarecrow Village, and Mount Tsurugi.

Harvesting rice in the terraced fields of Eda village (early September). Local revitalization volunteer Ueda-san teaches us how to harvest before starting work. On this day, we helped with everything from harvesting the rice to "hazakake," which was all done by hand.

The Awa Odori festival was held in Tokushima City for four days from August 12th to 15th. Five students from the school enjoyed the festival together in the box seats.

August 30th, Yakisanji Temple Okomori Memorial Service. The fireworks were so close that they couldn't all fit on the camera. They were so close that everyone reflexively took a step back as soon as the fireworks started.

I had wanted to go to Mt. Tsurugi ever since I came to Tokushima. It is one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan, and it is only about 200m to the summit if you use the lift. Luckily, when I reached the summit of Mt. Tsurugi, the fog cleared and a magnificent view was right in front of me. It was exactly the view I was looking for.

Just a little further to the summit! Camera in hand.

What I felt when I came to Kamiyama

Since coming to Kamiyama and meeting many different people, I have felt two things.
One is the difference in the way time flows. Living surrounded by abundant nature gives you a relaxed sense of time. Perhaps thanks to that, I feel less tired and am able to live a healthier life than before. Another is that I felt that the town was visited by more foreigners than I expected. Every year, the Kamiyama Artist in Residence (KAIR) is held, where invited artists stay in Kamiyama for two to three months to create works, and the local community works together to welcome artists from Japan and abroad. I think a big part of the reason that creative people involved in IT and art from Japan and abroad visit Kamiyama is that the city has a well-developed fiber optic network, and it has an environment where you can connect to the Internet without stress, even deep in the mountains.

The photo shows the KAIR open studio that was held the other day. I am already looking forward to the exhibition at the end of October.

Late September at KAIR's open studio. Pablo explains to participants the concept of his installation work, which involves video projections on the theme of "memory."

lastly

I want to convey not only through words, but also through pictures of the scenery I saw and my days in Kamiyama, so I always carry a camera with me when I go out. I hope that through this article I have been able to convey the beautiful scenery I found while living in Tokushima Prefecture and Kamiyama, as well as my own perspective on the learning and life of the students.

The six months from July to December have already passed the halfway point. I came to Kamiyama with the desire to change my environment and learn about the work of "creating". I am still searching for the approach I will take to get involved in the creation of things, but at this stage, I think that I will first gain experience in the field of web design before I can pursue a flexible work style.

During the remaining time, I would like to make the most of the learning I can do now, while also thinking a little more carefully about what I will do after I graduate from the school.