Patrick is speaking at The Tokyo Small Business Meetup Group tomorrow

I was invited to give a presentation tomorrow about Inakahome, and how we made it a reality.

The audience is the "The Tokyo Small Business Meetup Group", an informal group of entrepreneurs current and future, who want to exchange ideas, experiences and network.

In case you are interested, please sign up to the group (free), and sign up for the event on this page (better hurry, its filling up quickly).

A meeting of minds in Yushi Cafe

On the way back from visiting the house I found a nice looking Cafe along the route 142, called "Yushi Cafe"



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Maybe it aroused my interest because it was in an old house - of course much younger than inaka home's, but maybe Showa period. Upon entering, I found it was filled with so many old Showa era goods: old kerosene heaters, radio, books, ...


The inside was lovingly restored, but using purely basics. Actually very similar to what I originally had in mind with Inaka Home. Clean up beams and wood, put in wooden flooring, simple paint jobs. As it turns out, our house will be a much more luxurious affair, but then people don't sleep in a cafe.


What I also found great, was that the owner is a young guy, perhaps a bit younger than myself. He repaired the house - his father's place - by himself and started a good business. This raises my hope that there are more people like that out here, who can take a risk and create something new - real entrepreneurs!


I and Takakuwa-san from Eco Transfer Japan (shown on this photo enjoying a cafe au lait), will definitely come back.