About Fujino and Fujino Life
Fujino in Kanagawa Japan is home to people living their dream. In contrast to the rushed cities in Japan, Fujino is mostly protected forest to maintain the purity of Yokohama's water supply. Compared to summer resorts, Fujino has an involved community of residents who live here year-round. In addition to having lots of nature and a strong community, Fujino is an incubator for sustainable living, artistic creativity, and enjoyment of life
An overview of what makes Fujino special and unique:
- Fuijno residents are forward-looking, proactive, collaborative, and environmentally caring.
- Fujino is an artisanal hub for pottery, sculpture, woodwork, photography, and weaving.
- Fujino has the making and playing of traditional musical instruments from Asia, Europe, and America.
- Fujino has the Permaculture Center of Japan.
- Fujino is the first and most mature Transition Town in Japan.
(http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/transition-fujino-prospects-for-a-better-future)
The mission of Fujino Life is to make the Fujino experience accessible to you. We solve language barriers, minimal public transportation and accommodation in Fujino, and lack of consolidated Fujino event information that is often communicated locally through word-of-mouth. On one hand, the void of tourism services makes Fujino inaccessible without a local contact, but this keeps the Fujino community authentic, personalized, and delightful. We focus on conscious living on the pillars of self, community, environment, creativity, and sustainability.
Self - How do my experiences affect me? Am I living by my life priorities? What is happiness for me?
Community - Build interpersonal relationships with Fujino residents which doing activities jointly. Hear how they approach life. Discover the local viewpoints and thoughts that make the Fujino community positive and forward-looking.
Environment - De-stress while enjoying the forest and listening the birds. Relax in a natural hot springs. Pick and eat organically grown produce. Learn the many activities of Fujino residents to preserve our nature and our health.
Creativity - The many talented people of Fujino lead workshops on instrument making, Japanese cooking, flower arrangement, kaleidoscope making, woodworking, weaving, handcrafts, photography, and drumming. Have fun while getting to know these Fujino residents.
Sustainability - The Permaculture Center of Japan and Transition Fujino offer 1/2 day and full day workshops that explain environment and community sustainability movements in Fujino. Transition Fujino is a community structure to bridge a 100% re-usability/sustainability permaculture ideal with a mainstream community that is dependent on national services for currency, energy, water, and healthcare. The current Transition Fujino groups are Fujino Electric Power Company, Yorozu (local currency system), agriculture, forestry, work & economy, and health & aging.
We hope that Fujino Life will give you an active, enlightening, enjoyable, and fulfilling experience.
About Wes Heiser, founder of Fujino Life
I grew up in Tokyo and upstate New York, speaking Japanese and English from an early age. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, I worked in consumer and high tech industries across Asia Pacific. I believed that wealth afforded comfort, and that comfort increased happiness, so therefore more wealth would lead to greater happiness. Yet, after two decades of work, my mental association between money and happiness seemed to be false. Truly happy people I met were not necessarily wealthy and wealthy people I met were often unhappy.
I embarked on an inner and outer journey. This journey wasn't focused, constant, or time-limited because I didn't know exactly for what answer I was searching. Nevertheless, I made some life decisions that brings me to where I am today. Inwardly, I evaluated my top life priorities with a self-help book called The Right Mountain by Jim Hayhurst, I learned and practiced Reiki for holistic healing, and I tried various forms of cognitive, process, and regression therapy. Outwardly, I traveled with my wife around the world for two and a half years, studied counseling and psychotherapy, and raised a family.
When we first visited Fujino in the summer of 2013, my wife and I were immediately attracted to the nature, artwork on the mountains, the Steiner school, and the warm, open, and inviting residents. Having traveled to over 60 countries as a basis for comparison, we knew Fujino would be our future home. We moved from Singapore to Fujino in April 2014. As we got to know the residents, we discovered why Fujino has so many ideas, activities, and collaborations. The forward-looking positive attitude of the residents gives Fujino its culture. It's a precious culture that the locals want to preserve at all cost, rejecting mass tourism, industry, or the consolidation of activity and event information on the Internet. I wished that everyone could have the chance to experience Fujino when ironically if everyone were to visit Fujino, Fujino would lose its fantastic culture. The wish for a balance led to the concept of Fujino Life.
Fujino Life is inclusive.
In the collaborative spirit of Fujino culture, Fujino Life involves the local residents to share their passion. The fees that you pay to Fujino Life go to many people in the local community.
Fujino Life is intimate.
We accommodate only 4-7 guests at a time to ensure the quality of guest experience and to preserve the culture of Fujino. The local residents feel more comfortable to share their personal views and philosophies with a smaller group of people.
Fujino Life is inspiring.
Discover the possibilities of living an enjoyable life.
Inclusive, intimate, and inspiring. This is the positive energy I envision for you and for the residents of Fujino.