Hello from the Northern island of Japan, where bears roam...

[Bumble]

Originally from Berkhamsted, I took a wild and crazy decision to relocate to the mountains in Japan four years ago with the idea of starting a woodwork shop.

The only experience I have is a little bit of DIY like building a gate for the driveway and rebuilding a bathroom (back in blighty) but other than that just figuring out which end of the hammer to hold.

I haven't been doing much for the last month as it gets close to 30 degrees C during the day (upper eighties in old money) which gets the workshop, a converted one car garage close to 35C! It should start to cool next week. Though it's dragonfly season now, wafting around like black clouds... pick up a tool and one will land on it. I don't want to be holding a sharp tool in case I try shooing away one of those monsters near my face.
Winter is fun too; up to 3m of snow and down to minus 20 C!

last thing I built, a chair (a first) from construction waste material

and a storage unit for car and garden equipment that got thrown out of the garage to make room for chop, chop, bang, bang stuff.

I've been reading through some threads over the past month and this forum is a wealth of good advice and information, thanks to all! I don't think I can contribute much yet...
Just bumbling along for now

 

[Cabinetman]

I admire the big contrasting Z’ds and also your chutzpah at starting a workshop as a beginner in the land of fancy complicated wood joints, you’re very welcome, I look forward to hearing how you get on and how you find life there.
Ian

 

[hennebury]

Living the dream! tough competition there, kudos to you. Do us proud. keep us informed of your adventures. more photos and stories Like the work so far, wish more details.. They have some great machinery, post some photos of what you see.

 

[DeBangis]

Nice and welcome to the forum.

 

[Fred48]

Welcome to the forum @Bumble
Fred

 

[Bingy man]

Hello and welcome to ukw , brave move to relocate so far from uk . I don’t cope well in anything above 21deg so forget 30 let alone 35 in your shop . I like your use of waste timber so keep posting your progress.

 

[highwood122]

I admire the big contrasting Z’ds and also your chutzpah at starting a workshop as a beginner in the land of fancy complicated wood joints, you’re very welcome, I look forward to hearing how you get on and how you find life there.
Ian

are the z s not back to front

 

[Majimoto]

are the z s not back to front

Give him a break- dyslexia is a terrible affliction.

 

[Morag Jones]

Welcome!

 

[Bumble]

Cheers to all for the welcome! As I said, it will be a lot more take than give from this user for a while...

The biggest problem here is the language; can't read and write (well struggled with *that* one all my life really) and what little Japanese I know, doesn't really communicate well with half the population here who speak a local dialect. Still, amazing what a little improvised sign language can do.

I'm still learning the basics, like using a handsaw, a planer and chisels. I'm liking the chisels! Hand made by master craftsmen deemed national treasures can be purchased for as little as equivalent 50GBP! Though I'm only using a much lower priced range. Funnily, they came with a warning in English only "Do not touch the blade". It doesn't say anything like that in Japanese. Of course, I had to and so baptized the first one with some of my DNA.
The shed structure is made mostly with mortise and tenon joints and just a couple of "ring of metal" joints or "kanewatsugi" joints, which I subsequently found out is a popular and frequently used technique in the west.

Chisel box number two made from construction waste and recycled materials (loads of old Kimono cabinets get thrown out as redundant/rubbish)

 

[Bumble]

yup, I think the Z's are back to front; just bumbling along here...

 

[duke]

Give him a break- dyslexia is a terrible affliction.

Plywood door structurally not necessary.

 

[Sideways]

Do share a photo of your black dragonflies !
We love dragons and it's been a good year for them here.

 

[furnace]

Cheers to all for the welcome! As I said, it will be a lot more take than give from this user for a while...

The biggest problem here is the language; can't read and write (well struggled with *that* one all my life really) and what little Japanese I know, doesn't really communicate well with half the population here who speak a local dialect. Still, amazing what a little improvised sign language can do.

I'm still learning the basics, like using a handsaw, a planer and chisels. I'm liking the chisels! Hand made by master craftsmen deemed national treasures can be purchased for as little as equivalent 50GBP! Though I'm only using a much lower priced range. Funnily, they came with a warning in English only "Do not touch the blade". It doesn't say anything like that in Japanese. Of course, I had to and so baptized the first one with some of my DNA.
The shed structure is made mostly with mortise and tenon joints and just a couple of "ring of metal" joints or "kanewatsugi" joints, which I subsequently found out is a popular and frequently used technique in the west.

Chisel box number two made from construction waste and recycled materials (loads of old Kimono cabinets get thrown out as redundant/rubbish)

View attachment 187585
View attachment 187586

Welcome. I love the rotating catch on your chisel box. Very elegant.

 

[Majimoto]

yup, I think the Z's are back to front; just bumbling along here...

Never admit that!! The readers are just seeing it back to front! Their problem!

 

[Stigmorgan]

Welcome to the asylum
I haven't travelled but Japan is definitely one of those places I would love to visit. The woods you have available are some of the most beautiful I've seen.
Don't let being a novice deter you from joining our secret santa , we need more overseas participants and it's a huge amount of fun

 

[BC'er]

Seeing as I'm only a few days longer on this site than you "welcome" would be a bit funny.

And seeing as Japan takes very few immigrants I'm assuming your wife is Japanese?

The U.K. has its own tradition of craftsmanship so no reason to for an expat to feel inadequate IMHO. Looks like your workmanship is already established so it's just a case of building skills and the tool collection. I remember visiting a cabinet maker there who made beautifully constructed pieces with the simplest tools and I took care to see what he was using. His tablesaw was an inverted "skilsaw" fixed to something and the rest was all handwork as I recall. Along with doing good work with worn out or damaged tools, doing good work with minimal tools is another measure of the craftsman I've been told.

Considering we in the West, and the UK in good part, invented most of the technology Asia uses today, anyone who can work as well as most of them do has no reason to feel inadequate. Not that feeling inadequate is a bad thing, when we are!

I think you made a wise move in a geopolitical sense, and tell 'em how much a house costs there!?

 

[Bumble]

Again thanks to all for the welcome!

Nice picture sideways! I went out into the garden for half an hour but despite there being hundreds, if not thousands of the blighters flying around, I really struggled to snap anything more than a greyish hazy patch. I managed to get one of the smaller red males (there purpose seems to be to sit and pose). The neighbouring children were playing with some beetles so I took a picture of that, though even that was a rubbish picture. I got a good one of a swallowtail a couple of years ago.

Here's another kind of butterfly, my first attempt back in March. A small stool/step made from construction waste.

 

[Bumble]

Hello BC'er, your guess is right! My wife originally comes from these parts and when I first visited years ago immediately thought that if I ever to were relocate, *this* was the destination!

Property prices are quite different here than the UK. You need to buy the land, then any building on it which is taxed according to value. Local government suggests land prices but vendor can sell at own valuation.

I bought enough land so I could build a workshop/shop and the land I found had a sixty year old house in a very usable condition. Local culture would be to demolish and rebuild, so land with an existing property sells for much less (demolition and waste disposal costs plus time and inconvenience). So the land and house cost the equivalent forty thousand pounds. The house was valued at no value which has the benefit of little to no property tax.

 

[Sideways]

Excellent ! Fine photos, thanks.
Did you know that you can buy big beetles like that in the supermarket pet shops in Korea. Kids do seem to love 'em.