Hello, I’ve finally gotten the secret factory sorted out so I’m reporting on it. I thought it would be simple—just move everything—but it wasn’t that easy.
It reminded me of when I first opened the shop. In reality, it’s way harder than running a rented storefront…
Thank you so much for supporting us through the crowdfunding campaign.
The first two months had zero sales! But we’re managing somehow because so many people supported us. I’ll be packing and shipping the novelty items gradually, so please be patient.
Since this is a good milestone, I’d like to tell the story of how the factory came together.
After deciding to relocate, I traveled all over the country… and ended up in Chiba.
When timing worked out, I visited various places. At first I thought Toyama was good, so I went many times and stopped by used properties and home builders.
But ultimately “land issues” were a huge problem and my biggest worry.
With used properties, “age and design preferences” and with new construction, it often ends up being “subdivided lots,” so nothing really clicked. I remember not feeling quite right about any of them.
I never expected to buy a log house. It was a surprise. This place happened to be a double-sided property listed only on the local real estate agent’s website. The location, spacious yard, well-maintained home that had been used continuously, the previous owner’s character, access from Tokyo— everything came together perfectly, so I decided.
I figured I could think about the shop after deciding on the house, and since the property is about 240 square meters, I thought using 100 square meters for the shop would be fine. *Looking back now, considering fill dirt and labor costs, that was way too optimistic…
Going to Chiba’s outer coast every Monday and Tuesday was a battle with nature.
Thinking ahead, I expanded my tools—grass cutters and such. I really felt how great tools are. But no matter how much I cut, even with such amazing equipment, it never ends. Nature’s power is incredible! That’s what I felt.
I just kept cutting and cutting and cutting. I guess I really like this kind of work—I never get bored doing it. *By the way, the land in the photo isn’t ours.
Every time I visited, I thought it was such a nice place. Now that it’s my daily life, the excitement has faded, but I don’t want to go back to the city.
But more importantly: “What about the shop and work?!”
Yeah, right. Back then I was still torn between renting and building.
Honestly, if I could rent a storefront nearby for around 100,000 yen, that would’ve been fine. But the countryside is so rural that storefronts barely exist… And when they do, they’re barely cheaper than Tokyo, which shocked me.
The photo above is the land next to where the factory is now. Beyond this tall grass, there’s a mysterious shed. Since it would become a bug breeding ground, whenever we had time, we’d mow the grass on someone else’s land.
With a hammer knife mower, an 80-square-meter flat area is done in no time.
Wait a minute… Could I buy this neighboring land? That’s what I thought.
When I consulted with the real estate agent who introduced me to the house… “You can find the owner from the registry and send them a letter,” This was 2023, when there weren’t as many shady side gigs as there are now. Fortunately, I got in touch with the owner, and they said “I was actually looking to get rid of it, so I’ll sell.” That’s how it worked out.
Surprise: the land was zoned “agricultural”! We’ll convert it to “residential.”
We managed to buy it, and I brought the documents to the usual real estate agent to change the title…
“Takada, this is agricultural land, so it’s complicated.” Huh? (*’ω’*) Why? That’s what I said, but with the right timing and paperwork, we got it changed in about two weeks. Hiring a surveyor cost about 30,000 yen.
So anyway, I got 81 square meters of land. *Including all the back-and-forth, it took a year ( ；∀；)
The famous Maron said, “If you demolish it yourself, I’ll help.”
So Maron demolished it over a few days. Demolishing was fine, but disposing of the industrial waste was a nightmare.
You have to sort everything carefully or it gets expensive.
I still remember renting a light truck from DCM and going to the waste disposal site.
Parallel work: financing from the government, factory order from Kakuichi
Around this point my head started to panic. There were so many documents to submit to the government office, and so many decisions about the factory. Looking back, I think it would’ve been smoother to have a designer-type person manage the process.
Trying to cut material costs with owner-supplied materials is surprisingly complicated.
Time flew, and the factory was done in about three months.
Right after completion, I thought it was huge, but once we filled it with stuff, it got pretty tight…
Looking back, I should’ve gone one size bigger… *We ruled it out because of beam issues. I wish we’d built the second floor first.
By the way, there’s no power yet, so we had to start by putting up a utility pole. Things are progressing… Water comes from our house, so that was easier.
But fiber internet isn’t available, and it took forever to get it working. Building from scratch is really tough.
Various issues came up. Bigger temperature swings than expected.
Before moving in, the factory was empty with no air circulation. In May at the worst: temperature 12.3–36.1°F / humidity 39–92%!!!!!!!!
Temperature swing about 20°F / humidity swing about 50%! That’s absolutely no good… We urgently needed to improve the environment.
By the way, now: temperature swing about 3°F / humidity swing about 10% Hehe… if you try, even a factory can work. Of course, having people around, air conditioning, and air circulation are key. The biggest help was 3M heat-blocking, light-blocking film. That alone cut peak temps by 20–30%. I really felt how powerful the sun’s heat is.
This block escape is really important. When the material supplier came with a 4-ton truck during framing, they had to back up multiple times. “Backing up = a hassle.” Thinking this could happen again, we had them build an escape route partway through. It was the right call.
We completely solved the pharaoh ant problem and achieved human victory.
May: moving out of the Kakizaki-no-ki storefront in shuttles
I probably didn’t count carefully toward the end, but I think I went about ten times. Some days I went twice, so looking back, I’m amazed I pulled it off.
I manage everything by box, so I thought moving would be easy, but after years of the same work, the tools and stuff pile up. I was way too optimistic about box management ( ；∀；)
Itoh helped with three round trips, moving machinery and stuff I couldn’t handle myself. I wonder where you’d even ask if you didn’t know someone.
We had seven vehicles to move, so two round trips. Takitani kindly transported them without rain.
Being able to move that many at once was a huge help.
Once we’d completely moved everything out, we had Maron demolish the whole thing at the end of May. If there are no issues, we hand it back and we’re done.
Exiting a storefront costs money, so some people probably can’t move…
We ran the Kakizaki-no-ki location since 2011, but all things considered, “it was a bad location.”
Halfway up a hill
Bus stop right in front
Komaza-dori street is narrow
Abnormal pedestrian and bicycle traffic
Too much traffic to test-ride
Rent is pretty high (about 400,000 yen)
I never want to run a motorcycle shop in the city again… Anyway, Tokyo is done, so I feel relieved.
June: finally able to focus just on the factory
The more I think about it, the harder the layout gets to decide… And there’s still garbage I couldn’t get rid of.
I felt like I was always throwing stuff away. And we’re missing this, we’re missing that— things keep coming up, and Amazon boxes arrive by the mountain every day…
The credit card bill is insane… This month (July) will easily hit a million yen ( ；∀；)
Shelving problem came up. Materials were completely unavailable and delivery was so slow it took until mid-June.
Basically, I couldn’t move stuff off the floor so I couldn’t do anything. I thought about just throwing it all in a storage unit, but “the countryside isn’t cheaper.”
If you have land, a storage shed is best.
Skipping a lot of details, anyway, we’re now ready to welcome customers.
There’s still a lot left to do, actually. Look forward to future updates.
I think we’re comfortable enough for now. Fair warning: it’s so hot outside you might not want to leave.
So here it is—the opening you’ve been waiting for! (*´ω｀*)
ポチップ
