He started roasting coffee in order to find his favorite flavor.

Kinubari was born in Yubetsu Town in the Okhotsk region. He grew up in his hometown until he graduated from junior high school, then moved on to a high school in Sapporo, a city famous for its basketball, and began living in a dormitory. After graduating, he went on to university in Sapporo. During his time at university, he was very active, hitchhiking around the country, and became interested in guesthouses when he learned about them while traveling in Southeast Asia.

Photo by ocarina

"I thought I'd like to work in a guesthouse when I returned to Japan, so I did some research and found out that there was a place in Sapporo called TIME PEACE APARTMENT (now closed), which was a pioneer of the guesthouse boom in Japan. I started out working there as a helper, but one of the staff members said he was going to start up a new guesthouse, so I moved there when I graduated." That place is " Guest House Yasubee ". On the first floor is "Kawai Coffee", a specialty coffee bean shop that also roasts its own coffee. Influenced by that, Kinubari gradually began to pay more attention to the beans when drinking coffee.

Photo by ocarina

"But no matter how many different coffees I tried, I couldn't find one that I liked. I thought maybe I could make something more delicious if I roasted it myself, so I started buying my own green beans and roasting them in my shop." However, he couldn't quite get the taste he liked. Then, he came across naturally processed coffee at a bean shop he frequented, and realized that this was the taste he liked. That's when he started roasting and selling natural coffee beans.

Photo by ocarina

He roasts all his coffee in a medium-dark roast because he wants people to understand that the taste can change just by refining it. He launched Kinubari Coffee in 2017 and gradually expanded his activities, setting up coffee stands at events and selling beans wholesale.

We plan events that encourage more adults to play in nature.

Going back a little further, Kinubari started working at the guesthouse in 2013. The following year, in 2014, he launched a voluntary organization called Earth Friends Camp (EFC). This was the result of activities he had been continuing since his student days. "My father, a civil servant, ran a local outdoor club, so from a young age he would often take me canoeing and mountain climbing. That's how I became interested in environmental education during my university days. I personally obtained qualifications and took courses, but when I was working part-time at an environmental NPO in Tobetsu Town, I suddenly thought, 'Even if I want to educate my children about the environment, it's meaningless if their parents aren't interested.'"

Parents need to first become interested in the environment and find playing in nature fun before they can begin environmental education. Kinubari felt this way and decided to turn even something as simple as going camping with friends into an event, and began producing events centered around the outdoors.

"I don't think we've been able to say that we've had a huge impact on society, but when I see participants who didn't know how to enjoy the outdoors to begin with actively going mountain climbing and becoming more environmentally conscious, I feel like we've come a little closer to the kind of world we would like to see."

The timing was right, so I went to Kamikawa Town with a friend.

Eventually, the people who participated in the events started to join in the activities together, and the number of friends gradually increased. The next turning point came in 2018, when Kinubari Coffee set up a stall at the autumn leaves event held in Sounkyo, Kamikawa Town.

"My family and I stayed in Kamikawa for three days, and it was at that time that the town of Kamikawa started recruiting local revitalization volunteers. However, this was a little different from the usual recruitment. It was called the ' Kamikawa Works Project ,' and they were looking for people who could have an impact on the town while pursuing interesting things." The volunteers are called "Producers" and are recruited in four areas: Food, Outdoor, Lampwork (now Craft), and Community. While Kinubari was vaguely thinking, "What would it be if I were to do it?", his wife gave an unexpected answer: "Maybe I should apply to be Lampwork Producer." Later, an EFC staff member said, "Then I'll apply to be Community Producer," and similarly, staff who supported EFC's activities also started applying to be Outdoor Producers. (Currently, there is also a position called Creative Producer.) "So, all the positions were filled. We all got the idea of moving there together, and when we went for interviews, we were all actually hired. That was at the end of 2018."

Instead of relying on the land, you can create a rich life for yourself.

They moved together as friends. It's reassuring, but how did they feel about moving to Kamikawa Town, a place they had no connection to? "I don't really think it's important which town you live in. At the very least, as long as you have friends nearby, you can have fun anywhere. I feel like you have to make your life richer yourself, rather than relying on the land to make you rich. In that case, I think more people can help you achieve a richer life together than just one." Although they love Sapporo, they decided to move because they wanted to be closer to nature where they could play, and they also wanted to raise their children in an environment similar to the one they grew up in. If the timing had been different, they might have moved to a town other than Kamikawa, so in that sense it may have been fate.

Since arriving as a volunteer, he has been busy roasting beans and serving hand-dripped coffee in the cafe space of Oyuki Kamikawa Nukumo, a complex that also has a playroom and free space, and broadcasting live information about Kamikawa every month.

"Nukumo" free space

"At the same time, there was talk of incorporating EFC in order to commercialize the activities that we had been doing as a voluntary organization. I thought it would be nice to create more opportunities for ordinary people to be more immersed in nature, as an extension of what I had been doing since my student days. Kamikawa has facilities that are suitable for outdoor weddings, and when I proposed this to the town hall, they were very happy, saying, 'If you can use it in that way, I couldn't be happier.'" At that time, a staff member told Kinubari, "We who live here now want to create a place where we can think together about how we can use what we have now to connect with the outside world and improve our lives," and this struck a chord with him. "We realized that we needed a place like that right now, so we decided to work together to create it. And so, in October of this year, we had our grand opening as the Kamikawa Town Communication and Co-Working Space " PORTO ."

The town becomes even more interesting when the outside breeze comes in.

When creating PORTO, the most important thing was to "create a reason for people from outside to come." Because community spaces tend to be for local residents only, we also set up a counter to provide tourist information and accept relocation consultations. However, there may not be many people who will go out of their way to stop by just for that.

"So I created a co-working space. I had occasionally seen people using the free Wi-Fi in the parking lots of convenience stores to work on their computers, so I thought that if there was a co-working space, people would stop by." When they recruit people, more than 10 members gather from within and outside the town, and someone uses PORTO every day. I have a feeling that the regular exposure to the outside air will naturally create interesting chemical reactions. That is one of Kinubari's aims.

"I prefer to entertain myself rather than being entertained by others. What's more, it's a lot of fun to work together with others to achieve something that I couldn't do alone. I hope that something new will be born from these chance encounters." It's possible that in the near future, he will achieve things he can't even imagine now. This sense of excitement is what drives Kinubari today.