Starting to Roast to Find His Favorite Coffee Flavor.

Born in Yubetsu, a town in the Okhotsk region, Mr. Kinubari grew up there until graduating from junior high. For high school, he moved to Sapporo to attend a school renowned for its basketball team, where he lived in a dormitory. After graduation, he continued on to a university in Sapporo. He was an active student, hitchhiking around Japan and becoming interested in guesthouses after learning about them during a trip to Southeast Asia.

Photo by ocarina

"When I got back to Japan, I thought I'd like to work at a guesthouse. I looked it up and found 'TIME PEACE APARTMENT' (now closed) in Sapporo, which was a pioneer of the guesthouse boom in Japan. I started working there as a helper, but then one of the staff members decided to open a new guesthouse, so I moved over there when I graduated."

That was 'Guesthouse Yasubee.' On the first floor was 'Kawai Coffee,' a specialty coffee bean shop that also did its own roasting. Influenced by this, Mr. Kinubari gradually started to pay more attention to the beans when drinking coffee.

Photo by ocarina

"But no matter what I tried, I couldn't find a coffee flavor I liked. I thought maybe I could make something tastier if I roasted it myself, so I started sourcing my own green beans and roasting them at the shop."

However, he struggled to achieve the flavor he wanted. Eventually, at a bean shop he frequented, he encountered coffee made with the natural process. He realized, "This is the flavor I like!" This discovery led him to start roasting and selling coffee beans with a focus on the natural process.

Photo by ocarina

To help people understand how much the processing method alone can change the taste, he standardizes all his roasts to a medium-dark level. In 2017, he launched 'Kinubari Coffee,' serving coffee at events and wholesaling beans, gradually expanding his activities.

Planning Events to Get More Adults Playing in Nature.

Going back in time a bit, Mr. Kinubari started working at the guesthouse in 2013. The following year, in 2014, he launched a voluntary group called 'Earth Friends Camp (EFC).' This was the formalization of an activity he had been involved in since his student days.

"My father, a civil servant, ran an outdoor club in our hometown, so he often took me canoeing and hiking when I was little. Following that path, I became interested in environmental education in college. I was getting certifications and taking courses on my own, but while working part-time at an environmental NPO in Tobetsu, it struck me: 'Even if you try to teach kids about environmental education, it's meaningless if their parents aren't interested.'"

He felt that the starting line for environmental education is when parents first become interested in the environment and find joy in playing outdoors. With this in mind, Mr. Kinubari decided, "Let's turn even simple activities like camping with friends into events!" and began producing outdoor-focused events.

"I don't think we've done anything that has had a huge impact on society, but when I see participants who originally didn't know how to enjoy the outdoors now actively going hiking or becoming more environmentally conscious, I feel like we've moved a little closer to the kind of world we hoped to create."

A Convergence of Timings Leads to a Move to Kamikawa with Friends.

Over time, people who had attended his events started helping out, and his circle of friends grew. The next turning point came in 2018, when Kinubari Coffee had a stall at an autumn foliage event in Sounkyo, Kamikawa Town.

"My family and I stayed in Kamikawa for three days, and it just so happened that the town started recruiting for its Local Vitalization Cooperator team. And it was a little different from the usual recruitment. It was called the 'Kami-KA-Work Project,' and they were looking for people who would have a positive impact on the town while pursuing interesting things."

The cooperators were called "Producers," and they were recruiting in four fields: Food, Outdoors, Lampwork (now Craft), and Community. As Mr. Kinubari idly wondered which role would suit him, his wife surprised him by saying, "I think I'll apply for the Lampwork Producer position." Then, a few days later, an EFC staff member said, "In that case, I'll apply to be the Community Producer," and another staff member who had supported EFC's activities decided to apply for the Outdoor Producer role. (There is now also a Creative Producer position.)

"I thought, 'Well, that fills all the spots. Let's all move together!' It was kind of a spontaneous decision, but after the interviews, every single one of us was hired. That was at the end of 2018."

Creating a Rich Life for Himself, Rather Than Relying on the Land.

Moving with a group of friends must have been reassuring, but what were his honest feelings about moving to Kamikawa, a town where he had no prior connections?

"I don't think it's that important which town you live in. At the very least, as long as you have friends nearby, you can have fun anywhere. It's about not relying on the land for a rich life, but rather enriching your own life... that's how I see it. And in that case, I think you can achieve a richer life together with multiple people rather than alone."

He says he likes Sapporo, but he also wanted to be closer to the nature where they play and wanted to raise his child in an environment similar to the one he grew up in, which led to the decision to move. If the timing had been different, he might have moved to a different town, so in that sense, it may have been fate.

After taking up his post as a cooperator, he has been leading a busy life, roasting beans and serving hand-dripped coffee at the cafe space in 'Taisetsu Kamikawa Nukumo,' a multi-purpose facility with a playroom and free space, as well as live-streaming information about Kamikawa every month.

The free space at 'Nukumo'

"At the same time, there was talk of incorporating EFC to turn the activities we'd been doing as a voluntary group into a business. It was an extension of what I'd been doing since I was a student, and I wanted to create more opportunities for the general public to spend time in nature. Kamikawa also has facilities suitable for outdoor weddings, and when I proposed this to the town office, they were thrilled, saying, 'We couldn't be happier if the facilities were used in that way.'"

At that point, a town official told him, "We want to create a place where we, the people living here now, can think together about how to use what we have to build connections with the outside and improve our lives." This really struck a chord with Mr. Kinubari.

"That's exactly the kind of place we need right now. I told them, 'Let's build it together.' And so, the Kamikawa Town Exchange & Coworking Space 'PORTO' had its grand opening this October."

A Breath of Fresh Air Will Make the Town Even More Interesting.

In creating PORTO, the most important thing was to "create a reason for people from outside to visit." Community spaces tend to become exclusive to town residents, so they also set up a counter for tourist information and relocation consultations. However, few people might go out of their way to stop by just for that.

"So, we created a coworking space. I'd sometimes see people working on their laptops in convenience store parking lots, using the free Wi-Fi, so I thought if we had a coworking space, they might stop by."

When they put out a call for members, more than 10 people from both inside and outside the town signed up, and now someone is using PORTO every day. With a regular influx of fresh perspectives, there's a sense that interesting chemical reactions will happen organically. That's also part of Mr. Kinubari's plan.

"I prefer to entertain myself rather than have others entertain me. And it's incredibly fun to achieve things with others that I couldn't do alone. I hope that new things will emerge from chance encounters."

There's a possibility that in the near future, he'll be accomplishing things he can't even imagine right now. That sense of excitement is what drives Mr. Kinubari today.