廃校 - Haiko Cafe

As I wrote this down from Indonesia, a country far away from Japan, I have no picture of the real cafe here. I only have this sketch of my imagination about Homei Haiko in the future, when people are coming again to this beautiful place hidden in the village of Yamaguchi Prefecture. I had took this photo approximately 2 months before the real event was finally done.

I had been living in Japan for around 3 months in between these places called Haiko, to be exact in an awesome prefecture named Yamaguchi. Just for your information, "Haiko" is a Japanese term of closed schools due to the phenomenon of declining birth rate in Japan.

This was one of the Haiko that I visited and have been working on during my internship in Japan, namely Homei Elementary School in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.

Last November 20th, 2016, there was a local village event, namely Homei Art Festival. Homei Haiko had the opportunity to become the first haiko in Yamaguchi to open the Haiko Cafe. This cafe will be a mobile cafe, will only sell simple products, and the most importantly, will only be open in the Haikos, in line with its name and concept to revitalize Haiko in Japan. The aim of this cafe is to invite people to come visit Haiko and see the true value behind this nation-wide issue. Hoping to make people realize, that revitalizing Haiko in villages can improve the basic necessity of life itself, the humane relationship again.

Apart from Haiko Cafe, they also collaborated with some local parties around Yamaguchi area, such as the bamboo-bike for village revitalization initiative, Spedagi Ato, which a branch of Spedagi Indonesia. And even a local animator showcased her works there, about beautiful things through her simple yet modern animation.

Isn't it amazing to see one abandoned place turns into a meeting point of many future posibilities?

For Haiko Cafe photos and more information, please contact: http://openhouse.co.jp/haiko-cafe/ . Do not worry, they do speak English too.

For Homei Haiko information, please check their page here.

I know not all Japanese understand English, and not all Indonesian understand English.

Yet still, I wrote this not in Japanese, not in Indonesian, but in English. At least this is the only way I can help Haiko issues to reach more people, more perspectives and hopefully more idea for our sustainable future.

ID.29.11.2016 #laviniaelysia #JapanLifeLesson