Three years ago, in the end of April, we went to Odawara for a month-long workation that changed our life. It was still covid-time and too few people were coming to Japan, the hotels and AirBnBs were cheap. Odawara seemed nice, near the sea and close to our favorite hot springs in Hakone. Why not to try it for a month and see what comes of it?

We quickly discovered how amazing that place was. You really have everything here. You practically live on the beach, the mountains and beautiful forests are nearby, Izu and Five Lakes of Fuji are just around the corner, yet it is still a large enough city that you do not have to worry about infrastructure, hospitals and schools and all the other important things.

It is also ideally located right on the border of commutable distance from Tokyo and you have two train lines to there plus a high-speed train (shinkansen) that can get to the center of the capital in 30 minutes. I was skeptical of it initially, but it proved to be very easy to go to Tokyo and back on a daily basis, providing some additional benefits like a time buffer between the workplace and home (I wrote more about it here).

That month was one of the best I remember. We found a community there as well, built around a great craft beer pub called Rodeo Dog. It was great.

A year later we moved to a rented house where we stayed for almost two years while we were looking for something to buy. And finally, we found a place, bought it, renovated it and never planning to leave. I want to build more here and show more people how great this place is. Stay tuned for more texts about this great city!

Now playing: Ross Ainslie & Brighde Chaimbeul

Photos are Dimitry Rakin (DR)