Excursion Program (June, 11) 

Excurision program will be available on June 11 (Sunday).
Please find the details of the program below.

Date and time: 2023 June 11 (Sunday), 8:30-16:00 *Departure and arrival at JR Akita Station

Locations：Oga-shi, Gojome-machi, Ugo-machi
*See the program details at each location below.

Fee：4,000 yen (payment through credit card only)

Application：Please register one of the three locations as you register to the conference. We will use the same online payment system for the registration. 
 

Theme: Meeting the Initiative-based Rural Entreprenurship

  The theme of this conference, intergeneraitonal ties in sustainability, is very much relevant to the current situation of rural Japan where the population is rapidly ageing and depopulating. It is becoming more and more difficult to have settings to share and pass down the experience and knowledge the residents have received from the previous generation in rural areas because young people are keep outflowing from rural areas to the outside areas, most notably to metropolicies such as Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. 
  Despite such a challenging situation, there are some individuals who find the way of living and working in Akita's environment/fudo attractive and started to extract the values from those local culture and resources. One commonality of those individuals is that they all have entreprenurship. In this context, entreprenruship does not only mean business-oriented approach but also the entrepreneurial mindset that initiates new ideas and practices that improve their everyday life. Such "initiative-based entreprenurhsip" is one of the key aspects of rural areas in Japan today.
  The excursion program is going to introduce how such initiative-based entrepreneurship is bieng performed in three locations in Akita Prefecture, Oga-shi, Gojome-machi, and Ugo-machi. We will have local coordinators who are also local residents of those towns. We look forward to having you in the excusion program!
 

Note for those who are considering to participate the excusion:

• You will only be able to join one of the three locations. As you apply, please let us know which location you wish to join.
• Each location has the cap of 30 participants due to the transport and local coodination capacities.
• Once one location receives 30 applications, the system automatically does not accept any more applications. 
• Please see the detailed program in each locaiton below.

• Cooridnator：Mr. ONISHI, Katsuki (Akita Satoyama Design)
• Schedule：
  • ​​8:30: Leave at Akita Station
  • 10:00：Arrive at Oga-shi
  • 10:00: Field visit to abandoned agricultural fields and meet those who are working on their re-purposing projects.
  • 10:50: Visit tenoha Oga

• 11:20: Lunch・Blue Back Diner Shugo

• 12:00: Dialogue session with Satoyama Coffee

• 13:30: Oga Shinzan Denshokan - Namahage perforance
• 14:30: Leave Oga-shi to Akita-shi
• 16:00: Arrive at Akita Station

Option 2：Gojome-machi (central area of Akita Prefecture)

• Coodinator: Ms. TAKAHASHI, Kyoko (Adjunct Research Fellow, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo)
• Schedule：
  • 8:30: Leave Akita Station
  • 9:30: Arrive at the Asaichi area of Gojome

• 11:00: Move to BABAME BASE
• 11:45: Lunch at POKOPOKO KITCHEN
• 12:45-14:45: World Cafe with local entrepreneurs
• 15:00: Leave Gojome-machi to Akita-shi
• 16:00: Arrive at Akita Station

Option 3: Ugo-machi (southern area of Akita Prefecture)

• Coordinator：Mr. KOMORI, Ichita (former regional revitalisation offier at Ugo-machi)
• Schedule：
  • 8:30: Leave Akita Station
  • 10:00: Arrive at KOBAYA

• 11:00: Kayabuki Sanso Kakuzan

• 12:00: Lunch at Nouka Kitchen Arumonde
• 13:30: ASEN renovated traditional house used as caf
• 14:30: Leave Ugo-machi to Akita-shi
• 16:00: Arrival at Akita Station