Ohara

CODE: NICE-26S-0723A

Work:

Volunteer will help to 1) maintain the old houses by cleaning up, drying many sleeping mats, etc., 2) do farming (weeding in the green tea field that was abandon, cultivating, planting and harvesting potatoes) and 3) do other community work (e.g., construction, chopping woods, trail maintenance). Children sometimes work with adults and other times play in the nature (river, etc.) by the assistance of some parents (by turns) and supporting vols.

Accomodation and food

A few rooms of the traditional renovated house! Meals will be cooked by turns. Sleeping bag is not necessary. Simple shower rooms. Clean toilets. You can see how the village looks like at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzGZvho8fVQ

Location and leisure

200 km north east of Osaka. Katsuyama is an agricultural city and famous for dinosaurs discovery. Ohara village is located at 500 m a.s.l. and surrounded by the mountains with very rich nature (e.g., the spring water is drinkable and very tasty!). Other activities - Exchange parties, Excursion on a free day including the famous Dinosaurs Museum and its experience program of fossil excavation, etc.

Project hosted by

This project is actively working for SDGs 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), organized together with Ohara Eco Project (OEP) since 2009. There were 600 inhabitants in Ohara village with 90 houses 100 years ago, but now no inhabitant! OEP was founded in 2006 and has rehabilitated 7 houses of cultural heritage. They maintain and revive the trails and fields, organize the workcamps with NICE and run various eco tours, so got the best prize of Creating Home Town by the national government in 2016! The family B13workcamp started since 2013 (President of NICE keeps joining as a leader with his kids) and hosted a lot of families from Japan, Asia, Europe and Americas with great success.
*Outcome of this workcamp: In 2025, 10 vols. from 3 families greatly contributed to weed in the tea field, cleaned the village road, etc. See the presentation made by the volunteer for the IVS contest in Japan; https://www.slideshare.net/nice-workcamp/e5-55193721 (only in Japanese though).

Directions to meeting point

Additional comments

Study theme - Local SDGs (2030 goals) of Ohara Participation fee - 18,000 JPY (99 EUR by the rate on 2026 Feb. 14) of "NICE Volunteers" fee need to be paid in advance either by Card or PayPal. This is used for the project preparation/ coordination such as the transportation of the staff/ camp leaders, visa invitation cost, publications, etc. while the meals and the accommodation are provided by the local host by free (so, your fee is not used for those things!). Child is exempted to pay this, but need to pay 7,000 JPY per child for the meals to be paid on arrivals. Other - The President of NICE every year joins this as the project leader!