Where in Japan is a good place for me to disappear into, to isolate myself away from society?

32 comments

1. Work at a farm through WWOOF.

   https://www.wwoofjapan.com/home/index.php?lang=jp

2. Maybe become a monk?

3. If you can work online then there are a huge number of places you could live in, where property or rent is cheap.

   What is your skill set and work experience, in general terms? What kind of other jobs are you willing or totally unwilling to do?

   It should be pointed out that you ought to consider getting professional help, as well. There are a ton of things messed up about modern society, as you well know, but trying to run away from all of it may or may not be an ideal solution.

4. Go live in the forest then. There are indigenous groups that are self sustaining and completely detached from the rest of society. It feels like you belong there.

5. There’s a video on YouTube of a man that lives in an old school in the mountains somewhere. He operates a coffee shop and plays music, maybe he needs some help, or knows someone who does? Being a gaijin has it’s perks, being on the outside looking in, I’m guessing you’re biracial or Japanese.

6. Try looking for jobs at a campsite? Your going to have to do a lot of digging and searching.

   You can find a remote job, get a loan, buy a mountain/ half a mountain, live on said mountain.
   Idk if it’s still a thing but I saw on TV a few years ago in some rural areas the mountains were around the same as buying land in some urban areas.

   Also saw some website for free broken down homes. You can take it fix it up and it’s yours.
   Good luck on your hermiting quest. I wish you all the best. 😊

7. Work as programmer online and you can isolate anywhere except when you take out the trash. But consider therapy ,there could be better ways to adapt.

8. Step 1.) Get a work from home job
   Step 2.) Live in the Inaka
   Step 3.) ????
   Step 4.) Profit

9. There’s a bunch of farmers in rural communities in Hokkaido who are too old to run their farms. They are desperate to sell their farms to young people who will take care of the land. There’s also a bunch of abandoned areas. I’m sure there’s a small town somewhere would let you work for some farms and stay there dirt cheap.

10. Farming, remote jobs, or maybe becoming a monk? Though I’m not sure of foreigners becoming monks in Japan. I don’t know anything about that.

11. Islands are proper remote and losing people.

    On the other hand, islands are not safe in many regards you cannot really do anything about.

12. Farms.

13. I went to Yonaguni island and I wish I could have lived there for like a year or so

14. If you were born and raised in Japan, wouldn’t you know of anything like this better than any of us?

15. Some temples will welcome you if you accept to proactively participate to their daily chores. I used to know a Japanese guy about 15 years back who did that.

16. I heard there’s a forest somewhere

17. No man is an island, no way you can make a living without a single direct exposure to at least another human being. Unless you were born in the jungle and know how to survive with whatever available in nature, which is unlikely seeing from your question.

    You can train yourself to do that, although there’s a good chance you will end up being miserable and go running to the city for fulfilling your basic needs, legally or not. You’ll have to deal with society, on whatever scale.

    Sounds like you were burnt out from life. Rather than finding woods to live, I suggest you take sometime off from any kinds of work even with little money that you have. Invest them in meet different kind people from other backgrounds and culture, travel, make peace with yourself and whatever it is in your mind that burdens you from the past, and figure things out before deciding that you want to isolate for good. There are more things for you out there, more than you think.

18. Visit Amsterdam, take mushrooms or smoke weed and spend some time in the vondelpark in the sun , lie down in the sunny park, relax. Then come back see how you feel.

19. You said Hakuba so you’ve been to Nagano before. Go south. Way south. Ina. Iida area. Oshika. I lived in Oshika for awhile. More deer there than people. Closest conbini is 45 minutes away minimum by car.
    Always looking for farmhands. Blueberries in the summer. Strawberries too. Before I left they were looking for young people to move to live there.

20. Buy an old house in the middle of nowhere and move there. Make sure that you have a little bit of land to farm your own food and perhaps keep a few hens for eggs and meat. If it’s near the sea then you can also fish.

    If you’re willing to do the work (farming and home maintenance) then your expenses will be minimal: taxes, utilities, some health care from time to time as long as you stay healthy… You may be able to have enough to live with a part time job somewhere.

    There’s a guy who lists cheap houses all over Japan, and some of these are pretty cheap and very remote. Let me know if you want the link.

21. stop thinking so oldschool. there’s tons of jobs you can do from home nowadays, for some you never even have to interact with another person. you also don’t need to live in the woods anymore to avoid people, just find a house in some remote village/small town and get all your food delivered to your doorstep. hell, just get a place in some typical commuter suburb and you still won’t need to interact with anyone but are still close to a city if you ever need anything there. unless you specifically want to live the oldschool recluse life, but don’t think that living in social isolation is somehow rare or difficult nowadays.

    source: living that life right now. literally the only people I interacted with the past few months are conbini staff and my family back home via WhatsApp. all while still having a decent job and earning well.

22. One word.. Shikoku.

23. A campsite manager is also a good option

24. Gifu-ken?

25. ishigaki

26. Move to Iwate, the forests and mountains here are fantastic! The hiking is amazing.

    I’m not certain but it must be very close to the lowest population density prefecture in Japan.

    No idea what the best work would be but there are plenty of farms, orchards, etc.
    There are also a variety of onsen, hotels, ski fields as well.

27. Ramen shop that has a single stall with dividers and curtains

28. > I am not of the world.

    lol

29. What do you not stand about society? Learn this and you can find your peace.

    As someone who also isn’t really a person who loves mainstream society, I get you. I cannot stand “office work.” But, the more you remove yourself from society, the more you have to end up relying on yourself. Can you purchase/build a home? If not, you have to rely on a land and building owner. Can you grow/hunt your own food? If not, you rely on the markets. I think you get the idea. To interact with society for services, you’ll also need money which usually means giving something of value to society.

    Is it just a kind of social anxiety? You mention sekkyaku? Maybe consider programing (hit and miss) or translation (if bilingual). People have also mentioned monk or working on a farm (WWOF). Most likely you will have to live in society while not really being a part of it, unless you start training to become a survivalist who literally can live off the land in some remote place in Japan.

30. Mate, I see lots of people suggesting jobs. Recently, on the news I watched I saw two guys just wandering the streets. One selling different kinds of yaki imo, one selling coffee. You can do whatever you like as long as you think people will buy whatever you’re selling. Find out what you like to do and sell it.

31. Yeah, come on out to Ryuujin. I’m often offering place to stay in exchange for some light labour

32. I’m curious, did you also feel that you could not stand society when you were abroad, or do you only feel that way in Japan?