Help save this unborn hotel in Japan

I started this campaign to raise money for my business in Japan.

About Me

I am from Hong Kong and have recently moved to Japan. I started this hotel business with my partners, also from Hong Kong, in hope to help contribute to the revitalization of outskirt areas in Kansai. I love Japan and I have visited Japan frequently before I eventually moved here about 2 years ago.

The Changing Living Conditions

Hong Kong has changed drastically in the past decade; the air pollution, the high cost of living, the poor living conditions for most average citizens of Hong Kong. As I lived in Hong Kong for the past decades, I witnessed the changes and recognized that Hong Kong is becoming less and less appealing for quality life. Compared to Japan, Hong Kong is a 1,104 km2 city with approximately 7 million people living in it. Hong Kong is incredibly crowded in many places and housing is super expensive to afford; there are hardly any plants inside the city and not many places for recreational activities compared to other countries. My family of 4 members had to sleep in a 6 square meters room together at night. The home we lived in Hong Kong is only about 45 square meters, which is the average size home for an average family in Hong Kong. Click on this link to learn more about why Hong Kong housing is so expensive . Owning a home is simply an ‘impossible dream’, according to many Hong Kong youth frustrated over city’s housing crisis .

Renting a 160 sq ft flat for HK$7,300 (USD$940) a month in Hong Kong where cramped living conditions for the majority of the population are the norm. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG


The Heavy Loads and the Hazards

Hong Kong has the most expensive housing in the world; in the year 2019, Hong Kong was already ranked 1st in terms of cost of housing (averaging 1,987 USD/sqft.) according to statista.com. (Top housing markets globally by price/sqft 2019). With continuously increasing housing cost even until today, and with chaos on the streets of Hong Kong due to protest in 2019, I have decided to move away from Hong Kong in 2019.

Frontline protesters in Hong Kong pro-democracy protests 2019–2020 (Photo: Lam Yik Fei)


It was taken in a large protest in Hong Kong on August 31, 2019 (ABC News: Brant Cumming)


The Challenge of Japan

I have always been a fan of Japan since I was a student and have visited Japan more than 30 times as a tourist. Through my travels to Japan, I have learned that Japan is a beautiful country with deep history and cultures that supports vast varieties of arts and lifestyles. Unfortunately, some of Japan’s beauties are in the verge of disappearance. Having the most aged society in the world, with more than 35% of its population expected to be 65 and over by 2050 , Japan is at risks for economic growth and straining government finances. When asked about Japan, many can associate big cities such as Tokyo for its urbanization. People across Japan keep moving to metropolitan areas to pursuit better livings and job opportunities. This phenomenon is threatening the existence of many smaller cities in Japan as these towns and villages are dying out because of the lack of residents and visitors .

An elderly resident of a village in Japan's Gunma Prefecture. As young people continue to relocate to major cities, rural towns are looking for ways to boost their population. Issei Kato/Reuters


Making an impact with the business

In the effort of promoting and rejuvenating business activities outside of metropolitan areas, I decided to open a licensed hotel in the outskirt of the Osaka with my friends from Hong Kong. With this hotel business, I want to provide a unique traveling experience to tourists by promoting tourism in outskirt areas as well as local living style and culture. Our business model is to deliberately select abandoned residence homes and convert them into micro-hotels. A free rental car will be provided to each booking, which then allow our guests to access places that typical tourists will not go to due to limited public transportations. This will not only give travelers additional freedom, as they can travel anytime without worrying for missing trains or buses, but as well as the mobility to carry extra belongings. I hope that through this business, we will be able to channel more international visitors to outskirt areas and therefore to help in conserving culture and heritage of those areas, while at the same time enable more people to discover the beauty of those “hidden attractions” that are known by very little.

If you want to know more about our hotel, you can visit our hotel website https://myhomeinn.jp

The Hard Truth

Just as we obtained the license, and were excited looking forward to serving customers from all around the world as well as to experiencing the joy of touring visitors to those little known but yet beautiful attractions, the unexpected happened. Covid-19 struck the world; many countries have had, or still having, lockdowns and have closed their borders. Japan is one those that have hard restrictions on foreigners trying to enter the country. It is now the year 2021, and Japan still hasn’t opened up to allow most of foreigners to come in, and our hotel rooms are still empty. On the other hand, having given up everything in Hong Kong (and Canada) to move to Japan, we are burning our life savings. I am now risking our family’s future well-being to keep this business alive; we haven’t had any income since we left Hong Kong, and the situation is becoming serious.

Just a little help

We are here to ask the world to give us a chance, give this business a chance. With your help, the business can be kept alive and survive through Covid-19. Early signs from countries with leading vaccination rate such as UK and USA already suggest that it is possible for people to slowly resume different kinds of daily activities that we’ve had before covid-19. If you also love Japan, and will one day come to Japan for visit, we sincerely invite you to come to live in our hotel. By donating to us now, we will put your money into your future’s booking.

Please support us, support our livings in Japan by helping us save our business. Give us a chance to try our business.

Donate:

$ 110 – 2 nights stay in our hotel.

$ 380 – 1 week stay in our hotel.

$ 800 – 1 month stay in our hotel with 2 years VIP membership. (quantity limited)

$ 1,600 – 3 months stay in our hotel with 3 years VIP membership. (quantity limited)

$ 3,200 – 7 months stay in our hotel with 5 years VIP membership. (quantity limited)

$ 10,000 – 10 Years VIP member for our hotel, you can stay up to 1 year, and one free month of stay every year, for the next 10 years. (Only 2 available, first come first serve based)

Note: All booking via this donation will be granted within one year from the donation date. All bookings subject to availability.
VIP membership: VIP members have the privilege to receive A free one-month-stay in our hotel within the validity date of their membership.

All rewards from the above come with free car rental provided by me.

Please contact us for details and bookings. Please contact us via email if you have made a donation, and we will arrange your donation rewards ASAP.