Early next year i plan to expand my rural Japan cafe to include rescuing stray cats in my area to turn it into a unique Cat Cafe. Any help is very much appreciated. www.buymeacoffee.com/realruraljapan
There are about 500 stray cats on Ishigaki Island. you are welcome to pick up some to give them a loved home. Half of them are vaccinated thanks to our resident tax generosity. Your garlic breads look so tasty man!
I worked/managed in food service in my youth, and you are reminding me how rough it was. Renovating and hosting an Airbnb does seem like the smarter option for someone like me, as I grew up living on sailboats/and learning all the skills to not only maintain, but completely rebuild the interiors. You learn wood/metalworking, plumbing, electrical, mechanics, all in obnoxiously tight spaces and with limited tools. I once again appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge with us. That garlic bread really looked amazing man.
Great advice. Becoming a successful cafe/restaurant owner in Japan is like becoming a working actor in jidaigeki over there. The natives have such an advantage over you its criminal. You're taking on the most conscientious, patient, painstaking and detail oriented people on the planet at their own game. They do almost everything we do, burgers, pizza etc better than us too so you have to be operating in a niche where your gaijinness is an asset not a liability. Running a food business even in the West is a dodgy proposition at best. If you're willing to lose money on it then its a different story, Its a rich man's hobby at that point, like yachting
Also a lot of people, at least back here in Aus, open cafes but have no actual hospo exp, their whole experience is as a customer thinking it's an easy job anyone can do. Was brought up cooking in Australia in a Euro family since I could barely look over the kitchen table. Have been developing and writing down my own recipes for food and drink for at least 15 years for just such a business. With any luck, looking forward to chatting more about it later this year
In Australia often rich families buy the dumb child a cafe or restaurant so they have something to do because they would be unemployable otherwise. They don't care if they lose $500k as long as the kid has some fake status. Meanwhile their staff suffer because they are working for a person who should be nowhere near a position that could affect other people's lives.
If you want to open up a café, should have at least worked in one for a while to make sure you can do the job. That is all so true for any small business you may want to open.
The thing about being busy for the first month is key in Japan, I suspect. From what I saw, new restaurants are busy as everyone wants to try them, but Japan has many good restaurants and customers won’t come back if the restaurant isn’t good. So you don’t have time to improve your skills gradually overtime, I suspect, as the potential customers will have all tried (or heard about) your food in the first month. The izakaya I used to go to in Japan had a really friendly owner who was very well known by everyone - his business definitely benefited from the personal relations. I knew a carpenter who had a bar he ran a couple of days a week as a hobby - he was popular too, so his bar was filled with his friends. I don’t know if it was profitable for him - he never tried to live off it as far as I know.
Nobody wants to go to a bar where the food is subpar and the conversation dull. These are the very basics and as i said i couldn't cut the mustard where the real Izakayas are either. Where you don't have a captive audience like in a tourist spot is whole different level of where you need to be. Most tourists have never been to an Izakaya they have been to a place that looks like one.
The coffee temperature example was interesting. New owner likes real hot coffee, reaps the unintended consequences of people sticking around longer due to hotter coffee, I assume tieing up seats preventing fast enough turn over of people. Of course, something small like that you need to recognize the correct problem, not see the "hey people are staying longer thats great they must really like it".
Just because someone has money doesn't make them smart but that is the default position of most people when looking at rich people. Some people are rich despite being stupid.
Appreciate this video, have been waiting for your side of this. I've considered the possibility of a business and know it won't be easy. Real Texas BBQ i feel would either be a hit or flop, but can be walking distance to a train station.
I feel like food service is the most competitive, brutal, low-margin business to operate anywhere in the world there is good food. It's something I fantasize about from time to time but don't think I have the willpower for. I dream of operating a small organic farm when i get there and a doujin manga localization business. Probably both pretty silly ideas, I know nothing of building the business relationships there that would be required. 😅
You have decided it will fail. Why should it be a small farm? If you want to localise manga then join a translation agency. Not to mention a course in starting a business. If you have the ideas then do it, but please come up with more options.
Courses in starting a business are made by people whose business is writing a course about starting a business. Just like the guys who sell books on How to get rich is about selling books. As i said in the video i have worked with MBAs who couldn't run a lemonade stand.
@@spartan.falbion2761 You're taking a light-hearted comment too seriously. But to answer your questions regardless: It should be a small farm so the land can effectively be worked by one or two people. It's something I am interested in for myself, and sharing the results with my neighbors if they would like that, not really something I have commercial aspirations for. Also please don't think you have all the answers when you don't even know the questions. To whit, do you know why I am interested in starting a localizing business? You seem to be since you have "better" advice. But tell me, how does the "wise" advice of becoming an employee at translation company achieve my goal of getting a residence visa by starting a local business that employs Japanese nationals? It doesn't, not at all. You are correct that I need to take a business development course or two. You are once again entirely incorrect in your thinking that I have listed all of my ideas here, or even described them accurately. The purpose of my comment was to express sympathy toward the difficulty of starting a food service business and then mention some other things in a way I would not get useless unsolicited advice from internet know-it-alls, but of course the need for this reply proves what a profound failure my comment was in that regard. 😔
@RealRuralJapan That is good to know. But what about the peculiarities of Japanese business customs and interactions? I am like a fish in water when it comes to American office/business customs and politics, but Japanese business I have only heard from others, and most of their experience comes from the early 2000s.
@RarebitFiends He was just saying don't limit your aspirations and maybe get some business education that's all. I have many hours of videos discussing things you asked and much more so if you are serious pop on over that's why i spent the time to make them. Comment sections are not big enough to say everything as you have just found out with your interaction with the other subscriber.
Early next year i plan to expand my rural Japan cafe to include rescuing stray cats in my area to turn it into a unique Cat Cafe. Any help is very much appreciated.
www.buymeacoffee.com/realruraljapan
There are about 500 stray cats on Ishigaki Island. you are welcome to pick up some to give them a loved home. Half of them are vaccinated thanks to our resident tax generosity. Your garlic breads look so tasty man!
thank you for the info
No worries
I worked/managed in food service in my youth, and you are reminding me how rough it was. Renovating and hosting an Airbnb does seem like the smarter option for someone like me, as I grew up living on sailboats/and learning all the skills to not only maintain, but completely rebuild the interiors. You learn wood/metalworking, plumbing, electrical, mechanics, all in obnoxiously tight spaces and with limited tools.
I once again appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge with us. That garlic bread really looked amazing man.
Great advice. Becoming a successful cafe/restaurant owner in Japan is like becoming a working actor in jidaigeki over there. The natives have such an advantage over you its criminal. You're taking on the most conscientious, patient, painstaking and detail oriented people on the planet at their own game. They do almost everything we do, burgers, pizza etc better than us too so you have to be operating in a niche where your gaijinness is an asset not a liability. Running a food business even in the West is a dodgy proposition at best. If you're willing to lose money on it then its a different story, Its a rich man's hobby at that point, like yachting
If i was rich i wouldn't be running a cafe that is for sure.
thanks man for this great videos
No worries
now im hungry
Yea, seeing that garlic bread really challenging my diet right now.
Also a lot of people, at least back here in Aus, open cafes but have no actual hospo exp, their whole experience is as a customer thinking it's an easy job anyone can do.
Was brought up cooking in Australia in a Euro family since I could barely look over the kitchen table. Have been developing and writing down my own recipes for food and drink for at least 15 years for just such a business.
With any luck, looking forward to chatting more about it later this year
In Australia often rich families buy the dumb child a cafe or restaurant so they have something to do because they would be unemployable otherwise. They don't care if they lose $500k as long as the kid has some fake status. Meanwhile their staff suffer because they are working for a person who should be nowhere near a position that could affect other people's lives.
@RealRuralJapan 🤣🤣🤣🤣
If you want to open up a café, should have at least worked in one for a while to make sure you can do the job. That is all so true for any small business you may want to open.
Everybody's ... for a while... differs and if people don't know what they should know then you have the inevitable trainwreck.
The thing about being busy for the first month is key in Japan, I suspect. From what I saw, new restaurants are busy as everyone wants to try them, but Japan has many good restaurants and customers won’t come back if the restaurant isn’t good. So you don’t have time to improve your skills gradually overtime, I suspect, as the potential customers will have all tried (or heard about) your food in the first month.
The izakaya I used to go to in Japan had a really friendly owner who was very well known by everyone - his business definitely benefited from the personal relations. I knew a carpenter who had a bar he ran a couple of days a week as a hobby - he was popular too, so his bar was filled with his friends. I don’t know if it was profitable for him - he never tried to live off it as far as I know.
Nobody wants to go to a bar where the food is subpar and the conversation dull. These are the very basics and as i said i couldn't cut the mustard where the real Izakayas are either. Where you don't have a captive audience like in a tourist spot is whole different level of where you need to be. Most tourists have never been to an Izakaya they have been to a place that looks like one.
The coffee temperature example was interesting. New owner likes real hot coffee, reaps the unintended consequences of people sticking around longer due to hotter coffee, I assume tieing up seats preventing fast enough turn over of people. Of course, something small like that you need to recognize the correct problem, not see the "hey people are staying longer thats great they must really like it".
Just because someone has money doesn't make them smart but that is the default position of most people when looking at rich people. Some people are rich despite being stupid.
@@RealRuralJapan It is a fine line between personal passion and buisness sense.
Appreciate this video, have been waiting for your side of this. I've considered the possibility of a business and know it won't be easy. Real Texas BBQ i feel would either be a hit or flop, but can be walking distance to a train station.
Plenty of ways to make this work here.
Garlic breads and Calzones far too tasty to watch
I feel like food service is the most competitive, brutal, low-margin business to operate anywhere in the world there is good food. It's something I fantasize about from time to time but don't think I have the willpower for. I dream of operating a small organic farm when i get there and a doujin manga localization business. Probably both pretty silly ideas, I know nothing of building the business relationships there that would be required. 😅
You have decided it will fail. Why should it be a small farm? If you want to localise manga then join a translation agency. Not to mention a course in starting a business. If you have the ideas then do it, but please come up with more options.
Courses in starting a business are made by people whose business is writing a course about starting a business. Just like the guys who sell books on How to get rich is about selling books.
As i said in the video i have worked with MBAs who couldn't run a lemonade stand.
@@spartan.falbion2761 You're taking a light-hearted comment too seriously. But to answer your questions regardless: It should be a small farm so the land can effectively be worked by one or two people. It's something I am interested in for myself, and sharing the results with my neighbors if they would like that, not really something I have commercial aspirations for. Also please don't think you have all the answers when you don't even know the questions. To whit, do you know why I am interested in starting a localizing business? You seem to be since you have "better" advice. But tell me, how does the "wise" advice of becoming an employee at translation company achieve my goal of getting a residence visa by starting a local business that employs Japanese nationals? It doesn't, not at all. You are correct that I need to take a business development course or two. You are once again entirely incorrect in your thinking that I have listed all of my ideas here, or even described them accurately. The purpose of my comment was to express sympathy toward the difficulty of starting a food service business and then mention some other things in a way I would not get useless unsolicited advice from internet know-it-alls, but of course the need for this reply proves what a profound failure my comment was in that regard. 😔
@RealRuralJapan That is good to know. But what about the peculiarities of Japanese business customs and interactions? I am like a fish in water when it comes to American office/business customs and politics, but Japanese business I have only heard from others, and most of their experience comes from the early 2000s.
@RarebitFiends
He was just saying don't limit your aspirations and maybe get some business education that's all. I have many hours of videos discussing things you asked and much more so if you are serious pop on over that's why i spent the time to make them. Comment sections are not big enough to say everything as you have just found out with your interaction with the other subscriber.