Want to ‘live like a human’? Escape to a Seto island

Taro and Aki Iwasaki packed up their life in Kyoto to move with their children in 2011 to the island of Osakikami, Hiroshima Prefecture.

It had long been Taro’s dream to return to his parents’ home region of the Seto Inland Sea. The couple now operates Iwasaki Nouen farm, where Taro grows fruits including lemons, tangerines, blueberries, strawberries and kiwis, which Aki then turns into a creative array of jams, cakes, puddings and sauces for the farm’s cafe.

The Iwasakis say that their move to the rural island has opened their eyes to a slower and eminently more fulfilling way of life.

“When we lived in Kyoto, I was a salaryman and had almost no time to spend with my family,” Taro recalls. “It was only after moving here to this island that I feel I started to live like a human being.”

“Our life now has a richness to it that we never had before, and it feels like we are finally living the way we are supposed to,” Aki adds. “In Kyoto, our son played video games nonstop, but now he goes out fishing with his friends.

This island is a fantastic place for raising kids and creating community.”

Located about two hours east of Hiroshima with a population of around 7,000 and an average age of 74, Osakikami is facing its depopulation issue head-on by offering generous assistance packages for people who relocate. These include housing assistance payments of nearly ¥100,000 for a three-month trial period given to those considering a move to the island, as well as ¥1.5 million offered yearly for up to five years to assist those entering the farming sector.

The Iwasakis are doing their part — every year, they bring in several new interns to work on their farm and in their cafe. Many of these are young people who find them via Instagram, including this year’s team of five interns.

“We did not have any support from others when we first arrived here, so I wanted to be able to offer a welcoming space for newcomers,” Aki notes. “We are slowly becoming a resource for connecting people in urban areas who want to experience island life like we have, and who are anxious to call this place home.”

All across the Seto Inland Sea, businesses have popped up in recent years after transplants from Japan’s urban jungles have sought to escape the relentless daily grind. It’s not just aspiring farmers, either. On Ikuchi Island, which is located two islands over from Osakikiami and lies along the popular Shimanami Kaido cycling route, Keisuke Masuda — CEO and head roaster of Overview Coffee — is another prime example of life being breathed into these picturesque islands by newcomers hoping to ply their trades.

As he deftly manipulates the dials of his roasting machine, Masuda acknowledges its hefty price tag — around double that of most roasters. Still, he says, the sleek device has paid for itself many times over in terms of ecological savings, which is a core priority of his eco-friendly company.

A native of Shizuoka Prefecture, Masuda honed his craft in Australia over the past decade during several stints spent at the organic farms and cafes of Byron Bay and Sydney. His inspiration to establish Overview Coffee in Japan arose from a 2020 encounter on the slopes of Hokkaido’s Niseko resort with fellow snowboarder and environmentalist Alex Yoder, who had just founded the company’s flagship cafe in the U.S. state of Wyoming.

“In addition to an 80% gas reduction during roasting, Overview takes the concept of sustainability a step further by working with coffee farmers around the globe who practice regenerative agriculture,” Masuda notes. “This involves lowering carbon levels by burying carbon dioxide in the earth, which positively impacts plants, animals and humans alike. It could also help to avoid coffee’s extinction by 2050 — its projected fate if climate change continues unchecked.”

Although Japan is unsuitable for coffee production, Masuda wanted to find a home for his roastery and cafe in a rural setting close to the cycles of nature.

He decided on a former salt kura (warehouse) on Ikuchi for its stable year-round climate — ideal for achieving a consistent roast — as well as its thriving community of organic farmers. Overlooking the nearby Setoda Port, the warehouse stands among other structures built by the top Kyoto craftspersons of their day, including the stately Azumi Setoda Inn and its yubune community bathhouse, which reopened in 2021 following a large-scale renovation.

“These buildings date back 140 years,” Masuda notes. “Through this warehouse's transition from salt to coffee, its unique features such as tsuchikabe (earthen walls) and overhead wooden beams have remained unchanged — and it is up to us to make sure that it continues thriving for future generations.”

Also opening in 2021 along with this renovation was Soil Setoda, an adjacent inn and restaurant partnered with Overview Coffee. Sharing Masuda’s vision of forward-thinking innovation and respect for local history is Shodai Onizaki, head chef at Soil Setoda’s restaurant, Minatoya. A native of Kumamoto Prefecture, he relocated to the island following stints in the elite kitchens of Tokyo, Washington and Paris.

Working closely with producers on Ikuchi and other nearby islands, Onizaki puts fresh twists on local ingredients in his own hand-crafted wood-fired oven. These include citrus fruits from the trees dotting the island, which is Japan’s largest producer of lemons, and fish from the local plankton-rich waters. Dishes might include a robust plate of citrus-accented, charcoal-grilled island vegetables, or Onizaki might get creative with creamy gratin featuring giant Hiroshima oysters stuffed with rice, oozing melted cheese and flecked with spicy chilis.

Onizaki also spearheads local tourism projects by directing guests of Soil Setoda toward fishing, kayaking and cycling tours, and he helps address the problem of food loss by finding innovative uses for often-wasted items.

“By using any excess catch from the fishing tours in my dishes at Minatoya, and turning citrus into things like jams and spice blends, we are creating a win-win situation for everyone involved,” he says.

Onizaki’s altruistic philosophy was also partly inspired by his experience hiking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Europe, where he was surprised to observe that free lodging was the norm.

“I believe we are entering an era of returning to Japan’s traditional bartering culture, wherein knowledge and experiences will hold greater value than money,” he says.

Onizaki has several new restaurant projects in the works through his food-related collective, Terrain. He also works with partners in other regions to trade ingredients, including a chef in Tokyo’s Kagurazaka neighborhood who supplies him with preserved foods in exchange for sanshō pepper grown on the island. One of his future plans is to operate a restaurant on a pay-what-you-can basis in order to encourage social equity — particularly for young people who would otherwise be unable to afford fine dining. Another goal is to create a mobile workforce that rotates among his nationwide network of restaurants in order to focus more closely upon local seasonal cuisine.

“I want to show people that there are other ways to live and work than what we see in the mainstream,” he says.

Rural meets urban

With its fragrant citrus groves and picturesque harbors, Ikuchi Island exudes an atmosphere of serenity that has long inspired artists and poets. Its storied history also includes less tranquil episodes, however, including rule of the surrounding seas by the formidable Murakami kaizoku (pirates) during the 15th and 16th centuries, and prisoners who were sent to work the salt fields.

Ideal tidal currents made Setoda Port an important historical point of connection between different regions, with the salt transported during the Edo Era (1603-1868) toward Hokkaido.

In this sense, Onizaki’s vision involving the free movement of people is carrying forth this local history — and he is not alone.

Toshifumi Taniuchi and Mitsu Sasahara are producers in Onizaki’s network who split their time between Ikuchi and Tokyo while practicing a “half-agriculture, half-X” lifestyle. Utilizing completely natural farming methods sans any pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers, the pair grows citrus fruits and other crops along Ikuchi’s opposite coastline, on adjoining fields that had been abandoned as a result of the island’s growing depopulation.

Taniuchi, a photographer by trade, grows hassaku and navel oranges, green and yellow lemons, tangerines, plums and sanshō on his Tony Farm. He notes that this type of organic farming method normally produces dark blemishes or spotting on the produce — but he emphasizes that the reward is rich-tasting fruit.

After tasting Taniuchi’s fruit and being astonished by its deep flavor profile, Sasahara began growing lemons, along with hassaku and navel oranges, on her adjacent Honey Farm in 2019.

“Naturally cultivated lemons and citrus fruits are rich in enzymes and full of nutrients that are good for the skin,” Sasahara notes. “And because they are grown using no chemicals, the fruit can be enjoyed along with their peels.”

A stylist and designer, Sasahara began giving cooking classes for youth in Tokyo in order to teach them the importance of healthy eating. Also a long-time volunteer for various social causes, she began donating her fruit to several Tokyo branches of Kodomo Shokudo, a nationwide organization that helps families and children facing food insecurity.

If Sasahara and the others contributing to a new future for the Seto Inland Sea islands have their way, it's not just this idyllic community that stands to benefit.

“Traveling regularly to the island to farm not only gives me a chance to step out of my normal routine of styling work, but also lets me do something positive for the environment while introducing others to the nutritious, healthy food that I was raised on,” she says. “My goal is for not one piece of my citrus fruit to ever go to waste.”