Sean Bonner: On Safecast and Japan

One of the most interesting and innovative global projects based in Tokyo is Safecast and who better to explain it than one of the most interesting and innovative people I know: Sean Bonner! I visited him at Safecast HQ in Tokyo and he explained not only what the project is, but also how it impacted his life as a new resident of Japan.

Re-inventing Ourselves and Our Homes

VTHouse
The Vermont Home / photo by Erik

Erik Nelson moved from house to house as an urban dweller, never living in a space that he felt connected to. Until he found forest land that appealed to him and built his own home there.  Or as he explains it:  “While most people find a job and then live near that job, we picked the place where we really want to live and then made it work with jobs we could get.”

But approach to work isn’t the only thing interesting about how Erik and his family live. In this podcast we talk about the reasons for making your own home on the side of a hill in Vermont, how the experience was building it and how it is now living there. In his experience we find yet another example of those who have left the conventional path and made their own home in a unique place/way.

Recommended: Erik’s Vlog, Wreck & Salvage and the entire collection of house photos on flickr.

New Approaches and Proven Methods for Rural Life

The goal to live life on their terms took Ryanne and Jay from New York City to San Francisco and eventually to Western Virginia.  It is here that this dynamic couple set out to build their own home, grow some of their own food, work on their terms, and generally tinker with life choices that were previously not an option or unaffordable.  The result is an inspiring start to healthy, stimulating and more sustainable life at a time where so many feel such goals are unreachable.

In this program I’m joined by Ryanne and Jay via skype as they explain how they came to this decision and all the aspects of the home and life they have built together in a place you might not have expected to find them.

Their Flickr Photos documenting their projects

Ryan is Hungry, the Vlog

Follow Jay and Ryanne on twitter