Moved to Tokyo to make his dream of “creating an amusement park” come true. The dream started to come true with the “likes” and “strengths” he found at Social Apartment.

Social apartments are rental apartments with a lounge and other public spaces in addition to private rooms for single residents. It is a new style of living where you can enjoy a community with other residents while maintaining your privacy, “expanding your world”.

Social apartments where people with diverse jobs, hobbies, and ways of thinking live together. The number of tenants in this house is as many as the number of people who live there, and each has its own way of living.

Our interview this time is with “Shogo”, who has been living at “World Neighbors Gokokuji” for about a year now.

Shogo, who used to be a teacher in the Kansai area, moved to Tokyo to realize his dream and moved into a social apartment. Currently, while working as a teacher at a junior high and high school, he organizes resident-led events and works to make his dream come true.

We asked Shogo, who is passionate about her dream, about her life at Social Apartment.

His dream is to create an amusement park of “learning x entertainment. Shogo started living in a social apartment to find friends.

── Shogo, you moved to Tokyo from the Kansai region and started living in a social apartment, didn’t you? Why did you choose Social Apartment?

In a nutshell, it was to find friends to pursue my dream with.

I am currently a middle and high school teacher in Tokyo, and my dream is to create an amusement park with the theme of “learning x entertainment”.

When I decided to move to Tokyo from Kansai, I decided to live in a social apartment because I thought I might be able to find friends who would support my dream if I lived in a social apartment where interesting people might gather, rather than living alone.

── I would like to hear more about your dream.

I have always been interested in “learning,” and I was a teacher at a public junior high school in the Kansai region. Then, why amusement parks? All the customers and employees were sparkling. I really liked that kind of space.

I thought, “What if I combined that with an amusement park while I was working as a teacher, which was my original dream? I came up with the idea of combining it with an amusement park. I thought that I could create a place where even children who dislike studying can enjoy learning.

I know it is hard to imagine an amusement park that combines learning and entertainment, but it is precisely because I can’t imagine it that I want to make it a reality.

Planning a cross-property event using a school within 2 months of moving in

── How did you feel when you actually lived in a social apartment?

There are people from all walks of life with different values and occupations, so it is exciting to make new discoveries every time I talk to them.

Whenever I talk with people and they mention something they want to do, I often get an immediate response of, “Great, let’s try it”.

When I first moved in, I told everyone that it would be fun to rent out the school for just adults to play, and they said, “I think we can do that. Two months after I moved in, I put out a call for applications, and in October of last year, we actually held an event where we rented out the school and had fun.

People from various properties besides Gokokuji got together, and we were able to interact and deepen our relationship with each other. We still get together and play together even now. It was really a great experience.

I felt that the friends I made at the event are very special.

── Isn’t it common in social apartments for people to become friends through events?

Yes, that is true. There are some things you can’t understand just by eating together. By experiencing a project together, I feel that it is also a way to make friends who will pursue their dreams together.

── I would also like to ask you about your daily life. How do you spend your time?

Recently on weekdays, we have dinner and talk about events we want to plan. I would like to hold about three or four more big events. In a more formal sense, it would be a meeting, but we talk about it in a more casual way.

I want to devote my time to things that lead to my dreams, so I may always be doing something. I’ve always been the type of person who can’t slack off or sit still.

I want to learn and see entertainment from all over the world, so I am going on a round-the-world trip next year!

── Did living in a social apartment change you in any way?

I have found what I “like” and what I am “good at”. I think it is a place where you often realize what you like to do as you talk about your dreams and work, and what you are good at as you play together with others.

Once again, I have come to realize that I love children and learning. And through my experience in event management, I realized that I am good at “putting on events” and “bringing people together.

▲Christmas party planned at Gokokuji

Furthermore, the experience of entertaining many people at events led me to the first step toward my dream of creating an amusement park.

Living in a social apartment gives you the opportunity to discover a side of yourself that you may not be aware of. I think that is the value of living here.

Even if you don’t know what you like or what you are good at, I think this is an environment where you can find it.

── Is there anything you would like to challenge yourself in the future?

Actually, I would like to start traveling around the world next April! I want to see the world’s learning and entertainment with my own eyes.

▲Music festival planned at Gokokuji Temple

I came to think this way because I have a friend who went on a round-the-world trip to Gokokuji. If I didn’t live here, I probably wouldn’t have thought about really traveling around the world. The fact that I was able to set the date for next April was largely due to the influence of my surroundings.

── That’s a big decision!　Finally, do you have any message for people who are thinking about moving in?

I think it is a place where a variety of people live, so it is easy for new things to be born from the experiences and ideas of each person.

That is why there are many opportunities to find what you “like” and what you are “good at”. There is no harm in joining!

(Reporting, writing, and photography by Tsubasa Inoue)