The Story of How I Built a Campsite Through Brutal Exploitation

Summer vacation is finally here.Camp D-1 will also be welcoming many children. So, this time, I would like to write about the origins of Camp D-1.

◆ Introduction

Usually, if you want someone to work for you, you pay them wages. Even in volunteer activities, while you might have people cooperate for free, you would almost never take money from the participants who are doing the work.

However, that is exactly what I did.

And that is not all.

I made them bring their own packed lunches, bring the tools necessary for the work themselves, and then had them clear the mountain.

Even I have to admit, this was a brutal act.
Even Stalin or Mao Zedong might be dumbfounded.

◆ Participation fee is 500 yen per person

The outdoor education and training base I operate, "Camp D-1", utilizes a vast plot of land that spans about two mountains. However, it was not a place prepared for camping from the start.

Cutting down trees, mowing grass, clearing paths, and creating flat areas. Furthermore, finding a spring to serve as a water source, drawing water from it, and setting up various activity areas. Such work is not on a scale that one or two people can handle. Of course, I have disciples, but even then, there were not enough hands. So, I recruited members to participate in the development.

Participation by families was also welcome. Bringing children along was fine. However, participation was not mandatory. They only needed to come when it was convenient for them.

And the participation fee was 500 yen per person. This included tea, snacks, and insurance.

While recruiting collaborators, instead of paying them a daily wage, I actually took money from them. Moreover, they had to bring their own packed lunches.

They were also basically required to bring the minimum tools and equipment necessary for the work themselves.

Saws, hatchets, and work gloves.

As needed, I also had them bring shovels, brush cutters, and chainsaws. Those who were accustomed to handling brush cutters and chainsaws brought and used their own.

Paying money, bringing food, using one's own tools, and doing hard mountain labor.

Writing it out again, it sounds even more terrible.

◆ No work quotas

However, I did not set any work quotas whatsoever.

If you get tired, just take a break. If you don't want to work, you can go play. Only those who want to work should work. That is fine.

The children would help a little, then head off to play in the river. If they found a wisteria vine, they would grab onto it and start playing Tarzan. They would play until they were bored, and when they felt like it, they would return to the adults to help with the work again.

The adults were the same.

We mowed the grass, carried cut wood and branches, and built paths. When we got tired or bored, we would rest, eat, drink tea, and talk with our friends.

No one forced anyone to work or assigned tasks, ordering people to 'do this' or 'do that.' Of course, for dangerous tasks, we performed necessary safety checks and called out to each other, but otherwise, everything was left to individual judgment. That was the rule from the beginning.

We didn't even think about trying to move people efficiently to finish it quickly.

We did not separate the act of clearing the mountain from the act of playing on the mountain.

◆ When the work is done, everyone plays at night

When the work was finished, some people would go home that same day, while others would stay overnight at Camp D-1.

Whether or not to stay was, of course, entirely up to them.

And everyone brought various contributions.

There was truly everything: meat, vegetables, canned goods, juice, fish, sushi, alcohol, snacks, and more.

This was not something we had asked them to bring.

Everyone did it spontaneously,

'If I bring this, everyone can eat it.'

'This is a local specialty and it's delicious. I want everyone to try it.'

'This sake is outstanding. I finally managed to get some, so I want to drink it with everyone.'

'This is a rock bream I caught yesterday. Everyone, let's eat it as sashimi!'

That is how they thought about it and brought things to share.

At night, we would use the meat, vegetables, and fish we had brought to have barbecues and yakiniku.

We would gather around the fire, drink, and talk. After sweating in the mountains during the day, the meat and fish we ate together tasted delicious.

We also set up light traps and banana traps to collect insects.

Stag beetles, rhinoceros beetles, various moths, and more would gather. Both adults and children would cheer whenever they found them.

The development of Camp D-1 was not just work.

It was also a way for family and friends to play together throughout the day.

◆ Turning the development work itself into play

Normally, one might think that if people are taking breaks freely and children are running around playing, the work won't progress.

However, developing a vast mountain is not a job that can be finished in a day or two.

Even if you make people work efficiently for a short period, if they get sick of it and stop coming, that's the end of it.

Conversely,

If people think,

“I want to go again,”

then they will come back next time.

Participants would cut a little grass while they were there to play.

After eating lunch,

“Shall we widen the path a little more?”

someone would say, and we would widen the path a bit right then and there.

“This is a steep slope and it's dangerous, so let's build some stairs. We learned how to do it from A the other day, after all.”

If someone said that, those who wanted to would gather and build the stairs.

After that, we would play in the river with the children, and when we got bored, we would carry branches to the firewood storage area.

Those who stayed until night would eat together, gather around the fire, and look for insects using light traps and banana traps we had set up.

As those moments accumulated, the campsite gradually took shape.

We were not simply clearing a mountain.

We were all enjoying the process of clearing it together.

◆ I had done the same thing before

In fact, I had done something similar before Camp D-1.

There was a desolate thicket on the grounds of an educational facility. I received a request from the facility and began creating a forest.

At first, facility staff, parents, and children participated. Later, we made it possible for local residents to participate as well.

Participation was voluntary this time as well. Everyone brought their own lunch. The participation fee was 500 yen per person.

In addition to insurance premiums, it was also used to purchase snacks and drinks. If there was a little left over, we saved it and used it to buy equipment.

People also brought their own tools.

At a minimum, a saw, a hatchet, and work gloves. Those who knew how to use them also brought brush cutters and chainsaws.

In the summer, we used bamboo from the bamboo grove in the thicket to make flowing somen noodles. In the winter, we made pork miso soup. Contributions of food were also very welcome.

Over the course of several years, the desolate thicket became a forest playground equipped with walking paths and a day campsite.

We did not make it a place used only by facility staff. We made it available for local residents to use as well.

And even now, it is used as a place for interaction between facility staff, children, and local residents.

◆ You develop an attachment to a place you built yourself

If a completed facility is given to someone by someone else, people will use it.

However, a place where you have mowed the grass, cut the trees, and built the paths yourself is more than just a facility.

"We were the ones who cleared that path."

"We all worked together to clear the large fallen tree in that spot."

"We ate meals with the children there."

"We all gathered around the fire that night."

These are the memories that remain.

Regardless of who the legal owner is,

"This is a place we created."

That feeling is born.

That is why the pioneering members have such an attachment to Camp D-1.

They were not invited to a completed campsite as guests.

They built the place with their own hands from back when it didn't even look like a campsite. We all chatted and decided together where to make a spot for playing in the mountain stream, and where to set up the fire pit and tent sites. Furthermore, those who participated in the development were given the right to name the places and things they created.

When we built stairs, the participants discussed and decided on a name, then put up a sign. The steep, long staircase was named "Heartbreak Stairs."

Someone who processed a felled konara oak with a chainsaw and built a bench by himself named it "Takuya Bench" after his own name. The pioneering members also gave their own names to landmark trees, rocks, and other features.

In this way, by bringing their own tools, contributing food, playing with the children, and spending nights together, they made Camp D-1 their own place.

Therefore, going to Camp D-1 is a little different from going to play at someone else's facility.

Returning to a place you built yourself. It is close to the feeling of returning home.

◆ If it's not fun for the leaders or the participants, don't do it

There is a philosophy I value in my community and volunteer activities.

It is: "If it's not fun for the leaders or the participants, don't do it."

For the sake of the community.

For the sake of the children.

For the sake of the school.

These are all noble reasons.

However, noble reasons alone are not enough to keep people going for long. If activities are continued solely out of a sense of duty and self-sacrifice, both the leaders and the participants will eventually burn out.

In community and volunteer activities, one sometimes encounters the following mindset:

It is a community activity, so it is only natural to participate.

It is a necessary activity, so someone should help out.

This way of thinking is often seen.

However, if you demand participation from others by citing the significance of the activity as a reason, the activity itself becomes a chore for those participating.

There is no way such an activity can last for a long time.

At Camp D-1, we did not place work on the opposite side of play.

We built while playing, and played while building.

We charged a participation fee, made them bring their own lunches and tools, and had them clear the mountain. Furthermore, we had them voluntarily bring meat, vegetables, fish, sushi, and even alcohol and snacks.

Admittedly, looking only at the surface, it is a brutal act.

But no one was forced to do it.

If you are tired, you rest; if you want to play, you play; and only those who want to work do the work.

When the work is done, you can go home, or you can stay the night and spend the evening with everyone.

Even so, the campsite took shape, and everyone developed an attachment to it.

We did not gather people as a labor force. We gathered friends to build Camp D-1 together and enjoy the process together.

This is my brutal method of building a campsite.

Well, up to this point, it would just end as a story about building a slightly unusual campsite.
However, what I really want to write about starts from here.

◆ The Origin of Volunteering is the "Volunteer Soldier"

To begin with, what is a volunteer?

The English word "volunteer" was originally used to refer to someone who voluntarily enlisted for military service, in other words, a "volunteer soldier." Among them were those who correspond to what in Japanese is called a "giyūhei" (volunteer soldier), who join the ranks out of a sense of justice. Later, it came to refer to people who participate in activities of their own free will, even outside of military contexts.

A volunteer soldier is not a conscript sent to the battlefield by someone else's orders. In particular, a volunteer soldier is someone who thinks they should fight, feels a sense of justice, and joins the ranks of their own accord.

They do not go because they were conscripted. Nor do they go with the primary goal of receiving rewards or praise.

Historically, not every volunteer soldier was entirely self-funded, but there were those who even prepared their own travel expenses, food, and equipment before heading to the battlefield.

At the very least,

"I will participate if someone provides the necessary money and equipment"

"I will go if the treatment is good"

It does not start from such a mindset.

First, there is one's own will. And, following that will, one heads to a life-threatening battlefield on one's own. At the root of this is not an order or coercion, but the resolve to take it upon oneself.

Of course, the pioneering members of Camp D-1 did not go to a battlefield. What they faced were not enemy soldiers, but overgrown vegetation, fallen trees, bamboo thickets, and steep slopes. What they brought were not rifles or ammunition, but saws, hatchets, shovels, grass cutters, and chainsaws.

They brought bento boxes instead of combat rations, and even paid a participation fee of 500 yen. When night fell, they would bring meat, fish, sushi, and alcohol to have a barbecue together.

They cannot be compared to volunteer soldiers fighting for their lives, but

"participating of one's own free will"

in that respect, there is something in common.

Furthermore, at Camp D-1, the attitude of "I will bear the cost of what is necessary myself" was also added.

The pioneering members of Camp D-1 were not gathered as free labor. They gathered because they agreed with the purpose of Camp D-1 and wanted to build that place with their own hands.

That is why we paid the money. We brought the tools. We performed the work we were capable of doing, of our own volition. And precisely because it was a place we built ourselves, we felt an attachment to Camp D-1.

◆ Aligning the Three Vectors

I believe that in order to continue social activities or volunteer work, it is necessary to align three vectors.

The first is that it must be for the benefit of society and other people.

This is the primary premise. Activities that harm or inconvenience society or people should not be undertaken in the first place. Furthermore, even if it does not inconvenience anyone, if it does not benefit society or people and merely satisfies those involved, it is a hobby or a private activity, not a social activity.

The second is that you yourself must find the activity genuinely fun and interesting.

No matter how noble an activity may be, it will not last long if it is based solely on a sense of duty or self-sacrifice.

"Because it's for the good of the world"

"Because there are people in need"

If you continue an activity while suppressing your own heart for those reasons alone, you will eventually burn out. Therefore, it is necessary for you yourself to find the activity genuinely fun and interesting.

The third is that you must be able to earn most of the funds necessary for the activity yourselves.

By "earning" here, I do not simply mean pursuing profit. It means having a mechanism to sustain the activity through compensation for the value you provide, such as selling goods or books, or conducting events requested by local governments or companies.

I know of many organizations that stopped their activities because their grants were cut off.

Moreover, among the organizations I know, there were some that, when the grants supporting their activities were cut off, criticized the very side that had been providing the funds.

We are doing good things that society needs. Therefore, it is only natural that someone should provide the money.

I think that way of thinking is misguided. No matter how much social significance you claim, wasn't it an activity you started of your own volition in the first place?

In the first place, grants are not something that the recipient is entitled to receive as a matter of course. The grantor also has their own objectives and circumstances, and their budget is limited.

If we don't get a grant, we can't operate. If the government's budget is cut, we can't continue. If we don't collect donations, we can't do anything.

If you rely too much on external funding, the moment that funding stops, your activities may also come to a halt.

That is the same as having the life and death of your activities held in someone else's hands.

I feel the same way about crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding itself is not inherently bad. It has significant meaning when used to create new products, books, or films and return those results to supporters, or to raise funds from people who agree with social causes such as disaster recovery or maintaining facilities necessary for a community.

However, among the crowdfunding projects I see, there are quite a few that say,

"I want to do this."

"I want to realize my dream."

"So, I want you to agree and give me money."

There are not a few of these.

Of course, if others agree with an individual's hobby or dream and are willing to pay for it, I have no intention of denying that in itself.

But that is a different matter from volunteer work or social contribution.

If one starts to wrap their own hobbies or desires in words like "for the sake of the region," "to preserve history and culture," or "to pass on to the next generation," and begins to think that they deserve support because the activity is socially valuable, things go awry.

If it is a hobby, it should be a hobby.

If you collect money from people who find your project interesting, then you should just say so from the beginning.

If you are raising funds as a social activity, you need to clearly demonstrate what value that activity holds for society and people.

And while crowdfunding can be a force to start an activity, if you are in a state where you cannot do anything without it every time, it is no different from being dependent on grants.

You can use money collected from others as a spark to start an activity. However, you must not create a system where nothing can be done without it.

It benefits society and people.

You yourself can truly find the activity fun and interesting.

And you can generate most of the funds necessary for that activity yourselves.

Only when these three vectors all point in the same direction can an activity become self-reliant and long-lasting. If even one of them points in the opposite direction, it becomes an activity that does not benefit society or people, an activity driven only by a sense of duty or mission, or an unstable activity dependent on other people's money.

◆ Do not leave the fuel for your activities to others

Regarding the organization I represent, separate from Camp D-1, I have been told many times in the past,

"You should get a grant."

"If you apply there, you'll get a grant right away."

and so on.

However, I had no intention of putting grant money into that organization's activities, so I simply listened to their opinions with gratitude and left it at that.

Among those instances, I was once advised by the representative of an environmental group,

"You should apply for a grant from a major company called XX. We receive one every year, and I'm sure your organization would be selected."

I replied,

I replied,

"It's not just about that company; if you receive grants from corporations, it becomes difficult to criticize them later if they run into any problems."

I replied.

Then he said,

"Even if we receive a grant, we will still criticize them if something happens."

he said.

That is that organization's way of thinking. However, I do not think that way.

If you accept money, a sense of obligation inevitably arises. I cannot bring myself to accept funding from a party while simultaneously claiming that the funding and the criticism are separate matters.

If you want to maintain a position where you can criticize without hesitation when necessary, I believe it is more consistent to not accept the money in the first place. At the very least, I did not want to voluntarily give up that freedom.

I do not intend to deny the activities that utilize grants. For highly public activities or projects that require large amounts of money, grant systems can be a great help. There are people who cannot be saved and projects that cannot be carried out without funding.

However, if it is an activity that we believe is necessary and that we ourselves find truly fun and interesting, I believe we should first try to raise the funds through our own efforts.

The development of Camp D-1 was the same. That was something we ourselves thought was necessary and started because we wanted to do it.

To create a place where children can play, learn, and have various experiences in nature. A place where adults can also think about nature conservation and forest management, acquire those skills, and pass them on to the next generation. And, to enjoy it ourselves as well.

We began the development of Camp D-1 with the intention of building such a place with our own hands.

If that is the case, then we should first provide the necessary money and tools ourselves, and bear the labor ourselves.

We provide the necessary money ourselves. We bring the necessary tools ourselves. If something is missing, we earn the money and find ways to prepare it ourselves.

Because we put up the money, it stops being someone else's business. Because we brought the tools, a role for ourselves is born.

Because we broke a sweat, an attachment to that place is born.

If we had had someone else provide the money from the start, had someone else prepare the site, and only received the finished product, Camp D-1 would have been a different place than it is today.

Grants, naturally, have the objectives of the grantor. There are application conditions, restrictions on use, and reporting obligations. That is only natural when using public funds or foundation money.

Therefore, if you rely entirely on external sources for activity funds, you end up tailoring parts of your activities to the conditions of those providing the funds.

We wanted to advance our activities based on our own ideas.

We did not start this to fit someone else's application guidelines. Nor were we waiting for someone else's budget to be approved.

Even if a grant becomes part of the fuel that drives the activity, you must not leave all of the fueling to others.

There is no need to wait for someone else's money to do what you want to do. If it is something you want to do, earn the money and do it yourself.

Participating of one's own volition, without seeking rewards, praise, or someone else's arrangements. That, too, is the way I think volunteering should be.

Related:A night eating venison sukiyaki at Camp D-1.