There are career changes that are "easily explained", and then there is that of Rei Onoda. A former flight attendant with Emirates, this Japanese woman in her thirties traded international flights and the Dubai skyline for a 180-year-old house in a Japanese mountain village, where she bakes bread every morning.<\/p>\n
Rei Onoda worked for about four years as a flight attendant for Emirates, based in Dubai. A life of travel, hotels, and time zones\u2014intense, stimulating, but far from any notion of slowness. Returning to Japan after her marriage, she settled in Tokyo and joined a public relations agency specializing in tourism. It was there that another vision began to take shape.<\/p>\n
As part of her public relations work, Rei accompanied foreign journalists throughout Japan\u2014not just to major cities, but also to lesser-known rural areas. "I realized how many beautiful places there were in my own country that I didn't even know existed. I started to consider a more rural life,"<\/em> she says<\/a> . Then the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated everything.<\/p>\n Confined to an apartment near Shibuya Station, paying high rent in a gated community, Rei and her husband made a radical decision. After two years of searching, they bought a 180-year-old house in the village of Kamijo, about 225 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, for 8.5 million yen\u2014approximately \u20ac50,000. The property includes 2.4 hectares of farmland. Her husband left his job in fashion to become a licensed farmer, the only status that allows him to cultivate this regulated land.<\/p>\n Renovating the house into a simple dwelling ran into very strict preservation regulations, which were too costly to comply with. The couple then pivoted to a caf\u00e9-bakery project, financing the entire project \u2013 renovation, equipment, and construction \u2013 for a total of approximately 50 million yen, including 29 million yen in public subsidies for regional development and cultural preservation.<\/p>\n Alongside the three-year construction project, Rei trained as a baker in Tokyo under a German-trained artisan. She also became pregnant with her son during this time. Kamijyoan Bakery opened a year and a half ago. Rei manages the bakery\u2014country bread, sandwich bread, rye bread, cakes, and cookies\u2014while her husband runs the caf\u00e9. The establishment attracts both locals and tourists. The couple also brews a craft peach beer. <\/p>\n Covid as a trigger<\/h2>\n
A bakery born out of necessity<\/h2>\n
Three years of renovation, training in baking, a baby<\/h2>\n
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