Osaka – 日本で幸せに暮らす芳沢倍嘉

From China to Osaka: I Made the Right Move

I left China with a one-way ticket and two suitcases.

I didn’t have a perfect plan. I couldn’t even read the train signs properly in the first week.

But Osaka was kind to me from day one.

The trains are always on time. The streets are clean and quiet. The light in the convenience store is always on. My neighbor, the takoyaki shop owner, now knows my order. My landlord speaks to me slowly, word by word, to make sure I understand.

Slowly, I found my rhythm here.

I have my own small place. I run a small vacation rental business. I meet guests from all over the world during the day, and I build software for them at night. I picked up coding again — this time with Python and AI — and it feels like coming home.

There is no rush here. No need to prove anything to anyone. In Osaka, I can take my time and do one thing well.

Looking back now, moving from China to Osaka was the right step.

I am doing well. Really well.

Run Airbnbs in Osaka. So I Built My Own Software.

20 years ago, I was an ASP developer. I could build anything with it.

Then the world moved on. My favorite stack became “legacy”. For a while, I thought my time as a developer was over.

Two years ago, I moved to Osaka and started a small vacation rental business. I loved hosting guests from all over the world, but I hated the daily operations. Answering the same guest messages at 2 AM. Scheduling cleaners. Updating prices manually on 3 platforms. Changing the same listing description in 3 languages.

I looked for software to help. They were either too expensive, too complicated, or didn’t understand how business is actually done in Japan.

So I did what an old programmer does. I opened my laptop.

I started building small tools with Python. First a script to auto-reply to guests. Then a cleaner scheduler. Then a pricing bot.

With AI, everything became 10x faster. What used to take me a month in the ASP days, now takes a weekend. Python + FastAPI + Next.js + AI – this is my new stack.

This website is my new workshop.

I will share everything I build here in the open:
How I automate my Airbnb business, the small tools I make for hosts in Japan, and what I learn re-learning how to code in the age of AI.

This is not a tutorial blog from an expert. It’s a logbook from a builder.

If you are also a host, a solo founder, or an old programmer trying to come back, welcome. Let’s build something useful.

P.S. I’m currently building a micro-SaaS for Airbnb hosts in Japan. If you run rentals in Osaka, I’d love to chat.