this is a day in the life of a Japanese
[Music]
Carpenter this is Eddie 27 years old
living in Osaka and she's just waking up
for
work she's been living alone in this
twostory 5 LDK house for the last year
it's extremely rare in Japan to live in
such a large house at her age especially
alone but it's for good reason it
doubles as her office and a storage
facility for her business soon though
she'll be renovating the entire space to
use only as an office so she's just
about to move
out Eddie is an experienced daiku
carpenter in English working tirelessly
every day with a strong passion to build
a future for herself here in Osaka but
being a carpenter wasn't always her
dream we'll get into that in just a sec
but for now let's see what she eats to
start her typical
[Music]
morning I guess she's eating yogurt with
nuts banana and topped with honey that's
healthy do you always eat Brown
bananas
tell so Eddie originally wanted to
become nutritionist so she enrolled in a
specialized high school but her dreams
would come crashing down when her
teacher told her that she could never
become a nutritionist due to her atopy
devastated she dropped out which led to
a severe depression where she couldn't
leave her house for months finally one
day her father who works in construction
made her come to the construction site
which ultimately changed the course of
her
life oh it looks like she started
working
already what are you doing
now she recently started her own
carpentry company called hakot skuru
which mainly renovates stores and houses
it's her sole responsibility to take
care of the administrative tasks like
project planning resourcing and
preparing codes for clients so what's
most important when running a carpentry
business
in Japan only 3.9% of the population are
business owners and Eddie is one of them
so when she's not working at the
construction site she has to be able to
quickly refocus her energy on the
business side of things such as HR
marketing and so on in order to keep her
company running good morning y'all we
are back with another day in the life
this morning has been a little bit crazy
it's been raining it's been sunny it's
raining now it's sunny again so I'm
super excited about this one though we
are going to go meet Edie right now and
I'm going to take you to her
place good
morning did you sleep all last
night today Eddie's going to the
construction site with their team which
is slowly growing all of them employees
plus one contractor the team usually
ride together from the office so until
they arrive she loads the van tools and
supplies as as much as possible to not
waste
time in Japan these days the number of
Carpenters have significantly decreased
by half compared to 20 years ago and
currently 40% of all Carpenters are over
the age of 60 it's become a serious
concern in Japan but Eddie unlike the
younger generation avoiding the industry
wants to help spread her Joy of
carpentry to those around her do clients
ever buy their own materials
ah that makes
[Music]
sense oh here comes the
workers that's the designer and her
intern now that all the workers are here
they have a quick meeting and then get
the day started
[Music]
the construction site she's working
today is about 20 minutes away from the
office but on the way she needs to stop
by the zoka AKA lumber yard I guess they
arrived a little bit early are you
buying something but I should got to
hide
hey what are you wearing it's extremely
popular for construction workers to wear
in Japan since many sites don't have AC
it blows air into the jacket powered by
an Hol day battery does it really
[Music]
work okay the lumber yard dealer is
here so in Japan professional preneur
often prefer to purchase materials at a
lumber yard compared to Home Centers she
says that the quality is completely
different for example mil lumber at home
centers are sometimes warped while the
lumber dealers can usually offer a
higher-end and more consistent
Lumber apparently though Japan has been
facing a drastic increase in price for
imported Lumber the last couple years as
its overall Supply decreases while
certain types of lumber are no longer
available at this point both lumber yard
dealers and construction companies are
feeling the
crunch did you find what you
wanted how bad is
it finally she's arrived at the
construction
site so what exactly do you need to do
today she's also been hired to renovate
the kitchen area but she'll be doing
that on a different day so how much does
it cost to renovate all
this how about only the
floor
cool the team breaks up into two groups
one to unload the van and the other to
prepare the site in Japan it's critical
that the areas surrounding the
construction are returned undamaged so
the team will take extra care to install
yojo protective coverings like foam
boards and plastic sheets so the walls
and Floors don't get scratched and
debris doesn't travel outside of the
construction
area now that the side prep is complete
Eddie has a short meeting with her team
to review the task for the
day as well as to perform a quick safety
check
soon followed by rajo tyo a routine
Japanese warm-up calisthenic executed to
music and Unison all of this performed
to focus a team as it's critical for
Eddie to deliver projects to her clients
on time while keeping her team working
as efficiently and safely as
[Music]
possible now it's time to get to
work and the first task is to dismantle
the existing insallation
is everything
okay I guess she needs to estimate this
work in her planning as
well so Eddie's team is mainly made up
of female Carpenters which is extremely
rare as women make up only 4.2% of all
carpenters in Japan being such a
minority Eddie experienced a firsthand
many of the challenges working in a male
Dom industry so when she formed her
company she knew that she wanted to
create a safe and comfortable working
environment for everyone including
women didn't need a jacket today
huh there you go just like in sync all
broken
up yay lunch
time the team decided to go to a nearby
restaurant to grab a quick
lunch in Japan it's common for workers
including construction workers to eat
food from the conven as it's quick easy
and affordable but Eddie prefers to eat
at restaurants with a team as she feels
it's a bit more well balanced and it
also helps develop a stronger bond with
a group as they're able to share parts
of their personal life with each other I
guess she's having the yinji Fried
Chicken set lunch it looks
good oh Eddie's paying for
everyone you a ho Bay
now that the team is refilled it's time
for them to complete today's
[Music]
job here they're marking the level for
the new
floor so it looks like these three are
going to be working here for just a
little bit longer so while they're doing
that let's go over there and see what
everyone else is
doing oh the designer working on
something what's this
awesome excuse me what are you
doing so how long have you been doing
carpentry oh then what are
you I see so what have you learned the
most over the years
got it anything difficult about the
job I ask you some questions how long
have you been working as a
carpenter oh and what did you do
before how do you like it now
thanks oh nice they're using a subito
Japanese ink liner to create a straight
line Japanese Carpenters have been using
this tool for more than 1,400 years but
as new technologies such as line laser
levels are becoming more popular it's
becoming less
used what's going on now
I'm sure this happens a
lot so Eddie has been working as a
carpenter now for 7 years which has
helped her develop and build confidence
in her carpentry skills but it wasn't
always like this the beginning of her
career was exceptionally challenging she
says that she was ridiculed by her male
co-workers and even customers would
request to talk to male workers instead
of her when they had questions about the
project she was deeply frustrated and
believed that it was all because she was
a woman but over time she came to
realize that it was more to do with her
lack of skill and experience not knowing
how to properly use tools or perform
insulations and clients didn't want to
speak to her simply because she was
uncertain of her answers to say the
least it wasn't easy for her but she
persevered and now has her own company
with dedicated employees to show for
it time for a short
break oh they're doing otco g junan rock
paper scissors to decide who p is for
everyone a snap the intern lost too bad
for
[Music]
him finally they're putting down the
subfloor hey so where do you see
yourself in the
future he says that he's Al dedicated to
training and mentoring her workers with
all the skills and carpentry techniques
she's learned over the years she
understands how difficult it can be
starting off especially as a women so
she joined an organization in Japan that
aims to empower female artisans in the
construction field called wbcs sure for
a r will break through the construction
site she along with a group aimed to
create a new and welcoming environment
for all women to join their industry oh
dope the subfloor has been installed so
you're
done I guess they are coming back
tomorrow to complete the rest of the
floor so for now everyone helps to clean
up the site to finish for the
day you up
there on the way back to the office
Eddie needs to stop by the hardware shop
to get her laser level
recalibrated apparently the shop is
popular among professional construction
workers and is also one of her favorites
as well damn you can see all their eyes
light up while walking through this
store so it looks like they still
looking for some stuff while they're
doing that you know let's tool around
and see what we can
[Music]
find wow this is amazing they've got so
many Cool Tools let me know if you see
anything you wish you had in your
country and look at this they have all
these cool shoes here that's made for
construction although they look like
regular sneakers with many designs and
colors they're all hard
toed to be honest I haven't been to one
of these home in quite a while and what
I'm surprised with is that there's just
so much variation colors and designs
what's
that what are you
buying don't you already have a
measure it seems like everyone is buying
something
[Music]
here Eddie what's
wrong oh I'm
sorry a so for Eddie the day isn't done
yet oh but one worker is leaving early
though now back in the office Eddie
needs to meet with a team to discuss and
plan for upcoming projects although
Eddie can only physically work on one
project at a time she must continually
secure and prepare for future projects
to ensure that her team has constant
flow of work in their
schedule dinner time today Eddie is
eating dinner with a team and it looks
like they're having soen noodles with
eggplant and a pork dipping sauce it
looks
amazing the S noodles itself are known
as a Japanese summer staple food as it
can be eaten cold
so what's your
hobby that's more like it and what about
you you dance to
it what's your
hobby oh how many do you have so
far awesome you have a
hobby cool what do you
draw oh you do that it's
cute all right it looks like Eddie and
her friends are going to be having
dinner until probably 7:30 everyone go
home after that and then she'll probably
go to the gym for 2 hours come back home
and go to sleep at 12:00 but that's
pretty much a day in life of a Japanese
Carpenter if you guys like this video
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