Your Host
I’m Mai
Himejima Base is a small house I’ve been working on myself, a little at a time.
Not all at once, and not by anyone clever. I’ve painted it, fixed it, changed my mind about it, and kept going. The second window in the upstairs bedroom is a DIY job — the sound of the trains bothered me too, and I wanted to do something about it. The lights on the roof were the same kind of idea. Most of what you’ll notice about this house is something somebody stood there and decided.
Why I keep doing it
There’s a reason I’ve carried on that has nothing to do with the house itself.
It’s the people who come.
Guests arrive here from all over the world, and I’ve found that I look forward to it. I hear about where they’ve been and where they’re going. I tell them which train to take, and where to eat the thing they’re trying to find. Sometimes I’m still exchanging messages months after they’ve flown home.
Somewhere in there, a person stops being someone I met while travelling and becomes a friend somewhere in the world. Watching that happen, one guest at a time, is honestly the best part of this.
If you leave thinking I’d like to come back to Osaka, and when I do I’ll stay here again — or, better, I have a friend in Japan now — then I’ve done the thing I set out to do.
What I hope you get out of it
I’d like this to be a place where the time you spend here becomes part of the memory, not just the sightseeing you did in between.
Come with your family, with friends, with your dog. Treat it the way you’d treat a friend’s house that you’ve been lent for a few days.
A little more about me
- I work as a travelling dog groomer around Osaka — I visit families at home and look after their dogs. It’s how I spend most of my days when I’m not here.
- Because of that, there’s a toilet tray, bowls, pee pads and odour-proof bags already waiting for guests who arrive with a pet. More about travelling with a pet →
- The polycarbonate second window in the upstairs bedroom was put in by hand, not by a contractor.
- Ask me things. If you want to know where to eat, which way to walk, or how to work something in the house, message me through the booking site any time during your stay. I’d much rather you asked.