ZuCity Japan Annual Popup 2026 - A Month Living The Life Everyone Wants
Sept 4 – Oct 5, 2026 · Komoro, Nagano · 90 minutes from Tokyo. Spend a month inside our neighborhood in rural Japan and make it your home — forever or for vacations. Pay by card or save 20% with crypto.
A Multidisciplinary DIY Community.
ZuCity is a real neighborhood — codename Brooklyn 2.0 — built from abandoned houses we bought and brought back to life in Komoro, Nagano. Spaces designed to inspire, faces you'll never forget. No business cards, no slackers, no party poopers. Just houses we own, rooms we built, too many onsens to choose from, and a month in mountains you wish you'd found sooner.
Four homes within a five-minute walk, a coworking commons, a private music venue in our basement. Everything you contribute stays here and compounds every year — the buildings, the tools, the friendships. Come be a neighbor for a month and see what it feels like to belong to a place.
Learn Exactly How We Do It
The most valuable thing you'll carry home is knowledge - with on the ground experience - how to find, buy, renovate, and build on a house in rural Japan. We walk you through every step on the actual houses we're working on right now.
Find the House
How we hunt akiya — the abandoned-house registries, the local agents, the neighbors who tip us off first. Why the $2k–$30k listings are real, and how to spot the ones worth having.
Close the Deal
Buying property in Japan as a foreigner — the paperwork, the taxes, the judicial scrivener, the bank. What actually stops people, and how we get past it.
Renovate & Beautify
From leaking roof to the place you saw in the photos. Which walls to open, what to keep, who to hire, what to do yourself. You'll get your hands dirty on a house mid-renovation.
Build Something New
Turning four houses into a neighborhood: shared infrastructure, offgrid systems, the venue, the commons. How a place becomes more than the sum of its buildings.
What a Month Here Feels Like
Not a schedule to survive — a rhythm to fall into. Mornings slow, afternoons useful, nights that go where they go.
Meet the Whole Street
Events with the people who already live here. The tradesmen, the local leaders, the families, our favorite stores, the friends you didn't know you were missing. Find out if you belong.
Renovate Together
Sand a floor, paint a wall, plant the garden, wire the venue. Beautifying our houses is the fastest way to feel like they're yours too — and to learn the skills by doing them.
Our Basement, Our Rules
A concrete basement music venue centered in our neighborhood to use whenever we want. No cover, no bouncer, no closing time.
The Volcano Is the Point
Mt. Asama in the window. All-day onsen circuits the locals keep quiet about. Sunrise hikes, cold rivers, cool summers while the coast drowns in humidity. The kind of place that rearranges your priorities.
Who We're Building With
We're gathering the young, the ambitious, the intelligent, the spiritual, the talented — the counterculture builders creating worlds outside default life. People who make things with their hands and with their friends. Blend the best of Japan with the best of everywhere else, and choose each other on purpose.
Collectivist, never collectivized. Ideological, never indoctrination. Private homes, shared life, land ownership, mutual support, self-determination.
Brooklyn 2.0 - The Neighborhood We Own
🔴 is our central community space. ⚪ are rooms in our community-owned houses within minutes on foot. This is ZuCity's neighborhood.
Legend
| Property | Distance | Walk |
|---|---|---|
| ZuCity Artist & Builder Residency | 0.1 km | 1 min walk |
| ZuCity Balcony Bedroom #1 | 0.1 km | 1 min walk |
| ZuCity Balcony Bedroom #2 | 0.1 km | 1 min walk |
| ZuCity Lounge - Nakamandem | 0.1 km | 1 min walk |
| ZuCity Secluded Backyard Flat | 0.1 km | 1 min walk |
| ZuCity Office Bedroom and Mountain View | 0.2 km | 2 min walk |
| ZuCity Master Bedroom | 0.3 km | 4 min walk |
| ZuCity Traditional Tatami Bedroom | 0.3 km | 4 min walk |
ZuCity Japan Daily Access
$21.00 USD / day
24 hours inside ZuCity Japan. $21 before community and referral discounts. A pass, not a membership. Walk in, work, eat, talk, sleep elsewhere. Come back tomorrow if the day earned it. The Grocery Store during work hours — fast wifi, quiet corners, the shared table where someone is always arguing about mechanism design. Weekly community dinner if the timing lines up. Open nights at Nakamandem when there is a concert or a takeover. Whatever workshops the residents are running that week — d/acc, DeSci, longevity, solarpunk agriculture. For Zuzalu alumni passing through Nagano. For popup-city travelers checking the signal before a longer stay. For digital-nomad-visa holders based in Tokyo who want a weekend around people building something. Friends of residents. Builders driving up from Karuizawa. Komoro is 90 minutes from Tokyo on the shinkansen. Three nearby stations make the math trivial. Mt. Asama on the horizon, castle ruins a walk away, onsens after work, soba for lunch. You can taste the whole thing in a day if you move well. No tour, no itinerary, no curated experience. Door code and a day. What happens inside is what happens for residents — which is the point. Public good, priced like one. The city funds its own open hours by letting the right strangers in. A popup city is a door that opens for the people who already know to knock.
- All Venue Spaces (Coworking, Music Lounge)
- Daily Breakfast
- Shared Cars
- Fast WiFi & Dedicated Work Stations
- Yoga & Zen Sessions
- DIY Regeneration & Workshops
- Biohacking & DeSci Experiments
- Parties & Local Adventures
- Expert Talks & Panels
- Mountain Views, Forest Air & Natural Onsens
Get Your Tickets
Getting Here From Tokyo or Abroad
Komoro is so close you can go to Tokyo and back for a day trip. Sitting at 700m in the Nagano mountains, our city runs on onsens, mountain air, and a community that's already welcomed 50+ visitors this season. Come for the sakura at Kaikoen Castle, the local soba, the outdoor onsen, and the neighbors you'll keep coming back for.
The People & The Energy
A neighborhood of founders, artists, and builders who chose this mountain on purpose. Creative energy in the commons, music in the basement venue, and long dinners at the neighbors' tables. Over 50 people have already come through this season.
Onsen & Mountains
Mt. Asama fills the window. All-day outdoor onsen circuits, cold rivers, sunrise hikes, and skiing at Asama 2000 when the snow comes. Cool mountain summers (~28°C) while the coast drowns in humidity; crisp, quiet winters down to about -5°C.
Food, Sakura & Seasons
Local soba so good Tokyo named a chain after it, organic mountain vegetables, and slow home-cooked meals. In spring the top-100 cherry blossoms bloom at Kaikoen Castle. Every season here has its own reason to come.
About 90 Minutes From Tokyo
Shinkansen up, a short local line into town, then a 15-minute walk from Komoro Station to the ZuCity house. City to mountain in an afternoon — closer than you think.
How To Get Here
The common route: Tokyo Station to Sakudaira on the Hokuriku Shinkansen (~75 min), then the Shinano Railway local into Komoro (~25 min). From Komoro Station the ZuCity house is a 15-minute walk. Flying in? Haneda is the closest airport — Narita adds about an hour. Prefer a door-to-door arrival? Take the shinkansen to Karuizawa or Sakudaira (~70 min) and we'll arrange a community car pickup in Telegram a day or two ahead. On a budget? The overnight highway bus from Shinjuku is the cheapest way up.
See the full travel guide →Booked? Now Bring The Gang.
The best months here happen with the friends you always planned this with. You all get up to 30% discounts on group orders. The group trip to Japan just got better and cheaper at the same time.
POST-TOKYO — Come Fall for Komoro
Sept 28 – Oct 5 · right after ETH Tokyo
POST-TOKYO stands for three things. The decompression right after ETH Tokyo. A POST request to Tokyoites — get out of the city and come to the countryside. And Japan's biggest problem: what comes after Tokyo when Japan stops consolidating into one exhausting megacity and flows back into the outer regions that support it.
It's ZuCity × ETH Tokyo, bringing people up the mountain to our neighborhood we're building for coliving and residencies. It's the easiest yes we offer: a week of pure fun, deep nature, and real Japanese food and culture to close out ZuCity Popup month. Because we know the secret. Once you've soaked in the onsen, danced on the mountain, and eaten at your neighbors' tables, you'll get why we live here. The hard part isn't living in Komoro — it's getting you to see it. So come.
Day Parties on the Mountain
Multiple day raves, local and Zuzalu DJs, live performances. Art and sound from the community, sunlight on the hills — the month goes out dancing.
Health, Wellness & Longevity
Wellness, relaxation, deep sleep. Hot soaks, cold plunges, sauna. A lifestyle of health you'll want to keep — and here, you actually can.
Local Nature & Food
Long walks, slow cooks, forest air, locally source food, and Japanese culture by default every day as soon as you wake up. The everyday natural abundance of living in the ZuCity.
Art & Merch
Art and merch from ZuCity artists and brands, sold from the design store permanently installed in our community space. See what a neighborhood of artists and builders in rural Japan feels like — then carry the friendships home and come back for more.
Come To Decide
We provide you with local knowledge, common spaces, shared cars, our social network, and tools to fix your own house when you buy it. Most people spend years wondering whether they should move to Japan. With us it takes a month. Live where we live, meet who we know, learn what we've learned — then decide with your feet on the ground instead of a browser tab open at midnight. Whatever you choose, you'll leave with our map, contacts, and a group chat that never sleeps.
Integrate More, Pay Less
The longer you stay, the more homies in your squad, the more ZuCity swag you drip — the higher your discount rate. Bundle your tickets with friends, merch, and other ZuCity services for up to 50% off. Pay by card or save an extra 20% with USDC.
Only free for a day? A $21 day pass gets you in. Get a Day Pass
Bring Your Own Roof
We believe in radical self-reliance. We give you everything you need for the perfect life while you're here. If you're just visiting, you gotta sort your own place to sleep. We already curated the best Airbnbs, hostels, ryokan, and open ZuCity rooms a short walk from the venues for you and your friends to book.
The location and context is self-curating. No gatekeeping. Book your days, book a bed, and show up with ✨community spirit✨.
Stay nearby
Available Airbnbs, hotels, hostels, and ZuCity rooms within walking distance of ZuCity popup venues
SuiteHistoric Townhouse - Komoro Hokkoku Kaido
$340.65 USD /night
VillaKominka in Komachi - Momiji-an
$348.39 USD /night
RoomRoute Inn Court Komoro
$92.90 USD /night
VillaBeautiful Renovated Open-Floor Family Home
$224.52 USD /night
VenueNOVELS Hostel & Cafe
$45.68 USD /night
VillaVictorian Style Japanese Private Rental
$247.74 USD /night
VillaTraditional Japanese House - Aramachi
$75.87 USD /night
Roomまきはうす (Maki House)
$46.45 USD /night
The Location
Komoro sits at the foot of Mount Asama volcano in Nagano Prefecture — 90 minutes from Tokyo by shinkansen, 20 minutes from Karuizawa. A historic castle town with 1,300-year-old zen temples, top-100 cherry blossom spots, dozens of onsens, and local soba so famous Tokyo named a chain after it. Cool mountain summers while the coast drowns in humidity. The kind of place that rearranges your priorities.
Read more about life in Komoro or how we buy abandoned properties for $2k–$30k.
Want to arrive early and help shape the spaces? Build Month (July 1 – Aug 24) is the hands-on construction phase where volunteers transform our properties into the venues you see above. Build Month participants get first access and discounted rates. Learn about the community behind this, the town we call home, or how booking and discounts work.