this is a [now](https://sive.rs/now2) page! # 26 sep, 2026 it's the tail end of the silver week break in japan. the weather is weird. ### work my work at [Impact HUB Tokyo](https://hubtokyo.com/en) is multifaceted and full of growth. overall, i'm grateful to be supported by a great boss and team, and in a role where i can bring my somewhat random smorgasbord of skillsets to the table. it's crunch time for one project in particular called [SUPR Lab](https://impacthub.net/works/bank-of-america-supr-lab/), in which we're trying to connect corporations and startups in Japan to solve supply chain waste challenges. it's tough, but rewarding – i'm new to this kind of multi-stakeholder relationship building, so there is a lot learning! not to mention, it's stretching, in all the best ways, the limits of my Japanese (both in terms of language and cultural understanding). alongside this, i've been slowly plodding away at overhauling many of HUB's internal systems for member onboarding, customer support, and event management, putting to use my master's in service design and some of the knowledge management frameworks that i've learned through [[digital garden]]ing. i enjoy this systems design and information architecture work far more than i expected. ### community from the outside, [kizuna](https://www.instagram.com/kizunacollective/) looks like it has gone completely dormant – we've barely been hosting any events or circles, and our social media presence and been almost non-existent for months. however, internally, there's been a lot happening behind the scenes. the team convened earlier this year to start a conversation about how we can run this whole thing more sustainably. up until then, we tried a year-long experiment of running all operations through decentralized working groups, loosely following the methodologies of [sociocracy](https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy/). some parts functioned well, other parts started falling apart. we observed and experienced firsthand a tonne about what works and what doesn't in these kinds of 'flat' governance models. five co-created design thinking sessions later, we've now dreamed up the next iteration of the team structure. i'm super proud of how we approached this as a team, and how each person showed up, despite the process taking over half a year. we really took our time to get down to the essence of what we're trying to achieve with this social community, and listen deeply to each other to tease out what wants to emerge from our collective intelligence. i think it's really important work we've done. so many volunteer-based communities seem to be heavily reliant on a select few passionate people. however, to ensure a community (or any kind of social/activist movement, for that matter) can sustain on the scale of years, you need a team – "faster alone, further together", as the saying goes. and for a volunteer team to sustain, you need to pay generous attention to the (sometimes) boring topics of governance, decision making, and management. you need to create systems that, ideally, can outlive your own membership in the group. i'm excited to see what this next chapter of kizuna looks like. at the same time, i'm realizing that i've personally lost interest in hosting big public events. i think the next chapter of my own community building/hosting journey will turn towards small-group experiences. some experiments i'm excited to try out: regular themed dinner parties, a high-commitment, long-term "alignment crew" where we deeply support each other on a regular basis in staying on track towards our goals, and an academic-flavoured humanities reading group where we consume papers/articles/books/video essays and discuss them together. i think i'm also entering a quieter season where i'd like to focus on a) [[writing]] more to unpack and reflect on the last few years of community organizing, and b) connecting more with the people in the community-weaving space around the world. ### play / misc - i caught the TTRPG bug this year. i've played some one-shot RPG campaigns, and fell in love with TTRPGs as medium to co-create stories and worldbuild. - i'm generally re-inspired, in large part by my friends involved in the [gaemz community](https://gaemz.carrd.co/) in tokyo, by the power of games as art, as vessel for sociopolitical commentary, as medium for behavioural change. i've played some games in the past 1-2 years that have genuinely rearranged my core worldview. - have been obsessed with [blood on the clocktower](https://bloodontheclocktower.com/), which i consider to be the best designed social deduction game of all time. definitely the best surprising discoveries of this year. a group of us in tokyo started hosting regular invite-only play sessions, where we just keep playing all day until there aren't enough people to play anymore. if you'd like to come to one, hmu! >> [[contact]] - currently reading: [The Dispossessed](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35216583-the-dispossessed) by Ursula K. Le Guin. it's my first time reading Le Guin properly, and i'm kicking myself for taking this long! this book is incredible.