Session #1: Where should we build a neighbourhood campus in Tokyo?

Hey!

Have you heard of Fractal NYC? They started with humble weekly dinners and now have 150+ people living within a short walk from each other, each in their own place or sharehouse, a community university, coworking space, but more importantly, it is one of the most vibrant urban community scenes anywhere in the world.

They have people teaching each other everything from bread-making to quantum physics in their living rooms. Friends helping friends write novels. Baby co-working. Spontaneous LED performance art collaborations. Tuesday dinners that spawn Saturday projects that become actual startups. New friends, new romances, new families.

All this emerged because they rebuilt the friendship infrastructure that has silently been disappearing in modern urban society:

- Opportunity to live in proximity to new and old friends (you need to spend a lot of time around people to become good friends, which is rare post-education years!)
- Lots of events run by lots of people within the community, giving opportunity to learn from and about each other
- A focus on chemistry and friendship click, rather than any particular shared ideology or shared topic of interest

This makes something extremely different to most communities and meetups. 'Developers Tokyo' gives you people who code. 'Hiking club Shibuya' gives you people who hike. But shared interests don't mean shared wavelength. We talk at each other about the thing we have in common instead of discovering what makes each other tick.

I'm participating in https://fractalcampus.com - a program to learn and spread the principles that made Fractal NYC succeed. I don't want to just recreate Brooklyn or import a famous third space. Tokyo has its own frequency, its own possibility, and plenty of magic. I want to find out what emerges when we plant these seeds in this specific soil.

If any of this sounds interesting, come along to the event! In this first session, we're going to discuss the concept, potential locations, and hang out. If you want to stay for dinner a few people will be staying to eat from 7pm.

If you can't make it but you find the idea fascinating, please contribute by going here! https://tally.so/r/3jrDPx

Hope to see you soon :-)
Sai

(If you want to hear more, you can follow me on X or Substack)