May you find many good connections here.
How Goen began
Shimayado Goen opened on 20 June 2015, on Ojika Island in Nagasaki.
The name “Goen” carries a wish: that the people who come here, the people who live on the island, and those met along the way, all find good connections — go-en.
About the name
It goes back to when the owner, Taiyo Iwanaga, worked as a tour guide for overseas travellers. Explaining at a shrine why people offer a five-yen coin, he found himself talking about how go-en (“five yen”) sounds the same as go-en (“a connection, a tie between people”). The word was beautiful in Japanese, and “Goen” was easy for visitors to say. That’s where the inn’s name came from.
A meeting is not just chance. There’s meaning in having met here, too. That thought sits behind the name.
What grew out of the inn
It started with Shimayado Goen, and grew — a guesthouse, Goen-no-Sato, Melody Box, a coin laundry, a fitness gym, car and bicycle hire.
None of this was about building a business empire. Out of the connections with people who visit Ojika, live here, or were met along the way, one needed thing was added at a time.
Ojika, and what comes next
The owner now lives between two places — Ojika and Sasebo.
Being involved with a place isn’t only “move there or don’t.” Live in two places. Keep coming back. Stay connected through work. Let a trip turn into a slow, lasting relationship with the island. We think there will be more and more of that.
We’d be glad if Shimayado Goen were not an inn where the story ends at check-out, but a small beginning to a connection with Ojika and the people who live here.
What we hold onto
“Peace of mind, safety, connection.” We keep those three in view.
Island ingredients, island people, island life. We also keep up a cat-rescue project, “Nyan-Nyan no Sato.” We run the inn together with staff from Japan and abroad, and with people who live and work on the island.
Follow along
We share daily island life on YouTube (“Goen Channel”) and Instagram.
Work with us
Goen is looking for people to help run the inn and everything around it. Short or long term — we’ll talk it through. See Join Us.
Company
- Company
- Goen Co., Ltd.
- Representative
- Taiyo Iwanaga, Representative Director
- Address
- 1359-1 Fuefuki-go, Ojika-cho, Kitamatsuura-gun, Nagasaki 857-4701, Japan
- Tel / Fax
- +81-959-56-2588
- shimayadogoen@gmail.com
- Shimayado Goen opened
- 20 June 2015
- Company established
- 2017
- Business
- Accommodation and restaurant operations; tourism services including car and bicycle rental; coin laundry; fitness facility; and more.
- Corporate number
- 1310001014941