Skip to content

Community

Tokyo Hackerspace Git Admin edited this page Nov 1, 2023 · 7 revisions

Our Community

History

Tokyo HackerSpace was founded around May 23rd, 2009. Mitch Altman had come to Japan to give a speak about starting hackerspaces at a Tokyo Barcamp. During his speech, Chris Shannon registered the tokyohackerspace.com domain. The Majority of co-founders then joined our first forum (google groups) between the 23rd and 29th.

Our first meeting was June 9th, 2009. Initially we were meeting in various bars and venues around Tokyo.

Our first class, "WTF is a resistor?? : an introduction to electronics" was held July 27th, 2009.

We moved into our first location August 20th.

Our first members social / BBQ party was August 25th.

Our first Open house ("DITLO: Day in the life of THS") was September 6th.

visit

Location

Tokyo Hackerspace is conveniently located near Naka-itabashi which is a 15 minute train ride on the Tobu Tojo Line from Ikebukuro Station.

Our address is: 〒173-0021 Tōkyō-to, Itabashi-ku, Yayoichō, 40−7

In Japanese: 〒173-0021東京都板橋区弥生町40-7

Directions

From Ikebukuro, take Tobu Tojo local line to Naka-Itabashi station. Typically leaving from Track 4 or 5. At Naka-Itabashi Station, please use the SOUTH exit. Turn RIGHT at the street in front of the bicycle park. At ”Matsuobushi Ramen/Doli Asian Restaurant” turn RIGHT Now you have a choice!

Follow this street all the way to the river. There is a bridge in front of you crossing a river. Do not cross the river. Instead turn LEFT. We are the 4th building (the one on the corner) Or, Follow this street until the 3rd LEFT. Turn here. At the next cross street, turn right. Follow it to the river. We are right on the corner, on the right side.

Join

Tokyo Hackerspace is the only Tokyo based workspace that is not for profit with an open membership. The only requirements to become a member of Tokyo Hackerspace are that you are 18 years of age or older, and that you have come to our open meetings 2-3 times to get to know us, and so that we can get to know you.

Bylaws

Here is our bylaws document.

Membership Tiers

Full Membership ¥5000/month gives you full access to the hackerspace 24hrs a day, though we ask you to work quietly past 8pm. Full access to all the tools that are on the premises, and discounts on classes and events that are held at the hackerspace.

Student memberships ¥2500/month give you the same benefits as full members, but at a discounted price. Please be prepared to show proof of your student status. For more information come visit us on either of our weekly meetings Tuesday or Wednesday evening at 7:30pm and talk to one of the members about membership.

Support

Members have THREE options for paying their membership:

  • Pay the box : There is a electronic machine to the left of the doorway in the office space. Insert 5000 yen (either a single bill, or 5x 1000 yen bills) in the red bill acceptor. Then press the "Pay membership" button. The machine will print out two receipts. One is for you to keep. Cut the receipt in half and write your name on the other half. Place this one in the donation box for THS. If you insert 10000 yen in the machine, you will need to pay two months membership. The machine cannot make change.
  • Direct Bank Transfer : Perform a direct transfer to our Japan Post account. Branch: 10010, Account: 51731481, トウキョウハッカースペース
  • PayPal : Send to @TokyoHackerSpace.

Donations

There are FOUR options for making donations:

  • Pay the box : There is a electronic machine to the left of the doorway in the office space. Insert 1000, 5000 or 10000 yen bills into the red bill acceptor. Then press the "make donation" button for every 1000 yen inserted. The machine will print out a receipt for every 1000 yen.
  • You can donate coins by putting them in the "donation box" sitting in front of the electronic machine.
  • Direct Bank Transfer : Perform a direct transfer to our Japan Post account. Branch: 10010, Account: 51731481, トウキョウハッカースペース
  • PayPal : Send to @TokyoHackerSpace.

Rules

  • THS does not accept material donations. We do not want your old laptops, computer parts, broken electronics, tools, etc. We do not want to fix your stuff. We do not want to become a waste center.
  • Be excellent to each other.
  • Members may keep one large container in the garage for their own tools, parts, and projects. In the event you need additional space, just communicate with us via Slack.
  • Be certain to double check that you have powered everything off and locked all windows before locking the space and closing the garage door.

Safety

Generally, members are responsible for their own safety. It is assumed that you have proper medical insurance in Japan to cover any injuries incurred while at the space.

  • Safety glasses are strongly encouraged for all machines and soldering equipment
  • For all machinery, if you have not used it before, ask for training first. When in doubt, ASK FOR HELP!

Disposal of Refuse

  • The neighborhood has a bulk waste carry in center (half the price of normal pickup, but limited to 10 items per trip).
  • Bulky waste can also be put out after filling out a sodai gomi application
  • Here is the Disposal Guide for curbside disposal.
  • Our drop of point : At the bottom of the stairs, turn right. At the next bridge, on the right corner is the drop off point.
  • the drop off schedule is posted above the office doorway. in particular, Tuesday night, burnable garbage may be dropped off for Wednesday morning pickup.
  • Moving and Bulky trash by the truck-load!
  • World Eco : Large volume disposal service (including business closing, etc)
  • Eco Bowl : Another large volume disposal service. Website is particularly bad... ALL text as graphics. totally non-translatable.

Class and Event Requests

Want to learn something? Think someone in THS can teach you? Can you teach something? What are you an expert at? Anyone can teach a class or host an event at THS. You don't have to be a member. Please speak with Emery about how to prepare an event.

Here are some class requests we have had in the past.

  • How to read Windows admin logs
  • Why root your Android phone?
  • Productivity: Pomodoro, GTD, what works for you?
  • Getting funky with the Linux File System - pushing data from 'here' to 'there'
  • C for not absolute beginners
  • Wifi in a nutshell
  • What would I do without Visual Basic?! Writing desktop apps that don't suck
  • Java: From "no thank you I am not thirsty." to "oh snap! When I click this thing, stuff happens."
  • How not to get a job. The ins and outs of starting your own business
  • How to play at least ONE song on guitar
  • Let's play master and servant. How to code a simple client/server application
  • Basic introduction to Linux CLI
  • Android do my bidding. Set up the IDE and code environment, and get a simple hello world Android app up and running.

Movie Screenings

From time to time, Tokyo HackerSpace shows movies and documentaries that may be relevant to the hacker culture, activism, and life in Japan.

What we have screened

  • The Cove
  • Rally to Restore Humanity
  • Hackers
  • Hackers 2: The take-down of Kevin Mitnik

List of potential screenings

  • Tank on the Moon - The story of the Russian moon rovers named Lunokhod

  • DEFCON The Documentary

  • BBC Horizon: Whats killing our bees

  • Bsky: MOOG. The man behind the Synthesizer

  • ABC: What the Future Sounded Like - history of electronic music

  • The Ascent of Money - 6 part series documenting the history of currency

  • BBC: Precision. The Measure of all things - 3 part series

  • The Secret Life of: Rubbish - 2 part series about trash, how we deal with it, and what recycling actually means

  • The Secret life of: The Sun

  • BBS. The Documentary - 8 part series about the very first BBSs through to the dawn of the internet

  • Chasing Ice - science photographer's struggle to capture glacial change as evidence of global warming

  • The world according to Monsanto

  • Micro Men - docu-drama about the BBC1, Acorn computer, and Sinclair

  • BBC Electric Dreams - 3 part series where a British family home is time warped from 1970s to 90s, exploring tech and gadgets of the time

  • Pirates of Silicon Valley - History of Apple and Microsoft.

Dreaming of (Tokyo Hacker)Space

Back in the early days, before we had our first space, one of our group online discussions drifted towards "what would your ideal hackerspace have?" I decided to preserve the content of this conversation on it's own page

2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

THS and members were involved in a lot of activities and projects immediately following the event. Activities ranged from volunteering, collecting donations, organizing delivery drivers, building support projects and long-term brainstorming and solutions. I have collected resources and summarized some of the topics in it's own page

Hackers on a Train: BAM! It's Sibera

We never managed to prepare and go on this trip. See the above 2011 Earthquake which really shifted our focus. The idea here was to travel from Hokkaido to eastern Europe over the BAM and Trans-Siberian railways, stopping at various points of interest along the way, such as the deepest inland lake on the planet, touring Baikonur cosmodrome, etc. If anyone want's to reignite that rocket, here is what we've got.

Clone this wiki locally