A while back, my friend Sam gave me a call and asked if I wanted to join for a short trip to Iceland – a small volcanic island on the edge of the Arctic circle. I’ve been fascinated by Iceland for a while. It produces 100% of its electricity from renewable resources – geothermal (heating…
Author: cshimasaki
A Japonica rare breed with a vigorous growth in hot summer sun, rather nutrient hungry during the autumn but tends to wither and fade in colour during the dark winter months. Feed it with plenty of good food and beer.
During my time as a primary school teacher, I became aware that I didn't have a definitive answers on how to solve (or at least build resilience against) the big problems of the world that the children are likely to encounter when they grow up. Climate change, food security, extinction of species, energy crisis, water scarcity, environmental degradation and pollution... the list can go on.
So I decided to build a camper, go and see some of the possible solutions, experience it and share my learning with you. And have lots of fun in the process.
Gas and Water System
These two systems took a lot of calculation but ended up not as complex as I thought. With the gas system, I went for the smallest 3L Gaslow bottle. The company sells refillable LPG bottles that can be filled at any petrol station that provides LPG. At around 60p per litre, LPG can save you…
Frames and Structures
Layout As you can see from the above photo, I opted for a raised platform and a front kitchen/sink. Many van builds that are similar in size to my van tends to have the kitchen where the book shelf is and have a retractable bed that can be stowed away during the day to become…
Solar and Electrics
From the initial stage, I was keen to get a solar panel on my van. I could charge a leisure battery directly from an engine if I was travelling constantly but I was probably going to be stationary most of the time. And I wanted to learn how to set a solar system up so…
Cleaning and Insulating
My van is a 2004 Renault Trafic with about 165000 miles on the odometer. This was a bit of a risk as the mileage was pretty high and as it turned out, catastrophic failures and costly repairs were to become a frequent thing. But it was cheap and I couldn’t afford much more at the…
Van Conversion
I knew I had to visit many places over a long term (with a cat) and the best mode of transport had to be a camper. This would allow me to travel, work, cook, sleep and occasionally poop in relative comfort. There is a growing community of people opting for this lifestyle and I didn’t…
The Journey Begins
A blank scary canvas. I’ve been very busy since last September, building, earning and occasionally having fun. There’re so many things that I have learnt in the process and I will initially be back tracking to report things to you. I’ll try and post as frequently as possible but as I’ve written in the subtitle,…
First post
I’m now transferring all the posts over to WordPress from Wix. A process I should perhaps have started a long time ago. It’ll be a lengthy process that I plan to do little by little. I’ll also try and get a subscription going as soon as all the previous posts have been uploaded.
jizoku.co.uk 