Nordic Go Dojo

Funds gathered: 1,390€/2,000€

Edit (19 Aug): Thanks for your support, everybody! It is now confirmed that I can board the flight on 24 August to Tokyo, and my live teaching game schedule up until then is now full. The offline reviews are still available, if you are interested!

This July and August I am briefly visiting Europe – mainly to teach at the European Go Congress, but also to visit my family in Oulu at the same time as travelling has become more difficult since the COVID-19 epidemic.

My teaching work at the EGC itself was unpaid, but I did get free accommodation from the organisation’s side. I treated the visit partly as a holiday in Romania, a country I have never visited before; but partly also as volunteer work, helping man up the teaching side of the congress organisation. (There were in fact only four teaching ’Asian’ professionals present, two of whom, Catalin Taranu and Li Ting, live in Europe.)

Similarly to dozens of other congress participants, I ended up catching COVID, in spite of the fact that I had a mask on almost completely throughout the event. I am now back in Finland and have recovered; but as it turns out, PCR tests can give positive results long after one’s recovery. Unfortunately for me, the Japanese government requires a negative PCR test from inbound travellers, so I need to stay in Finland and keep taking further tests, which are far from free.

Additionally, I was supposed to be the main teacher of the Nihon Ki-in summer camp from August 22 to August 28, but now it’s clear that it’s impossible for me to return to Japan in time for this.

Altogether, now, my ’volunteer trip’ to Europe is turning in an unplanned extra loss of a few thousand euros in the shape of flight postponements, PCR tests, and lost work opportunities. At the same time, all of a sudden I have free time until August 23 which I might as well try to use efficiently. I would therefore like to offer my teaching services to all interested players at the following rates:

• 50€ for a live teaching game and a review, duration about 90–120 minutes (schedule full);
• 30€ for an offline review of a freely chosen game, including general pointers on which parts of the game you should focus on in your studies.

Alternatively, if you would like to set up for example custom workshops or simultaneous games for groups of people, we can adjust the payments as reasonable. Other ideas are welcome, too!

You can reach me by email at nordicgodojo@gmail.com. Lessons can be held as early as today, during reasonable working hours (between 9am and 9pm in Finland). Live lessons can be either through a video call through Skype or Discord, or purely as text on KGS or OGS. Payments can be sent through Paypal or by European bank transfer.