[Why I Joined Teracy] Zero‑minute commute: the ideal. Loneliness: the reality. Why I quit full remote—and why I came back.

The office, 0 meters from home.

Fully remote work: the future so many of us dreamed of.
I believed in it, too.

But I quit after just six months.

🏠

I’d roll out of bed around 9:30 AM and be at my desk by 10. No getting jostled on a commuter train, no running in heels. My fully remote life began in my very own home office—a place that was nothing but efficient and comfortable. I truly believed it was a symbol of a new kind of freedom.

In the spring of 2021, I moved to Kyoto in Japan and started a fully remote job with a Tokyo-based IT company.

Everything was centered around Slack. Meeting minutes were shared in real-time on Notion. If you needed to chat, you could hop on a voice call in a Discord room. All-hands meetings were on Zoom. It was all crisp, efficient communication.

I had worked remotely before for the Japanese branch of a Taiwanese company, and I’d even been part of a remote theater group called “No Meets” that we launched during the COVID state of emergency. In other words, I thought I was pretty resilient when it came to the stress of remote communication.

And yet, somewhere along the way, the days started to feel heavy and painful.

When I lived in Tokyo, my friends and family were close enough to see. But after moving to Kyoto, my circle of friends shrank dramatically. To make matters worse, it was during a peak COVID period with restrictions in place. Restaurants closed at 8 PM, so it was hard to find time to meet up with my few precious friends in the Kansai area, even on weekdays. I was lonely.

Every day, it was the same view from the same window in my home office, with the same sunlight. On my screen, I’d see the smiling faces of my colleagues in online meetings. But I couldn't feel their real presence behind those smiles. When someone told a joke, all I could hear was audio data. There was no lingering laughter, no vibration in the air. I felt connected to the world, yet I was undeniably isolated from it.

I liked the work itself.
But the days spent staring at a display from morning till night wore down my spirit.

The only person I spoke to, other than my husband who I lived with, was in an online meeting. That, and the single "thank you" I'd exchange with the cashier at the supermarket.

Suddenly, I found myself longing for those silly, meaningless conversations with coworkers. Not about work, but about a movie we saw over the weekend, or our cats, or a concert we were excited about. Who knew I'd miss such trivial things so much? But I also knew it wasn't the kind of thing worth pinging someone on Slack with a "Got a minute?"

The sound of someone making coffee. The light rhythm of keyboards tapping. I realized for the first time that it was these tiny signs of life, this subtle presence, that had connected me to the world.

Eventually, I quit that company. I had only been there for six months. That’s all I could take. It wasn't that I'd grown to hate the job. I just felt that if I kept living that way, I would lose myself.

📱

Four years have passed since then. One day, a cute-looking video popped up on my X/Twitter timeline.

Here’s the English translation:

Teracy officially launches.

Even remotely, you can feel the energy of working alongside your teammates.
It’s a coworking app built for challengers.

Open it, and you’ll feel your team right beside you.

Even in the loneliest moments of remote work,
you can sense someone there — and that keeps you going.

For everyone striving alone,
so you can move forward together.

Starting today.

"Regain the feeling of working with colleagues, even remotely." It seemed to be a co-working app. That tagline struck a deep chord with me, someone who had completely lost that feeling in a remote job years ago.

According to the press release, it was based on the concept of "Alone, but not lonely," providing an online co-working space. I decided to give it a try and downloaded it. After installing it on my MacBook Air, a small window appeared on my screen. Inside, there were several icons lined up. It looked like they were all working at their computers, each in their own space.

It was interesting how their statuses, like "Designing" or "In a meeting," would change automatically based on the app they were using. I decided to just watch for a little while.

After a bit, a small speech bubble appeared above an icon with a message. "Hello," someone said. I replied from my own icon, "Nice to meet you." It was an exchange of just a few words. But the moment I saw the message appearing, character by character, I felt the space fill with someone's presence. It was a warm and gentle feeling. There was no pressure to talk. Just knowing someone else was there. That alone made my heart feel so much lighter.

Late one night while working, I casually typed, "Gonna go sleepies." And a reply came back: "Nighty night." Yeah, this is the kind of simple, easy interaction I'd been missing.

I found myself thinking back to those painful days of being fully remote. If a service like Teracy had existed back then, I wonder if it would have opened up my shut-in world, just a little. If so, would I have been able to stay at my job?

Teracy gave me a new option. It’s not just the freedom to choose where you work. It’s the joy of being gently connected to others, and to the world. It’s the same window, the same view, the same sunlight as back then. But the loneliness I once felt is no longer here.

✉️

After using Teracy for a few days, I sent a message to its founder, Emo. "If the timing and your needs align, I'd love to help out with Teracy," I wrote. I had a hunch that the Teracy team didn't have anyone in charge of PR yet. It would be such a waste if this product didn't get the attention it deserved.

Teracy is a fully remote team. Our colleagues aren't just scattered across Japan; they're in Taiwan, Korea, India, and Indonesia, too. But if the world Teracy is aiming for becomes a reality, then I’m sure I can make remote work work this time, without loneliness being the villain.

And so, here I am, working in PR for Teracy, helping bring this service to as many people as possible. If there's someone out there right now who feels the same loneliness I once did, I want to tell them—precisely because I know that pain all too well—that the feeling of being "alone, but not lonely" exists here.

If you’re feeling the loneliness of remote work right now, I hope you’ll download Teracy and take a peek inside. You might just find a colleague there, working quietly right beside you.

You can start Teracy Here