~/bench $ full-stack engineer · teacher · Nara, Japan
I'm Josh Johnston, a full-stack engineer living in Nara. I've been shipping web apps since 2016 and teaching people to code just as long. BenchBytes.Build is my workshop: I build in public, film the whole process, and teach programming in English.
Currently building ESP32 Robot Face~/about
I've written JavaScript for 15 years and Go for 9. Since 2016 I've built apps for warehouses, online stores, video streaming sites, and game servers, from the database schema to the server it runs on.
Teaching has run alongside the whole time: freeCodeCamp Osaka meetups, live-coding on Twitch, private programming lessons, and most recently teaching English in Japanese schools. BenchBytes.Build puts both halves in one place. Every build gets documented: what worked, what broke, and what I'd do differently next time.
Building and learning through programming in English.
Taught English in Japanese public schools.
Custom lessons for individuals and groups, from fundamentals to full-stack and hosting, taught through real projects and pair programming.
Live-coded complete projects for an audience as an educational stream.
Started meetups across Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara to share and teach coding.
Designed and shipped scalable apps for warehouses, e-commerce stores, video streaming sites, and game servers, in Go, JavaScript, and Python with React, Vue, and React Native. Migrated monoliths to microservices, with hosting matched to each budget, from hand-built OVH servers to Google Cloud.
Built a warehouse inventory tracker: designed the MariaDB schema, worked on the React admin panel, and learned Go to ship backend features.
Coursework in software engineering, databases, digital logic, and web applications.
Built MVPs with startups preparing to pitch incubator and accelerator programs for funding.
~/bench
What I'm building right now, pulled live from GitHub. If a light is dim, that project is on the back burner for now.
A little robot face on an ESP32: animated eyes you steer with a gamepad, a 7-segment display for a mouth, and a touch sensor so you can pet it.
Next up Pick the parts and sketch the wiring.
Latest commitinit repo
Nothing on the bench right now. Check back soon.
~/services
Bookings open soon. Send a message now and you'll hear first when they do.
One-on-one lessons for beginners and working engineers in Japan, from someone who has taught programming since 2016 and English in Japanese schools. Learn to code, and pick up the English you need to read docs, ask questions, and work on global teams.
Websites, tools, and automations for small businesses and creators. You get working software and a clear explanation of how it runs.
Every project, filmed from first idea to finished build. Short clips on TikTok and Instagram, full walkthroughs on YouTube.
~/follow
Channels launch soon. Same builds, cut for each platform.
YouTube
Full build walkthroughs
TikTok
Quick build clips
Instagram
Progress shots and reels