About This Experiment

26to26 is a tiny experiment where I'm rebuilding shikadigital.co.jp (my business entity in Japan) from scratch in 26 days—December 5 to December 31, 2025.

I wanted to try something new: can I ship a complete site in less than a month using modern tools? Each day, I document what I built and what I learned. No pressure to perform or build an audience—just focused work and honest notes.

The project uses Astro and AI-assisted development. I'm curious to see how these tools affect speed, quality, and the overall development experience. Whether anyone reads this or not, I'll deliver the result.

Hi! I'm Yoren Chang, a software engineer based in Tokyo, Japan. I've been working in the web industry for 15+ years, specializing in the WordPress ecosystem. Shika Digital (https://shikadigital.co.jp) is the web development agency I set up in Japan.

You may find it funny then - why didn't I use WordPress to build this site and shikadigital.co.jp?

The reason behind that totally thanks to various AI tools that I have started to integrate into my daily workflow starting this year (2025). These tools empower me to try things that used to take me months and can only move in baby steps. But now things just move so fast and it is really a waste if I don't take this oppurtunity to push myself grow out of my comfort zone.

I'm also inspired by the book Tiny Experiment which taught me to run things experimentally, to see if I like it or not. Instead of declaring I'm leaving WordPress or switching gears to X, Y or Z stack, I can just try things and see how it goes. If I like it, great! And if not, I will know why while still learned a thing to two.

You can find me on Twitter, GitHub, or reach out via yoren [at] shikadigital.co.jp. And I hope you enjoy this experiment.

I wanted to try something different. Instead of overthinking or planning endlessly, I gave myself a tight deadline and committed to shipping. The constraints:

• 26 days to rebuild a complete website
• Use modern tools I haven't fully explored (Astro, AI-assisted coding)
• Document the process daily, mostly for myself
• Don't worry about audience or engagement—just focus on the work
• Deliver a real result, not just a prototype

If these notes help someone else, great. But that's not the goal. This is about trying a new approach and seeing what happens.

This project is built with modern web technologies focused on performance, accessibility, and developer experience:

• Astro - Static site generator with partial hydration
• TypeScript - Type-safe JavaScript for better DX
• Tailwind CSS - Utility-first CSS framework
• Vitest - Fast unit testing framework
• GitHub Actions - CI/CD for automated testing and deployment
• Sevalla - Hosting platform for fast global delivery