My first paid website job began at a small hot spring inn in rural Japan.

The website had essentially stopped working. The company that originally built it had gone out of business, and the owners didn't know how to update anything.

So I helped them revive the site. Looking back, I'm not even sure it should be called "development." I mostly figured out how to transfer the domain, update the content, and piece together a simple website from whatever photos we could gather.

But that small project became the start of everything for me.

I wrote a short story about it here: https://poly-phony.net/n/word/hot-spring/

I'm curious how others here got their first real website client or project.