Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back everybody to another episode of buying a house in Japan. I'm your host, Joey joined by Takei. We've got some exciting guests today, Rob and Naomi, who recently completed a purchase of a house in Okayama. Rob and Naomi, welcome to the show. Thank you.
Speaker: So first congratulations, Robin Nami, your house looks amazing. I saw some photos. We'll get into it in a little bit, but yeah, thank you for trusting us through the process. And we're really excited to hear more, but just to start off, do you mind giving us a quick intro on both yourselves? ah We're both their generation. I wanted to actually go back to where my family was from.
Speaker: I'm still looking for them. I'm still looking for them. But since I haven't always contacted them for almost 40 years now, I don't know if they're dead or alive or whatever, but it's a quest now that we're going to be starting. Yes. And you could have cousins in the area or.
Speaker: did but the last one that I spoke with or actually wrote with and spoke to was about 30 years ago and if he's alive he'd be probably about 85 I think so I don't know if well we'll see if he's hopefully he's not kicked the bucket or anything like that Naomi, do you have any family in the area or? I don't know. It's Rob spent a very happy summer with his relatives in Okoyama in that area. So that's why we went back to that spot because it's farming and it's a little out of the way. but Her family's all done in Fukuoka. Maybe we'll go down there and try to see if we can check with her relatives too. But we want to start off where
Speaker: And we were at Nokoyama. Got it. And where are you guys currently based? Were you born and raised in the United States? So you mentioned you're a third generation, right? I was born in Denver. She's LA. And yeah, we're a third generation. Our grand, I guess our parents, they're, you probably know the term Kibe. My father was Kibe. Her parents were Kibe. We have ties that goes back and forth from Japan. I'm not familiar, actually, I'm not familiar with that term. What's Kibe mean?
Speaker: People that were born in the United States and went back to Japan to get educated and came back before war. And both your parents were right. Yeah, my father was born in Hawaii, actually. And he went back when he was four years old to Fukuoka.
Speaker: And then he came back to the United States when he was 18. And my mother was born in Santa Monica, California. And then they had some unfortunate things happen. Her father died. So they sent her to live with relatives in Hiroshima. And she came back when she was 20. And then the war started and my parents met in camp. So that's how they got together.
Speaker: You mentioned the third generation, but I heard that you guys are also eye doc, both eye doctors and your children are also eye doctors. Is that correct? Is there a um family history of of eye doctors going further back as well?
Speaker: Yeah, started with my dad because he started the practice back in 47. And so we've been just carrying it along. Working with family, it's it's great. It's nice. At least ah can I can actually hand off, we could hand off the boat to the kids and go play. And that's what we're going to try to do now. So how long have you guys been thinking about buying a place in Japan or spending more time in Japan going forward in life?
Speaker: When, what was the nexus and where did that come from? When our youngest son got, uh, was getting married about five years ago, I sent a letter to my cousin that's in Oklahoma and asked him to come out to the wedding. And I got an old reply. I was like, Jay, I wonder what happened to him. Then I tried to contact some of my other cousins and of course my letters came back. Nobody but here by this name. So I was thinking, maybe I'd like to go back out there and actually see if I can find them.
Speaker: because really back in 69, my parents wanted me to go to Oklahoma and start school at elementary school. I'm sorry, this is another phone. Somebody must be moved to get a photo. I'm sorry. No problem. You can keep going. I think we're getting there. Okay. yeah Actually back in 69, my problem was I wasn't doing well in school because I didn't speak English that well.
Speaker: oh because i grew up with my grandparents so i was having trouble understanding english and so my parents wanted me to go to school in okoyama but then at the very end when they were going to leave me i more or less said and this is going to sound bad but i didn't want to stay in japan because the place smelled like a sewer Oh no. What year was this? 1969? 69, yeah. I mean, toilets were a hole in the ground. Yeah. michael It it was pretty good. And so I begged my mom bringing me back and that's why I went back and yeah, I was embarrassed because yeah, I was like, oh yeah, my cousin's place, yeah, literally smelled like an odd house.
Speaker: Toilets in Japan have the exact opposite reputation now, which is funny from your experience. Anyway, that that's how that started. And that's the reason why I ended up screwing back because my parents actually wanted to really be like what was happening with my dad. And he was there because he and my dad's whole family moved back to Okayama back about 1937.
Speaker: seven Because they were farming in Brighton over here. That's where my dad was born. so had you um sorry to had So was that the last time you were in Japan, was 1967? Or have you gone back up until buying the house? No, haven't. It was last time it was 69. I was there when I was 18 with a college group. So that was the last time I was there. We were in Ugoara for a second.
Speaker: Oh, i I actually know Yugawara, uh, quite well. Me and my little brother used to serve there. And I just want to mention, I'm sorry for the interruption, but our daughter -in -law's water just broke. So they're going to the hospital. Whoa. Congratulations. Deciding times. What, Robin, no, I mean, what really was the catalyst for you guys? You hadn't been to Japan for ages. What was, it what made you go like, all right, let's buy a house. Was it, you guys are thinking about retirement, things like that, or?
Speaker: Yeah, that's what we were thinking about retirement because we also heard, we both heard that, yeah, Japan really was nice and clean. We didn't have to worry about that sewage. but kinds have changed yeah yeah and so We actually went out there in April. And just to see how it was out, how it was, and it was really nice and people were family.
Speaker: we were able to blend into the crowd source, which was nice. And then after we came back, I said, let's actually do see if we can buy a house because we had heard that there was Akiyas that were open that you can get for really good prices. So that's how it started on that. And then we talked to you guys, then it was a whole snowball from there.
Speaker: Are you planning on moving? I'm not sure if you have a Japanese ah passport at all. I know there is like a retirement visa. Are you guys considering like retiring fully in Japan or is it always just going to be a va commission home i vacation home? home. Yeah. Plus it would be nice for our kids too ranso to to actually go back and forth. And we like to maybe spend maybe three, four months, come back, go back and forth because Eventually, of course, when we retire, we like to spend a little bit more time at the house. It's really nice staying in your home place instead of having to be at hotels all the time. And or this thing about the is it Zen you or its ID card? But you have that's we would like to get that. But there are some steps. And one of them is you have to have a sponsor and which we don't have a relative or school or work.
Speaker: yeah So no traction on finding your cousin or any of your family. What kind of efforts do you guys make on the ground? Did you like to put out flyers or knock on doors or things like that? We really haven't had enough time to spend out there. So eventually we'll see. We're going to work on that some work on.
Speaker: We'll see what happens. I bet they've got good records at city hall there or something. I think probably difficult to figure out these conversations in Japanese to track your cousin down. But if you do find the right person at city hall that knows how to do that stuff, I'm sure I would place my money on them having good records. I think so, because I think my mom is.
Speaker: And but I think my mom and dad are both on the Koseki, but I have to just find it. That's the thing. So that'd be a challenge. Interesting. Yeah, that might be a lead to passports. So my dad, because my dad's born in Japan, i got a I can get a passport. So I think there's some family tie that even future grandchildren can have ah Japanese passports. So don't know too much about that now, but I know that's how I got a Japanese passport temporarily.
Speaker: well Rob curious, did the, did you recognize okay. I'm like, when you went there, it had been like a long time. Did you know the streets or anything? Or was this completely a different city? Totally different. When I was there as a kid, I didn't care about anything. I i was just having fun with my cousin, Tucky. She was just running all over the place, playing baseball, catching frogs and combo fields.
Speaker: When I went back there, yeah, I don't remember the thing about this place. It looked totally different, like a totally new place. Yep. It's like a movie. I'm really excited. Eventually when you find your family again, let us know. We would love to, it'll close the loop. I think it's such a cool story that you're going back to your roots. I myself am Japanese American too. I think I've i've always thought about that. Do I find where my dad grew up kind of thing and try to buy a house around there, but and instead we've just gone all over the place. But let's talk about the property purchase process. So I know you guys talked with us, what seems like maybe four months ago, when did we start this whole.
Speaker: I think maybe September is when we really started our first conversation from our records. When you talked to us, what was really nice is you knew what you wanted. Both of you guys were like, we want Okoyama to identify a couple of property. We then set you up to work with our newer agents at the time, Ron and Hide. So thank you for being our guinea pigs, working with them. How was that experience? How was the search? Can you talk through the process that you went through?
Speaker: they were great. Yeah, they're both very nice people. And Ron is very friendly and personable. So it was a pleasure getting to know them and spending time with them meeting them and they Ron drove us around to the properties that we had been looking at and, um, yeah, it was, it's fun. there's Did you expect a, is Ron a blonde hair? He's like a, he's like a true American dude coming out up in a car. but he And we had a friend with us and he's American and.
Speaker: he said it was fun talking with Americans again so he had a good time and then he did is very uh fluent in both English and Nihongo and knows his stuff and all the technical paperwork type issues and uh getting utilities set up and all that stuff we would have never been able to do that we didn't know it was required so he was very good yeah and in fact Ron and he did they I think they're Was it going up and above what ah we had expected for any realtors to do? As you probably know, he did, was kind enough to go ahead and be like our representative to take care of paying the taxes, actually getting all the bills and also paying for all those things. He's also looking to, but he also got us the insurance quote too.
Speaker: So he's going to be going going ahead and going through with that too. So that's really helpful. If anybody's out there is worried about that, Ronnie, he day they'll go out of their way to to help you out. You picked a good set. yeah We have nothing but good words to say about them.
Speaker: Right on. um I'm curious on the property search, when they were driving around, how many houses do you guys look at? I know your budget was a little higher than our average customer looking at like true messed up Akiyas. Like what kind of houses were you looking at? And how many did you look at on that first? Maybe not messed up, dilapidated maybe. a better luckily the So there were three we narrowed it down to.
Speaker: And two of them were totally remodeled. So there was no worry about having to remodel. One of them was a true Akiya. It needed a lot of work, um but I could see the potential in that place. It's just, it would have been more expensive and we'd have to wait a long time before it was done. But yeah, so it got narrowed down to three places.
Speaker: And this was the last one we looked at? The last one that we looked at, we thought it was on your your website there. we We couldn't pass that up because that thing was it was totally redone, clean. I guess Hideo was saying that it passed all inspection and was certified. Yeah, we for the price, we just couldn't pass that up. We made a decision in about two days and told him, yeah, Ron, let's go for this.
Speaker: The other one that there was like a truck here. I'll share this with you. Our friend, Kendall, and the friend that came with us, I knew him from kindergarten. And so he's a long -term friend. We were making jokes. Hey, this looks like there might be some ghosts or youdas in there. We were saying, okay, so who's going to sit, who's going to take the first night out by themselves? And then we asked Bron, hey, yeah, why don't you come say he goes.
Speaker: Just a little fun thing that we were having at that time. Yeah. We get a lot of questions too, but like, why are these probably so cheap? Are there ghosts in it? Yeah. He was saying that they were saying some people want to come to Japan and make a, reconstruct a historical house and make it like a samurai house or something, but that's not what we wanted. It's Japanese style and everything's modern. So it's very convenient. Yeah. It's nice.
Speaker: when when and sorry good ahead anyway I was going to ask about, were there any points in this process where it felt, anything that surprised you in the process or any points where it felt overwhelming, or I just want to know how you guys felt about the entire sort of process. Did anything stand out there, any stressful events or anything like that?
Speaker: There really wasn't anything because everything went really smooth. I know that at one point the price of the house went up about 3000, but I guess it was because the owners wanted to, I guess they raised the price anyway. It wasn't a deal breaker, but that's just one small little hiccup. I don't know if any other clients would have experienced anything. I remember Um, I've told you about that, that it went up a little bit, but it wasn't a deal breaker, but that's the only things, everything else went pretty well. smoothly What point did that go up? I remember that conversation you had, you made the offer and then they like.
Speaker: Try to negotiate a higher price after you made the offer or how, what was the timeline there? It was like about shortly after we put in the, what is it? It was the contract. ah not ah yeah And Ron came back and says, unless you close by the end of the month, it's going to be about three or something like that. And again, I guess it had to do with the owner because I guess the owner was a, and correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker: It was a company that remodels homes. Is that what it was? And so it was going to go up anyway. We went around the thoughts of maybe just having heated the power of attorney to close the deal, but I said, don't rush it. Just go ahead. It's not a big deal break. Just let it go through. and I remember that. There was like, I were, we had talked, we've been following on the wrong run and he then he was like, okay, we, we have until this date and it was like 10 days or something like that. We're like, I don't know if it makes sense. It was like before the end of the month or something they wanted. Yeah. It's interesting. Do we ever figure out why is it like there was competition or they had upgraded things?
Speaker: I don't know. I guess Ron was even saying, I don't know why they did that either. It was just, no, it wasn't that big of a deal. Rob, what was the neighborhood like or Naomi as well? Could you describe the the neighborhood? I know when Takei and I bought our first house, the neighborhood seemed like it was on the edge of getting more abandoned. Is the neighborhood that you guys found trending in that direction or what sort of, what were your feelings on the neighborhood?
Speaker: um It looks like that neighborhood is like a development of about 20 homes and they're all the same age, like, 1990s. But we took a walk and we found there was a historical neighborhood that was all wooden buildings and there's a um sword museum around there and tourists there so it's a real old area historical and so that was interesting we didn't know that until after we bought it that that was there but yeah it looks like it's pretty stable it doesn't look like it's getting less people it was interesting because our across the street neighbor came by
Speaker: and actually had a conversation with us and so on. So I guess we don't look too bad. You got to start bringing them omiyage now each time you visit. I did bring a little, but they weren't home. There were two neighbors that were home and the rest weren't home. And Hida was kind enough to introduce us to the two neighbors that were home and gave them some omiyages. Hopefully if we can spend more time there, we'll get to know our neighbors a little bit better. So that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker: We're forward to it. Interesting to learn more about the house. So built in 1990s, it seems like someone came in and renovated it. It seems pretty brand new from the inside, right? How big is the property? Like how many rooms or can you describe what it looks like? I know we're on a podcast here. Yeah. Roughly how big any standout unique things about it. I think it's about 1100 square feet. There's three bedrooms upstairs and one toilet up there. There's a top tiny room up there.
Speaker: And then there's another bedroom on the main floor. And those are all new. Let's see, it's got a living room, dining room, kitchen and your bathroom. So it's fairly nice size. Of course it's a little smaller than what we're used to, but it's good enough for both of us. Got it. Did it fit your guys' budget and roughly how much did it cost ballpark to to get the property?
Speaker: I think with adding in the cost of the air conditioners, because we put in three air conditioners, I think it was about 100. Yeah, that was pretty good. I also added a banner a handle for the staircase. Yeah, there wasn't no handrail, so they put that in too. Okay.
Speaker: Good move with the ACs and installation might be the next move as well. Takei and I got a bunch of ACs in one of our properties and yeah, the the next move for ultimate comfort, I think is the installation.
Speaker: Yeah, it's we went there because we were out there in in June, which is the early part of December. It was cold. I was cold. And Ron was going, hey, you're from Colorado. How can you be cold? It's cold. But ah yeah, it's interesting that the Japanese homes, they don't have central air heating. Luckily, there's a ah hardware store, about a five minute drive away. So we were making a lot of trips there. at get things to make it comfortable that our mattress is there. Yeah. And we also took your advice for getting our international license. Thanks for encouraging us. Yeah. How was it driving on the other side of the road? Scary or you got used to it?
Speaker: For me, it was scary either, but I finally got used to it. In fact, when Ron was with us, I said, hey, you want to drive? And he's looking at me like, well, it sounds like somebody doesn't want to drive. He said, yeah, you better. It's strange, but I forced myself to drive, and it got better as time goes.
Speaker: But I had a question. You guys have a car out there, right? And yeah year the person that you use, I saw on that link, that person helps you get the car and register it also?
Speaker: Yeah, we're experimenting with the process, but yeah, do you have more to that question before I try to answer it? or Yeah, go ahead. The thing is that, is it true that you have to have your car was inspected every year or every two years? Is that a pain? Every two years. Yeah. The shotgun or I think they call it shotgun. Yeah. Every two years. I think that the, even if you were to buy a used car in Japan, the average level of maintenance that they keep their cars in Japan is well above what you'll find in America or Canada. So. I don't think if you were to buy a used car, I think very likely it's still going to pass the shotgun. Yep. And going back to the acquisition part, yeah, that's something we're figuring out next. We figured out how to buy houses and it seems like buying cars is even more complicated than buying some of these houses. But the good news is now that you have a house, I think the big thing they look for is like an electricity bill or utility bill.
Speaker: Uh, so once you get that utility bill, that unlocks a lot of things. Yeah. Feel free to reach out, ah reach out to us offline. We can start how to navigate it. It's very complicated, but I feel like we can figure it out. If you do want to end up having a car, do you guys have a parking spot by the way? Yes. Okay. That's one of the qualifications. That's the big one, the parking spot. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. So in short, it's the cars are quite cheap, but they do have a lot of hoops. You need to jump through like that, that other, every other year inspection. But yeah, we were surprised the quality we got from minivan. We went through like a Craigslist type website. And honestly, the minivan we got is immaculate and perfect. And probably the, it's the newest car I've ever bought in the cheapest car I've ever bought at the same time. I'm just wondering, cause we also thinking, would it be better to just go ahead and We can't be released, but grant a car? Is that cheaper than buying one?
Speaker: Uh, yeah. rent a car Recently, i've I mean, I've rented a car in Oita prefecture for about $500 for a week. Those are the sort of the rates you'll pay and definitely really easy to rent cars in Japan. Not a problem, but he wanted your own car or you wanted something with space to bring stuff. Back and forth from the hardware store frequently, $2 ,000 for a car to own your own car is quite affordable. Hmm.
Speaker: Yeah, they have a cars, they have a whole bunch of more bigger engine cars. I think a lot of people, if you're just staying locally, get the K car. They have the yellow license plate, but we've heard that they're a little bit dangerous. You're going to go on the highway or they're like cheaper built, but they're also cheaper. Yeah. I think a car is a great option as you guys settle down there and and realize I, I'd always buy a car over renting it, but no, you're probably,
Speaker: going to need to find someone in the neighborhood, maybe you'll turn it on once in a while, or maybe do some of the maintenance. But interestingly enough, I think Okeama has been picking up a lot of popularity amongst our users. And we've been getting a lot of inquiries. I think like right after you guys actually inquired, we had a ton of people, we actually helped someone else buy an Okeama quite recently. So I don't know what it is. Maybe it's like the house styles. that There's a lot of the Akiyas with very traditional kind of roofs and stuff and at good prices, but you guys might have started a trend, I'd say, when with folks. yeah There's a big art, I think, every two years in Okayama as well, a big art festival. Oh, yeah, your friend with that, isn't it? I was on an island. And now Shima. Now Shima, that's it.
Speaker: Yeah. I'm curious what, for our listeners who've never been to Okama, what do you guys like about it? What's the environment like? Is it, are you close to the ocean? Are you up on hills? What, your area, what's, what's it like? That's close. Rice fields. Yeah. That's cool. It's kind of like foot of some small mountains. So it reminds me of where I'm here in Golden.
Speaker: Okay. It's the full, you know, yeah the boulder of Japan. yeah There you go. How do your kids like, like it, you know, yeah have they, have they visited? Are they planning to use the house? You know, are they excited? We'll see. Cause once having a baby and the others, they're getting married pretty soon after they're all settled. We might take a family trip. We'll see.
Speaker: Yeah. The older one, he did did a rotation down at the Inoki Na 'a, the Naval base there. And he says, yeah, he wants to come back, go back. Cause he says he had a good time. And he says, yeah, he's, he keeps bugging me. When are you guys going to get the household fix so it can come up? It's like a five minute drive to the grocery store. We went to Hallows a lot and.
Speaker: get fental from there and things are convenient. It's not too backwards. good Yeah, I find Japan quite, quite convenient or at least I'm living in rural Canada right now. So way more convenient than than here. But yeah, that is one thing I look forward to when I do go back to Japan is getting places is so easy that in public transportation infrastructure and then just grocery stores have everything you ever need. And yeah, I do find it the convenience is something I love about Japan.
Speaker: And then as we wrap up here, when are you guys coming back next? You guys just went a couple of weeks ago. It feels like when you guys just came back. Is that right? We came back right before Christmas about from the 4th to the 10th. We're going back though. Yeah, we have to try. We're going to try to get back probably last week of February or last two weeks of February. And then it just depends on because we have to fill in for our daughter and son. So we like to go back there, hopefully again in another
Speaker: eight, six, or seven weeks, but it just depends on when we can get away. Eventually, I want to say, hey, I'm going to spend about six months out on a visitor visa. We could only be there three months, but try to work on a long -term state visa. That's awesome.
Speaker: Okay. So now the big question here, again, our listeners are people who are aspiring to buy Akiyas. If what advice do you have to someone who's beginning their search? Maybe another Japanese American who wants to reconnect, but like anything you would tell yourself six months ago before you started this purchase process? Probably actually starting with you because I was looking online and I didn't know where to go. And I was just like, maybe I'll.
Speaker: send an email to a realtor blind blindly, but actually, gosh, I think I found this because you were referred to us by, I forgot the name, I'm sorry, because I just found him online and he says, oh yeah, try to get Akio Mark. Awesome. maybe was Whoever it is, thank you, if you're listening to this. and I spent hours scrolling through and looking at one house after another.
Speaker: So that's how we narrowed it down. But your descriptions are great, and the prices are there, and it's a good sight, yes. Because yeah you've and even now, you're you're willing to take keep keep us informed, especially like the cars and stuff. That's very much appreciated, because when our kids bought their house, early part of this year, they're able to close the deal, and all of a sudden, they're nowhere to be found.
Speaker: So we're around, we're actually going to be in the area, hopefully end of February too. So we'll contact you. We'd love to try to meet you guys up in person. We're driving from Tokyo down to Kyushu. So if we go the Okayama route, we'll definitely stop by and say hi. Yeah. But that's all for me, Joey. Any final questions for you?
Speaker: How just an optometrist question. there no balancesters question i I was going to ask a question about, I guess it was very similar to your question, Taki, but I feel two years ago before me and Taki had started this journey, I would have thought that this was impossible and not impossible, but so over, I would have been overwhelmed with.
Speaker: how to even get started on this. And it, I asked this question a little bit earlier, whether you had any stressful moments or did it ever seem, what was the spark that made this all seem possible for you guys to even make this happen? Was there a point where you went from, no, I don't know if we could pull this off to I think we could do this.
Speaker: Actually, it's mainly the cost. You can get really good houses for a reasonable price. In the States, probably even Canada up there, you can't touch. If you, a little shack will be like 500 G's or or some of them, they look like a run down house for a million bucks. Nobody can afford anything like that. But in Japan, it's not a surprise that, yeah, you can get a decent house for a reasonable price.
Speaker: And then we could build too. So that was a big thing. So we all want to first, we started first looking at the costs. All was amazing. It says, yeah, this is something we could do. I think we and ta were felt the same when we first yeah thought about it too. The financial risk was low to to try something. Congratulations. You guys have successfully bought an awesome house. Again, we hope to visit you soon. And again, we really thank you guys for being one of our earlier customers here and working with Ron and Headey. I know they have said nothing but good things. They're like, find us more Robin Nami's customers. So that's, you guys are the template and have set the precedent for customers. We send them at this point. So thank you so much.
Speaker: you're most long yeah Keep in touch and it will be out there hopefully the last two weeks of February. So if you're on that time, let's get together. Perfect. Then yeah, keep us updated. I want to know if you find your cousin. i Like no matter if if it's five years from now, just you make sure to send us an email. I hope you find your family out there and and reconnect. I'll keep in touch. Thanks. Yeah, we'll do. All right. Thank you guys so much.
