Transcript
Speaker: Hey everyone, hope you had a great Thanksgiving for those of you stateside. This week's episode was recorded about a month ago when we were on our road trip through Shikoku. In it, we discussed current events now in the past, plus some observations that are a bit outdated.
Speaker: Nonetheless, it's a fun episode and I hope you enjoy.
Speaker: Welcome back everybody to another exciting episode of the buying house in Japan podcast the number one Akia podcast in the world. It's me Joey back again with co-host Takei. We are in Shikoku right now.
Speaker: Oddly we have gone to Shikoku quite often in the past years. I would venture to say we've been to Shikoku more times than any of our Japanese friends that we know, or almost anyone we know that does not live in Shikoku.
Speaker: Definitely. For one reason or another, we find ourselves here. It's actually four prefectures. ah We took a ferry here. We'll get into that a little bit later. We're here checking out a few houses and doing some surfing.
Speaker: Damn, before that, we're staying in this beach house area called Shishikui. It's a nice beach house, but I just walked into my room and I found a cockroach on my bed. What do I do, Joey? There's two beds. Shishikui roaches. there's ah There's a cockroach directly on the bed right here. i so i try to try to kill the cockroach, but it went under the bed.
Speaker: Do I go hunting for it? Like, do I pull the, i like, I looked under the bed. I could not find it, but cockroaches are. Like under the covers or under the bed? Under the bed. It ran under. I was like trying to smack him in. think you're all right. Okay. i'm well You'll survive. All right, here we go. let's get live We got a lot on the docket How many Six topics? We got a lot of topics today. We are recording this mid-late October. We just went on a freaking recording spree these past 10 days. We've been in Japan since early October.
Speaker: What have we done since we've been here so far, Joey? World War II or so far, we went up to Iyama, Nozawa Onsen Myoko real quick, met met a new friend, Mitch, creating a tiny home, business up there, back to Tokyo, back-to-back meetings. We went Atami. We had some photos taken. We're thinking of getting some ah professional photos taken for our website.
Speaker: Then back to Tokyo. Then back on the ferry, which is, I think, one of the topics in conversation today. But just very briefly, got on the ferry to Tokushima. Met with Rio. Some of you know he's been on the podcast a few times before. We're going to have him on again. First time video podcast with Rio in the next few days. And then drove down here, like southern Tokushima, down the coast. We're in a town called Kaifu right now. We came here to check out a surf house, which we'll also get into later. Chasing the swell, but unfortunately we have consistently, we've missed Typhoon 22, 23, but maybe there's Typhoon 24 coming. We have two surfboards and are hoping to score some waves.
Speaker: We've been chasing the swell, but the swell's been faster. Yeah. Okay, let's let's let's do a couple things. There's a lot that's been happening in Japanese news. Joey happens to be an avid reader of Japan Times now, I think. Did hear that right? No, I just downloaded the app, Japan Times. so just Just recently I've been reading it, but i read a lot and i'm I'm a New York Times a subscriber, so I read a lot of New York Times, but I figured might as well start reading Japan Times as well.
Speaker: Which one you want to hit first? Asahi cyber attack. So Asahi got cyber attacked and they could no longer fulfill their beer distribution orders. I don't know who was behind the cyber attack. North Koreans.
Speaker: Is that what they think? I have not been following up, actually. They're back on track, though. But they were offline for a little bit, and they couldn't, like, people, i think they went back to fax machines for people to put in their orders, I think, for distribution. But just, I do, you know, it just goes to show that likely Japanese tech infrastructure is just not there, and they had to fall back on machines.
Speaker: fax machines. I asked Take what if he had a magic wand, what's the one thing he would change about Japan? And he said the technology here. Like I was just on that final thought on that topic. I just bought some ferry tickets again. And it was like the jankiest checkout. Like you're like, oh, this is it's like a website from like 1999 that feels like you're putting your credit card details in. So yeah, I think like Japan technology scene just isn't where it is. So like, i'm not surprised. saw he got hacked.
Speaker: Friction is opportunity, hence we' us making our website, www.akia-mart.com. We are the Zillow of Japan. If you have not checked it out, please do. But Asahi cyber attack, that was a big news. It was like all headlines. And we were like, do we just go buy Asahi right now? Poor Asahi. But anyways, next topic, to take on bear attacks.
Speaker: This has been on NHK News. I think we every... We've seen a lot, like any restaurant we've sat down at, we've sat down and we've seen some news component. It's either the Dodgers playing or some baseball game or it's bear attacks. Supposedly, there have been a lot of bear attacks in Japan recently. Joey, what's the scoop?
Speaker: When we saw... Where did we see Rio? for It was like the first thing Rio told us. We saw him in Iyama. In Iyama, Yeah, the here yeahp bear attacks. I think 40 bear attacks in September alone, which is the highest on record in Japan. They do say in the fall there's more bear attacks. they you know Bears go try to fill up on as much food as they can before they hibernate for the winter. But yeah, bear attacks on the rise historically. like I don't know. Is it something with the heat? I've been wondering. like It was also like...
Speaker: hottest year on record kind of weather this past summer in Japan. And i like, is did that make the bears go crazy? Are they like hungrier because it was so hot or I don't know. But yeah, bear attacks on the rise in Japan.
Speaker: They're like, they're going into supermarkets. Like there was something in the Japan Times that I read. A bear attacked a man in a supermarket in Japan. He survived. The Kuma attacks.
Speaker: Well, if you are buying in Nakia in truly Nakia areas, this actually might be something you have to think about. I never would have thought, but I think we've been hearing this for the past year. Maybe some more wild boars. How many bear attacks are in America though, every year?
Speaker: Ah. It's probably more than 40 a month. I would assume so. But still big news in Japan, or at least it's been it seems like it's been on every news station recently. i With a grain of salt, I do think Japan tends to play up certain news stories. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Okay, one that is maybe not played up enough, especially amongst foreigners now, is the business manager visa. Cooked. Cooked. Unfortunately, October 16th, I think, is when it has come into place.
Speaker: If you are looking to get a visa in Japan, it just got a lot harder. We will have Nick again probably on the pod soon, but... High level, you now need about to have 200K. You need to have an employee.
Speaker: One person in the company needs to be at an end to speaking level Japanese. Three years experience managing a business. Also, like ah education requirement related to that? Or is that the same thing as experience? There's like some education. Yeah, I think it was like an MBA or three years experience.
Speaker: So if you have not got your business manager visa in yet, unfortunately, I think that window has now been closed. It sounds like people that have the business manager visa currently will have up to three years and two to meet those codes. so With annual check-ins that you're making progress towards those goals. gee It's like $200K in contribution capital, right? Capital infusion.
Speaker: Yeah, that's the wackiest thing. That's not like, okay, let's say you come here, start a business on like a whatever, 10K you put into the business and you turn it into 200K. Like, no, it's not that. You need to put in the 200K capital into the business. it Can't just be that you turn $10,000 into a profitable business for Japan. It needs to be 200K like capital injection into the business.
Speaker: Our most frequent question is like, hey, if I buy a property or an Aki in Japan, does that help me get a visa? No, it does not. Even further from a harder no after this change. One other thing is for the business manager, he said the office cannot be within a residence, I think, or something like that. or Yeah, which was kind of gray zone before. Like, yeah, you could do the physical office in a house if it had a separate entrance, and it was like...
Speaker: walled off from the living space or like you don't have to cross the living space to get to the ah physical office but now that is no longer okay you need to rent or buy or you know you you need actual office real estate then we'll have nick from japan remotely come back on here but this is not an end-all be-all i think there are other alternatives the hsp visa the artist visa the digital nomad visa the startup visa said what else am i missing any those are the big one I think the start of visa visa, like it's almost nonsensical. Although I think talk to an expert like Nick, we should get him on again because does the startup visa like no longer make sense?
Speaker: yeah And it could be just, you know, this is some political backlash. So it's not supposed to make sense. It's just supposed to appease voters. Yeah. Stay tuned. We'll, we'll, we'll talk more about that. Okay, probably the biggest news in Japan is a potential new prime minister.
Speaker: Back to you, Joey. Japan Times, what give us the scoop according to what you know. Japan Times field correspondent. Joey here after two days of owning the Japan Times subscription. Expert.
Speaker: So Ishiba, the old prime minister is resigning soon. um Not exactly 100% sure why he's resigning. I think kind of like, lack you know, there is some scandal slush fund scandal. They're saying not exactly sure that what that is, but I think it's just some sort of money and business money, corporate money and politics type scandal.
Speaker: I think also just kind of caving to Donald Trump might be another reason why um he's resigning. But anyways, the LDP, the ruling party, the party that's been in power for the past 70-ish years in Japan, pretty much without break, ah has decided on Takai-chi, Sanai Takai-chi, as their... the um The next prime, they they basically pick who they want to be prime minister if they can get enough votes in the lower house. And they've been doing that with a junior coalition party that co-meto. they don't have enough votes on their own to pick the prime minister themselves. They've been doing it with a ah second party who's also voting for whoever they want to be prime minister. That Komeito party has dropped out because, again, more backlash over the slush fund stuff. They're not very happy with the LDP's response towards that previous scandal. And they said, we're no longer going to form a coalition with you. So the LDP is looking for another party to join with them so that they get enough votes to vote for prime minister. So that's kind of what happened in the news recently. First, it was, oh, Sanai Takaichi is going to be the prime minister, and then Komeito drops out, and everyone's like, oh, is there going to be an opposition party um that that gets to decide the next prime minister? But it looks like Ishin no Kai...
Speaker: Another opposition party is going to form a coalition with the LDP, and the LDP will once again be the ruling party of Japan, and likely Sanae Takeuchi is going to be the prime minister again, or sorry, be elected prime minister.
Speaker: one let One last thing that I found interesting after reading about politics in Japan is the Komeito Party, so the junior coalition party that said we're no longer going to support the LDP in picking the prime minister,
Speaker: They are a Buddhist party, which I think is kind of interesting. It's kind of like a... Bring Buddhism back, baby. Yeah, they kind of want Japan to incorporate Buddhist teaching into the you know the laws that are formed in the country, etc. They're a conservative party, and that's why they've aligned themselves with the LDP, the Liberal Democrats, which is a conservative party as well. But just interesting to to note that they're one of their founding members, I don't know how many years ago, 30, 40 years ago, was like this Buddhist monk.
Speaker: who thought Japan needs more Buddhist teachings in the in in the law-making process. So that's the last interesting tidbit there. Great job, Joey.
Speaker: Japan Times correspondent of only two days, but you did a good job. If any of our listeners are super well-versed in Japanese politics too, would actually love to have one of you guys on.
Speaker: I think i I just do not understand all these parties and what's happening. But yeah, I don't understand the nuances. Like I know that a lot of people are saying that Takai Chi Sanai Takai Chi is like, oh, so all super far right, that kind of stuff. Like, I don't know that much. yet i don't know the nuances. I'm just kind of following the plot line, it but I don't understand the characters yet.
Speaker: I saw this one video where she's just like, as prime minister, I'm going to work, work, work. And it was just like, i saw a lot of backlash from, i guess, folks on LinkedIn, at least for females that were just like, ah, this is not, this is not what we wanted of our first female prime minister.
Speaker: I've seen those kinds of things. I've seen that kind of sentiment too. Okay. As a result of, I think maybe Takeichi maybe being elected, we have seen a yen slip from,
Speaker: The dollar now is one U.S. dollar to around 152, 153 yen, which is crazy. The yen, the you know, the yen carry trade is back on, basically, is sort of the headlines I'm seeing. She wants to keep interest rates low. So capital flows to America.
Speaker: People sell the yen. Yen gets weaker. What does this do to Akiya buyers or foreigners who want to buy in Japan? Should they be more worried now, you think? Well, it makes the yen cheaper, so prices get cheaper. for if you're making If you're earning dollars, Japan just got more affordable again.
Speaker: But do you think, yeah, have I think her sentiment, ah yeah the general sentiment in Japan towards foreigners, I think is going quite negative. Maybe, yeah, like anti-immigration, anti like, could there be laws that get passed, you think, that bar foreigners from buying these Akiyas or making it harder?
Speaker: Yeah, and we spoke to one of our agents recently, kind of asked this same sort of question. I think there could be laws, like I doubt it's going to be a blanket policy foreigners cannot ah buy or own property in Japan. I think it'll be more targeted at let's say flipping homes. Like you can't, like I think right now, Chioda Ward, you can't resell within five years of purchasing or else it's, you know, taxes are crazy on it or so or something like that. I think it'll be more like that if I had to guess.
Speaker: I agree with you. Okay. Well, this wraps up our Japan times news quarter and we're moving on. Joey, let's talk about a couple of our trip events. Impressions.
Speaker: So this was the first time we took a ferry from Tokyo to Tokushima. It was about like a 17 hour ferry. And we were honestly a little skeptical that this was going to be a nice ferry.
Speaker: But it was really, really nice. It wasn't the, as you may have known from our previous podcast, word we're definitely fairy boys. That should be our next t-shirt. I thought the fairy was great. Like very, very pleasant.
Speaker: Yeah, we've taken ferries from bep but olsaca the bepu fairies from to to Beppu. and we we love the two different places in that he made a bet boom kagoshima yakushima we're thinking about making a fairy coffee table book if anyone is interested in the uh the fairies are great they're like this one was not so crowded as the sunflower fairy from osaka to betbu and back but it still had the like very like same kind of skeleton boat almost it's almost the same boat almost the same like a different thinnit furnishing inside and Yeah, still has the onsen. It was missing the restaurant. And they had like a bunch of vending machines with frozen food in it and you microwave the food and we can get into that in a little bit. But the restaurant was missing. The rooms were different. The rooms were a little bit more budget, although we did get the the best rooms on it. Probably you could get on the boat, but they're still all dormitory style. So basically we got to dorant we got a room. Taki had a room with two bunk beds. i had a room with one bunk bed, but we both had the rooms to ourselves.
Speaker: but pretty pleasant. No Wi-Fi. The Sunflower does have Wi-Fi, but it doesn't really work. So that wasn't much of a change either, but just a very relaxed pace with the no internet connection, no Wi-Fi. you can You can unplug for a little bit, read some books, listen to podcasts, do whatever.
Speaker: I think the big advantage for first time listeners here is the ferry. You can just drive your car straight on. And it's nice. Even if you're renting a car, you can just drive it, go straight on the ferry and land well rested, not having to have driven, say 10 hours down from Tokyo to Tokushima.
Speaker: Or go through TSA and all the hassle with airports. Flying, yeah. So I think fairies are still going to be our our preferred choice. um And as Joey mentioned, we could not get Wi-Fi or any cell reception, which was really nice. It was nice to disconnect and just like look at the ocean and...
Speaker: Compared to the ferries in Beppu, you have to like wake up very early and get off early. This was, like I think, the right timing where I i really enjoyed. I think it's such a it's a little bit of a novelty. The slow morning on the ferry was really nice. on my way back I'm taking the ferry back from Tokushima to Tokyo.
Speaker: It's not like that. So we got on the ferry from Tokyo at like 7 p.m. but You sleep on the ferry, and then we got off the boat at like 11.30 in the morning. but On the way back, it's 11.30 in the morning. I get on the boat, oh and then overnight, and I get to Tokyo at 5 a.m., so that's going be early morning for me. Not as ideal. but At least you're getting in super early that you could probably make it to...
Speaker: to Tama quite quickly, right? Yeah. So 10 out of 10, recommend the ferry for the slow pace. And I think it's such a unique part japanese of Japan that foreigners do not see.
Speaker: i We are definitely the only foreigners on that ferry. We usually were the only ones ever on these ferries. So it is cool to see. it like It's a very retro kind of look in some of these lounges. I do really think we should make a coffee table book up. Yeah.
Speaker: Some interesting characters on this boat too. Some like Lamborghini, Yakuza looking man, yeah got on, tutu Lamborghini kind of Yakuza man. And like as as they're driving up the ramp onto the ferry, we're in Tokyo and they're like, the Lamborghini is driving up the, or Maserati, whatever, was driving up the ramp onto the boat and he had his like, kind of like minion underlings like waiting by the car lineup and they all kind of bowed to him. So he kept being like, look out the window, watch the washroom. I was like, they're about to bow. They're about to, I'm like, I know it. Cause they're all just waiting there. and I knew what was going on.
Speaker: So other pro tips, if you are going to take this specific ferry, buy some food before you go on. Joey had some like microwave shumai on it. How would you rate those shumai you got? Pretty low, like really bad actually.
Speaker: Two, one or two out of 10. One. I also think that's why I didn't sleep very well on the boat. Cause I, I like the bed wasn't uncomfortable. i had my pillow. I think it was like that kind of MSG overload maybe.
Speaker: Okay, so once we landed, it was smooth sailing. We then drove down about two hours to a city called Kaifu. We had picked Kaifu for a couple reasons. As we mentioned on our podcast before, we have been scoping out a surf house.
Speaker: Kaifu is really famous. It's, I guess, a river mouth break, surf break. We tried to surf this morning, and if it rained so much yesterday, and we checked out the the surf break, and it was gnarly. It was disgusting.
Speaker: yeah I want to just like rewind the clock 12 hours before that. okay like We kind of made the wrong choice again. It wasn't the wrong choice, but we got to this town and we went to go explore it at nighttime. It wasn't nighttime. It was like 6 p.m., but it was dark already. The town was empty, completely empty, like not even lights on in the homes. I would say one in 10 homes had a light on in it.
Speaker: As a reminder, we are exploring Shikoku, which is, I think, probably the least populated island with the most Akiya and really the most concerning, I think, of the parts.
Speaker: I've been calling it the deep south here. like we're like We're in Mississippi, if it feels like, so sorry to anyone in Mississippi. I'm from Canada, so I'm just kind of spouting stereotypes here, but that's what it felt like. like Me and Takei kind of stood out like a guy saying hi to you, Joey.
Speaker: Like, have a nice day. Nice to meet you. Yeah, yeah hopeful jewel is are the Very gaijin here. But yeah, I agree with Joey. We walked around what seemed like a ghost town. i'm i'm I really don't know what's going to happen to this area within 10 years. it's it's There's no bouncing back, I think, at this point for some of these areas.
Speaker: But um going back to... We had a ton of rain. We checked out the surf. We still have not surfed yet, unfortunately, because the conditions yesterday were, or this morning were really bad. It was like, imagine a super brown river gushing into the ocean. Gushing. Absolutely. Throw. Like the color has changed. You see the color of the ocean, then you see the color of this gushing river. And somewhere in between there is where we're supposed to surf. Yeah. It was treacherous. We will maybe use that as the podcast cover or something, but ah we have not surfed here yet, but we did actually check out a surf house that we came to see.
Speaker: Joey, what were your impressions? Surf houses was really cool. It was like well designed. like It sounded like the real estate agent told us he got some architect from Hawaii to come. So it was like kind of very Hawaiian style. The owner of the house is a surfboard shaper.
Speaker: seems like he's done really well in life because he owns several properties. But the house was really, really nice. Yeah, ah we'll post the link actually. It's been, we've been talking about it. It's it's been more expensive. It's I think close to 30 million yen, which is about 200 K. This was out of our budget, but we were trying to shoot the shot here. It had been on the market for a while that we went to the owner. We're trying to figure out like a seller financing situation here, which.
Speaker: is not common in Japan, but we figured because it's in a landslide zone, because of it, you know, it's remoteness that no one would want it. But lo and behold, I think an Aki Amart customer might have found it and it might be putting an offer on it.
Speaker: So. The road up was like very narrow, very windy, kind of like a broken. Treacherous. Yeah, treacherous. You kind of go through like some Jurassic Park scenes like on the road up. was interesting. Like there's a waterfall gushing at one point. Half the road was submerged at one point. Like interesting to go up. But yeah, like I would get like a small Jeep. I feel like would be the right car for that road. A minivan was not the right car.
Speaker: The house was damaged by a landslide six to seven years ago. The government put about $1.5 million dollars into shoring up the hill behind the house. And they did a really good job. Like, you know, those kind of serious concrete structures you see on hillsides as you're driving, as you're on the highway in Japan, it was like at that level.
Speaker: I was more worried. That was like one of the biggest things I think we were looking for, but i feel pretty confident that they did it right. That's a serious fix for that hillside and just for that house, which is kind of strange to me, but either way, the house is dope.
Speaker: We can't afford it. Someone else is going buy it, but we are going to post a video reel on it. If it doesn't sell, we will post it again. i do think someone should buy this. Us personally, probably not the right fit. are We discuss pros and cons, but ultimately the city is not the greatest spot we want to be in. It's maybe a ah perfect perfectly suited for someone who wants to be like...
Speaker: isolated on top of the hill and see the surf every day. What I actually thought ended up being a plus was it's the house is fed by a mountain spring.
Speaker: So at first when we were speaking to the real estate agent, he was like, oh, there's no city water. He's like bringing up the water. It wasn't clear what the owner was doing for water, but it's like not hooked up to public water utilities.
Speaker: But he's actually got a massive cistern behind the house where he's collecting mountain water. And the the whole house is fed by this mountain spring. So for off the grid, you know, all you need to do is get some propane tanks and some solar panels. And the house is completely off grid.
Speaker: Yeah, I think someday we come back to this. It really is like a flagship design home that I wanted to make it work. But unfortunately, I think we're passing on this opportunity for now.
Speaker: But we did make some good connections with the real estate agent who might be able to help us convert some agricultural land to sellable land. Okay, Joey, that spin ah it's been a whirlwind of a trip. We're about 75% of the way through.
Speaker: The very last topic I want to highlight is something you've been doing really well this trip is the Aisatsu to all the Japanese people. Talk us through this. Aisatsu is greetings in Japanese, and I think that based based on my...
Speaker: time living in Japan and also this sign put up in the neighborhood in Beppu. can't remember what it says, but it's like, Aisatsu makes the community stronger or something. I can't remember the exactly how it's phrased, but I've been trying to practice my Aisatsu. I think it goes down well, especially as a gaijin.
Speaker: in japan to just nail the aisatsu like a strong ohayo gozaimasu as you're like going for a walk in the morning and you pass by somebody or like a gochisousama deshita is like one of the ones i'm really practicing because it's a little weird to yell in a restaurant as you're leaving but i'm trying to practice the volume of my gochisousama deshita and yeah and just like the the strong ohayo gozaimasu You've become more skilled. I'd say when we started in Tama, you were like, dudes were walking like right next to us and you'd be like, well because i us and they would just like muggle something like kind of shocked and surprised. Here's the trick. So I was waiting for eye contact and I feel like maybe it's a Japanese thing or maybe it's ah because I'm foreigner. that I feel like I walked by somebody and they don't make eye contact. So i was kind of waiting for eye contact to hit them with the ohayo gozaimasu.
Speaker: But I, what would happen is they wouldn't make eye contact. They wouldn't make eye contact as they're passing by me. And then basically when they're kind of horizontal to me, I would say ohayo gozaimasu and kind like brute force. Yeah. Brute force at last minute. And the response was either muted or like weird or, or ignored.
Speaker: So I think it's just, just go for it when they're kind of like still in front of you. Don't wait to the last minute. Don't wait for eye contact. Just fire off the strong and clear Ohio gozaimasu. I think a slower but better pronounced Ohio gozaimasu is better than a fast but garbled.
Speaker: What about the bow? Yeah. the Okay. So the other thing is drive. So me and Taka drive a lot in Japan and like, you know, as a thank you when you're in America or kind of anywhere else, you do like a little wave. Thank you. Shaka.
Speaker: Shaka. Thank you. They don't do that here. It's always a bow. So I've been bowing a lot more when I'm driving the car. And I think it's, I think it's better because that, you know, people, that's what, that's what they do here. They don't wave, they bow. So I think it just goes, it goes by better. So,
Speaker: feel like if someone makes, don't know, if you're driving slow around a turn and there's someone standing there whatever, hit them with the bow. Or like someone lets you hit them with the, like in traffic, hit them with the bow. Like any kind of, you know, the gas station guy stops the traffic for you as you're pulling out from the gas station stand, like hit them with the bow. Hit them with the bow.
Speaker: I mean, this has been working for you, Joey. I think this the Aisatsu thing has definitely been working. I think every person you've passed you've been doing the Aisatsu for has been like, okay. Hit him earlier with the Aisatsu, I think, is is the the move. Don't wait last minute. Especially in the countryside here in Shikoku, I think it's hyper effective. Everyone has been very happy, I think, with Joey in the Aesatsu.
Speaker: It's actually crazy. There's just really isn't, there's not any foreigners out here. There's very few compared we just came from Tokyo or even Nozawa or Yama. Like, wow. It's...
Speaker: I really don't know what's going to happen to Shikoku. We were talking about this on the car ride over. just like Tokyo is overcrowded everywhere else is undercrowded. Yeah, was like, Tokyo is... This area is...
Speaker: like this area is not doing yeah well, I would say, economically, 100%. And, like, Tokyo's bustling, but, like, Tokyo's bustling to a fault. Like, it's too bustling. There's too much people. And Japan needs some of that bustling-ness to spread to the countryside because Tokyo is just too busy, too crowded, too bustling. And the places like this in Japan are just, like, the exact opposite.
Speaker: We just went to a hotel down the street that's just, like, oceanfront, But it's so retro. Dated, yeah. And like, oh my goodness, this is such a good location. it just If there was someone that came in with some capital and some design, like you could make this such a bitchin' hotel. Yeah, and you can see like maybe in its heyday, like there was a bar. kind of a we So we went there to hit, they have like a onsen, sento kind of thing. And like you come out and there's like a, you know, an old bar counter there, but they had chucked a bunch of laundry machines on it. Like you can see at one point, this hotel was like more upscale and like in, I'm guessing the eighties or maybe early nineties based on the decor, which has not been updated since then.
Speaker: Like, yeah, it was probably like a ah nice like beach town getaway when this area was was, you know, probably peaking at in the 80s. And that and not much of this hotel has changed since then. And it's just like so run down.
Speaker: But like, yeah, great location, extravagant building, but just like, no, you know, a couple old guys in there and then us. Japan needs someone to come in and I think just refresh some of this stuff. they can There's just so much room for opportunity here. I think the surf is supposed to be really good here. hope We're hopefully going to see it tomorrow.
Speaker: The scenery is amazing. like Such good clear waters and oh just lay cool cliffs. like I think the house we saw today, the designer house would cost probably like $2 to $3 million dollars anywhere else in the world.
Speaker: Yeah. And it's just it's just crazy. yeah So if you are listening to this and never have been to Shikoku, highly, highly recommend. Drive down the eastern coast. If you like surfing.
Speaker: It's supposed to be really good for surfing. We're going to be documenting a little bit and over the next couple of days. Our boards are waxed. We are going out within... We're going Dom Patrol tomorrow morning, Joey, so brace yourself.
Speaker: Let's do it. But other than than that, 75% of the trip in the books. If you have not already liked us on Spotify, please smash that like button. It's amazing, actually. Since we started just asking people to like, our likes have gone up significantly. I think we're probably going to be close to 100 by now, but...
Speaker: Don't stop. If you are listening and have listened and enjoy this podcast, please share it with someone. We are really trying to grow and put a lot of work into this to make it a better, more enjoyable podcast for everyone.
Speaker: Any final words, Joey? Get us to 100, everybody. We're almost there. I'm going to flip this bed for this cockroach right after this. Here we go.
Speaker: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Buying a House in Japan. If you find the show helpful or at least entertaining, give us a five-star rating. Takes five seconds and really goes a long way. If you or someone you know is looking for a Japanese home, check out Akiyamart.com, our English-friendly site that lets you browse over half a million listings. That's A-K-I-Y-A-M-A-R-T.com to find your dream home in Japan.
Speaker: If you've got questions or feedback, drop us a line, email contact at akiamart.com. You can also find us on Instagram as well as TikTok, where we post properties, tips on the home buying process, and updates on our own purchases and renovations. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.
