Transcript
Speaker: i think if you're ah ready to be a little bit uncomfortable and that might be a good quality yeah be ready for that
Speaker: Welcome to the Buying a House in Japan podcast. Today, we are live in Kochi Prefecture with a special, special couple guest. It's actually the Pancake podcast now. Is that what we're going to call it, Joey? Forget about us. Pancake's saying hello already. So first a special guest is Pancake. We also have Pancake's owners, Mika and Jesse. Thank you guys for letting us be here today. We're really excited. We've seen a lot of your guys' content and you guys are such a beautiful spot.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, thank you for coming all the way out here. It's a little bit of a challenge to make it out here. So that's great. I just want to say too, your content really inspired both me and Take. I remember before our first trip out to Beppu, we were binge watching your videos and we had got this cabin and we were just like, all right, this is the life we're going into. Almost like prepping us just to see what it would be like. So we're we've been big fans for a long time.
Speaker: Oh, thank you for watching. Nice to hear. Yeah. We're going to call this series the Akia Doers and Dreamers. You guys are definitely the doers here and that you guys... yeah We want to learn a little but little bit more about your story, but you guys are actually here doing it. We're surrounded by a construction site. This is awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you you just came in on the on our second day of carrying out the ceiling. It's something that we really wanted to do for quite some time. Our house, maybe it's good to mention that we we don't own this house, we just rent it. But you know we've been here for about three years. and We have a really good relationship with the people who own the house, and they've come kind of given us the green light to do what we want. And yeah, the ceiling, it needed to be taken down, didn't it? Yeah, it's it's high time. the The vermin have been having parties up there for a while. Oh, you hear them skittering around. It's like the nature program. Yeah, it's pretty wild. So rewind down the clock a little bit. Where are you guys originally from? And and like but hi so I guess real quickly, how did you guys get here?
Speaker: Well, we're originally from Canada, from bank ah Jesse and I met in Vancouver. um And I suppose, I mean, we both came to Japan in 2018. We both came as English teachers. So Jesse got placed as he worked at the JET program. Yeah, I did the absolute most common, easiest path, path of least resistance to get to Japan.
Speaker: yeah And but we ended up in a small town in Kyushu and I became an ekawa teacher. So we're both teaching English for about three years. But I think one of the really early on We really started, one of the things we'd do, we'd go and drive in the countryside and look at all the houses. always We're from Vancouver and it's so - Real estate's a little different there. Yeah, coming here, it was just the complete opposite. And we saw so many opportunity for some great places. And that's when we first started thinking we'd like to have a
Speaker: Akiya house, our house in Japan. And yeah, we eventually came here to Kochi prefecture. Maybe Jesse wants to take over. Good choice on Kochi, by the way. we're love We're loving it so far. Kochi's beautiful. Wow. yeah Yeah, we just got crazy lucky. I think we got lucky both times. We got lucky as English teachers getting sent to Oita. Oita was a beautiful place. like You guys know Babu quite well. We were right next door to Babu, and it was fantastic. And then I got the job here working as a blacksmith. And that was a great change. And we went to another beautiful part of Japan.
Speaker: So it was great. Wow. So I want to ask about that, actually. So you are now a full -time blacksmith? Yeah. I work in a little workshop where we make kitchen knives, and we run workshops for people who are traveling in Japan.
Speaker: How long does it take to make a knife? if we Oh, and its a it depends. okay we were like We should get a knife. We should make a knife. Maybe not today, but I think we're we're close by. Oh, you want to make a knife someday? Well, you guys should definitely come and make a knife with us, because that'd be super fun. I'd love to. But we could do a couple of different ways. We do three different workshops. We do a one -day workshop where you come in and you make a knife. Start to finish more or less, but some of the grinding and sharpening is done in shop. right And then we do a three -day course, and that can really be three kind of customized to whoever wants it. Usually we have knifesmiths come in from other parts of the world who want to do something particular. They have like a Japanese technique they want to learn. Then we do a six day class where we make steel. o So in Japan, there's still something called tomahogany steel, which is an old kind of form of knife steel. And you normally just see it with the swords, but in our shop, we still make the steel. So i want that's ah something people can come and do at our workshop, which is kind of, I like.
Speaker: So were you interested in that kind of stuff before you started the jet program or did you just kind of go from like zero to hero working in a blacksmith shop? Yeah, no, absolutely. It was an interest of mine for a long time and actually that was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Japan originally. awesome So I would have come just as a blacksmith but that's a little challenging to do so I came as an English teacher.
Speaker: But yeah, I'd already been involved in blacksmithing. I'd done college diploma and decorative metalworking and worked as a blacksmith in Canada. And I'd done something similar to this in Spain for a year or two as well, where I was working as a blacksmith. Wow. Yeah. That's rad. We definitely are coming back and taking this course at some point. Please. Please do. I think we'd have a lot of fun. Awesome. I'd love to. My mom's always trying to get me to take this course and like picked a county, Nova Scotia, blacksmithing. She made a hook. She loves blacksmithing. She's always trying to push me to go into blacksmithing. Now's your moment. It's never been a better time to be a blacksmith. Tons of money in it too, don't worry. Awesome. It just pours in. I guess for both you guys, what kind of triggered or catalyzed you guys like, okay, we're done teaching English. We want to make this move.
Speaker: Oh, well, it's not such a romantic answer, but my my contract was coming up. So I either renew my contract and get another three -year visa or I change what I was doing. So we kind of made the decision at that moment that it was time to start looking seriously into other things because English teaching was awesome. like I had a ton of fun as an English teacher and that was a big surprise because I didn't want to do it. It was like a means to an end. yeah I loved it. I loved being on the JET program and I had an awesome time.
Speaker: and But yeah, it had been three years and it was time to start looking for why we came to Japan, I think. Was sorry yeah its was this, for me, I would consider this countryside. I don't know if you guys can consider this countryside. i I personally do. Is this your first experience living in the countryside or at least this type of situation or do you have experience before?
Speaker: I think in this this experience is the first time of its kind. I mean, in Oita, we were in a pretty remote area as well. We were surrounded by rice fields, but we were in a modern apartment and we were like five minute walk from the grocery store. So this is a little bit different. We have ah a little bit more of the responsibility of a Home owner, you have to take care of the property and the city is far away. so No 24 -hour convenience store within walking distance. We purchased the property in West Tokyo in Tama and we're just like so far away from a convenient. Surprisingly in the suburbs of Tokyo. yeah and We were like, I can't walk to get ice cream every day. like This is probably a better decision. I think i still feel i feel it was a good decision. le We've had very little ice cream on this trip.
Speaker: Yeah, just one yesterday, I think was the first one. yeah I guess now, how did you find this place? We're looking out like literally we have such a picturesque view of the river. We have butterflies. I keep looking at the window. I'm trying to talk to you guys, but I'm yeah distracted by the great view. How did you guys land this place or what was that search for for renting a spot? Well, I think that comes down with Jesse again with his work here.
Speaker: Yeah, so again, it's not a very romantic answer. I think it's a cool answer. It's a romantic place. I feel the romance. But yeah, how we got here was my boss, who I work for now, found it for us. And I think that's really the best way to find anything. And I know it's not something that people can just bank on doing, but if you have somebody from a community look for you, it's really the best way. And so he knew that I was coming and he knew I needed a place to stay. So he started to ask around in the community and sort of the community found this place in a way.
Speaker: and said this place isn't being used it's still usable and if they want to use it they can. so Did you move in here right away or did you stay in a hotel nearby and like for a few weeks? How were the first days? like There was a bit of a transition. I moved into a different guest house that's right off the edge of the shop.
Speaker: And I stayed there for about two weeks while I cleaned everything out of this place. So you can imagine, like most Ikeas are just full of stuff, right? okay yeah This place was no exception. It was just like there was stuff in the fridge. It's kind of how it goes. And yeah, it took a couple of weeks to clean it up. And it was also the middle of December when I moved in here and it was pretty bloody cold.
Speaker: Yeah, it was it was it was brutal actually. And I kind of closed off one little corner of the house next to the kitchen and had like a kerosene heater, which I don't recommend. I'm sure that's not up to code or anything and basically fumed myself. They work though. We do something similar, I feel like. I just hold up. I was like a little gerbil in the corner and yeah got through it. That's how I and first moved here. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was finishing up my teaching contract still in Oita. So Jesse was doing a lot of heavy lifting with leaning, but he would send me like photos on via line yeah for his little ratness that he called it. It looks so depressing over there. Yeah. But I visited, we were moving bit by bit. So I would come over with my car with a bunch of stuff. And I spent some of the winter here with you as well. And did some of the first little bit of.
Speaker: Not really renovation, but just like patching up some significant holes. And being in the middle in winter, we needed to take care of that right away. and Yeah, the first little break the place in. That's right. You were there for that first Christmas. We spent Christmas here. i was Romantic. i was it was Yeah, it seems romantic now. Yeah. It's a romantic memory. But yeah, it was pretty uncomfortable.
Speaker: Yeah, but I think we were expecting that. We came in with hopefully realistic expectations of what it would be like that it wouldn't be all that comfortable to begin with. yeah It was eye -opening. Like you say, this is probably our first experience living in the deep country. I call this deep country. I mean, Canada might not be. but It's pretty deep country. It's like having to plan your grocery trips and you want to make it to town a couple of times a week, maybe just once a week. And everything here, our bathtub was just wood fire. We didn't have hot water. We just have hot water on the bath now.
Speaker: But for the first couple of years, we had no hot water other than a boiler, right? That way, wood fired boiler. Camping, romantic is quite romantic. what So we've been crawling our way back to civilization ever since we moved in. But yeah, it was it's eye opening for sure, getting firewood and trying to find out where to get firewood in a foreign country and all of that sort of negotiating and talking to the neighbors and trying to learn how to live in this sort of area has been interesting.
Speaker: yeah Question for you. yeah We just went up to Miyoko. We so were in the process of perching in the akiya there. and ah There's a ton of crap everywhere. Same deal. where like Joey's trying to open the fridge. I'm like, no, Joey, don't do it. Don't do it. Really don't. Just piece of gu just jilly off eat the gum on the table. like so we' We're messing around. But how you know trash disposal is a big, really. i mean Even on ah on a in Tokyo, and sorting trash, but from like a akiya trash disposal, how did you go about that? Any advice? Because I know it's ah it's not easy.
Speaker: Yeah, it's so not easy. We haven't really gotten involved in it yet. We honestly have like two outbuildings and we just stopped everything. Oh, that's what we're doing too. It's a bit of a dirty secret, but we're getting to the point now where we absolutely have to do some runs to the dump.
Speaker: And I've done them with my my boss just for other things. But it did didn't seem too much different than Canada, really. there's There's a waste disposal. They weigh your truck when you come in. They weigh your truck when you go out. And there's a certain fee. Okay. Do you know if you need some sort of license? I was talking to a contractor about this and he said, oh, maybe only I can throw it out there. Do you know if your boss has a certain license to throw it out? or Absolutely not.
Speaker: Again, that might be a region to region thing. I can't speak to that, but I'm sure he's not lying to you. But maybe when it comes to more commercial things, if you're doing it commercially, it might be you have to get a license.
Speaker: How's your experience been at hardware stores here in Japan? And I really love them. I remember looking at the hardware in Beppu and like two by fours were so straight. No knots in them. Good price. Have things been very different for you compared to hardware risk stores in Canada or how's that experience been because I love hardware risk stores. I'd love to hear. Yeah. So I love the hardware stores in Japan too. How can you not? I mean, the tools here are just phenomenal.
Speaker: There are some things that I don't recognize right and I don't understand. like Using plywood in Japan is very unusual and that's strange to me because so much of platform framing in North America is plywood heavy. What do they use? They just use solid wood. like Do you see any plywood here? You don't see a scrap of plywood. right so That's kind of a weird thing.
Speaker: I want to do lots of things with plywood and plywood's expensive and it's not even, there's barely any selection. It's like hardly any, of this it's shoved in a corner. Or like super thin stuff I've seen. Yeah, door skin and stuff like that. Yeah, there's a bit of that. Two by fours, not super common, right? There's no real platform framing. So they don't usually frame out the spaces between ah posts with two by fours. They usually use like what I would call a two by two, right? You can see it up here in the rafters.
Speaker: No 2x4 anywhere. So that's a little bit strange for me. but It's not structural in a sense, so I guess it makes sense that I wouldn't use a 2x4. And planning out the project must be different too, right? We're used to dimensional lumber, two by fours plywood, and so you can kind of imagine in your head what you're going to do. absolutely i don't I'd have to go to the hardware store, kind of with calipers, I'm like, okay, this is the dimension of the lumber. You're not wrong, that's exactly right. like ah yeah Again, insulation, like there's choices, a lot of choices in Canada. Maybe that's obvious because Canada kind of needs a lot of insulation.
Speaker: But in Japan, there's not a lot of insulation. You go in there and there's really no selection. It's just like, oh, there's some rigid foam. That's about it. So yeah, some differences. It's definitely interesting. yeah when When our bamboo spot was being remodeled, the walls were down and we're like, hey, can we put insulation? Is it a big problem to put insulation? He's like, no, not at all. You just had to ask. And we're like, oh my goodness. The natural instinct isn't to insulate things. And i we're just like, what? It's so cold or it's so hot. You guys need to do this. but I see you guys are insulating right now, right? Do you have insulation beneath? oh god no yeah okay Any other sort of like apart from insulation, any other kind of like Western touches you plan to add?
Speaker: ah Well, i' again again, this is a rental. So so there is like pretty hard thought goes into how much we're going to do. yeah But there's lots of things I dream of doing. I can share that with you, for sure. Yeah, yeah double -pane windows. Yeah, double -pane windows. First off, first right away, double -pane windows. Insulation in the floor. You pointed out a good one there. That would be wonderful. What else would I do? Outlets. Oh, what out outlets. Now you're dreaming.
Speaker: Your outlets are high. Don't get crazy with us here. We were recording this podcast and I'm like plugging something in. He's like, outlet's up here. And it's like literally at like yeah six feet up. or Well, there's not a lot of wall, right? Yeah. No walls. Totally. Mika, switching over to you here. know First impressions when you got to the house. where Were you stoked about this house? Or are you kind of just like, ah, this is i don't feel good. like I'm trying to convince my fiance to move to and do one of these projects. It's it's tough.
Speaker: How did you honestly feel? Well, if I was going to give you any advice, I'd i tell you to make sure you clean the house first before you show her the house. Pancakes world here.
Speaker: okay go back i again so you I'm trying to convince my partner to come out and wait we we agree with you. When we first got into our bamboo spot, we were planning to stay there that night and we're like, okay, this we might've made a mistake. So yeah getting it cleaned. i think I remember first coming here for the... i It must've been right after you cleaned or before you cleaned.
Speaker: I think it was before you cleaned and we took a walk through together. And I remember thinking, Oh no. And I think you admitted later on, you're like, I think, I think I made it. I think I made a mistake. me yeah I think I'm pushing me go a little too far. And yeah, it was, it was hard to imagine how good it could get when it was at its worst state.
Speaker: yeah and The house hadn't really been prepared to be abandoned for so long. It was empty for about seven years. and Seven years. yeah and All of the ah past landowners, things were in here. a lot of All of her valuables were already gone, but you know her bedding and clothing. and Like Jesse said, food was still in the fridge and pots and pans. so it fell It felt like we were entering into someone's lost and forgotten home. That's what it was. and yeah That's how it honestly felt the first time. But once we cleaned it, we'll just clean most of it. But once we cleaned it and cut back the the weeds, the weeds had grown up to a point where you couldn't even see the stone walls. We have two walls of stone and you you couldn't even see it. yeah But once we clear that all out, we start imagining what it potential was and certainly made things better when it was cleaner.
Speaker: But Jesse was stoked the entire time. was' he was he would Did you ever see him waver no during this? I didn't see it, but i you admitted that you were a little bit. I still have moments.
Speaker: I think that that's a good point. Like we had the exact kind of the same reaction the first night after seeing our Beppu place, like we went back to the hotel room and I don't think we like spoke to each other. and Just kind of like in our own thoughts. Like that was it I do think for like a lot of people thinking about going on this journey, like you're probably going to have a situation like that where you think you made a mistake. how ah So can I ask about your Beppu house? yeah So how long was it empty for?
Speaker: 13 months. So not too, too long. And someone had cleaned it out. I think the son of the previous owner, not really clean, like semi cleaned it out or like the they're like, they had taken the stuff out. Yeah. The possessions out. It wasn't clean in any sense. I would say like it smelled kind of old and musty, but I think compared to something like you said, seven years here, I think the Myoko house we just looked at was three, three years. Yeah. Yeah. So it hadn't been abandoned for too long. Like the,
Speaker: weeds and stuff and grown too high it still looked kind of clean but still we were scared a lot of tatami we were scared about dani in the bed bugs and the tatami tatammmi that kind of stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, well, when a house has closed up for so long, it doesn't take long for it to start feeling like it's caving into us. You know, the walls just start feeling spongy and the air feels stagnant. Yeah, they climb it so hard. Yeah. Yeah. That's one big difference, isn't it? It's so humid. It's so hot in in the summer and the moisture just seeps through.
Speaker: and it's And it's still cold in the winter and i still I'm sorry, cold and wet in the winter. You guys bring up a good point though, the getting it professionally. we So we try to clean ourselves. We we did a good um good amount of cleaning. Then we hired someone, I think we paid on like three to 400 bucks to get it professionally clean. And that changed the game for us. Like we're like, wow, we should have done that day zero. mine fantastic So for anyone thinking about buying a key, I think that I would do that very first thing or just like, Hey, get the possession. One, if the possessions are there, I think we're looking at a couple services that can help you get rid of stuff. Um, but at the same time, there's a lot of cool stuff in the house that we looked at me. Okay. We're like, Oh, like, ki did you guys keep anything that was an old possession in this house? Or was everything, everything out?
Speaker: Well, yeah I mean, all the valuables were gone, but we kept some of the furniture. I mean, some of the pieces here ah is originally from the house oh right and we still haven't gone to the dumps. We still have a lot of the things here.
Speaker: I think that it'd been gone through pretty carefully. yeah Like anything that was really nice or of value was was taken by the family. Like when I first moved out here, the two brothers who who were related to this house, there's two brothers and a mother. And the mother lives in assistant living now. She can't ah look after herself anymore. And the two brothers just aren't interested in the place. And they came to meet me when I first moved in here. And they also went through the house again to make sure that there was nothing valuable in the house. so but it was' pretty It was pretty much just like curtains and some broken up stuff. I think the one thing, one valuable thing that they took was the ladder. Yeah, it was actually kind of choked. I mean, it was a great deal so I couldn't say anything, but the a ladder, the one useful thing that was there.
Speaker: One thing i've that comes to mind every time I watch your videos, Mika, is you guys seem very integrated in the community. like It seems like you guys have done the best job possible, kind of like a dream story for anyone coming to Japan and trying to integrate into the community. Do you have any sort of thoughts or advice there if someone wants to not just be the foreigner that buys a house here in Japan, but really makes an effort to get to know their neighbors and and try to be a part of the community?
Speaker: Well, I mean think it depends on where you are, because not everyone's going to have the same experience. We've been very fortunate, both in Oita and here, of people being very open and welcoming. I also think it really helped that Jesse came here with his boss, and his boss is a local, so when you have that introduction, it's like he's vouching for you, and that really means a lot.
Speaker: And so right off right off the bat, I think we were stepping off on a good foot. I think I know ah ah just enough Japanese that I can have conversations with my neighbors. And I think we also have like community activities, like cleanings of the shrine. And we have like, what is it? catle It was like the old age Matsuri that you can go to. And I think that you just try and show up yeah and you you do your part. And I think that that can be really challenging for people to break that barrier. Cause not all communities are, are going to be willing to let you participate. I have heard stories where people can't even get in to help with the weed whacking, like the yearly weed whacking, but ah maybe it makes a difference that we're a couple yeah that we're.
Speaker: I think yeah working in the community I think is super important. like If we came under different circumstances, if this was like a guest house that we were visiting, I think the community would look at that differently. Yeah, we we both work here too. yeah And so we're we've committed to this area yeah in a way that's really challenging for people who might be living in a place that is a guest house.
Speaker: um Not to say that you wouldn't find acceptance in the community, but it's a different sort of it's different sort of acceptance, I think. and Even us, like we didn't know about all the activities when we first got here. it's like It got revealed to us. The longer we stay, it gets more and more revealed. like the first year There's a town assembly every winter at that at the shrine where everybody gets together and they talk about the jobs for the coming year. It all gets distributed. right like oh You're going to cut this grass in this corner of the road and you're going to collect whatever, like all the little tasks that need to happen. There's a tax that everybody pays into and that money goes towards those jobs. and The first year, they didn't ask for any money from us. like I didn't know about the tax at all. it was like oh
Speaker: the second year. they're like So there's this thing we all pay into, but little by little, it feels like they reveal more of this to us and we get more involved. yeah Yeah, I think showing that commitment that you're putting roots down in a specific area, having jobs in the community, I think that really goes far. It's helped us. I think yeah think the first time, so there's like a a bulletin like a bulletin board that kind of gets carried to each house and usually it has all of the month's activities and we weren't included in that bulletin.
Speaker: at first. they didn't They just completely skipped our house. And I remember the first time it came to our house, I was so i was so happy when it showed up. I was like, I did it. we We're doing it. We've arrived. And I first got invited to do the shrine cleaning. I was like, this is another moment, Jesse. You made it. You are part of the community here. Yeah.
Speaker: We had something similar actually in Beppu, so we have a local onsen, a neighborhood onsen, and we like worked really hard to figure out how do we join this onsen, and we finally found the right person, and we started paying into it, and they they put this sign up in the onsen where everyone changes, and it's a small room, and says, like welcome new members, Take Kurosawa and Joseph Stone. That was a big deal. We did it, guys. so We're thinking about, unfortunately, we're not around all year. We are planning to figure out how to spend more time here, figuring out a visa and stuff, but We were thinking about donating at least to the onsen. They put everyone's name up. But Joey, that's something we got to think about. like I'm sure there's an equivalent tax or we need to help on certain days that we aren't aware of. How did you guys figure out about that? you guess Did your boss kind of let you know, hey, this is the right person to talk to? or
Speaker: for taxes or just like the how to get involved in that community is there a head there's usually like in our in our kind of like area there's like a head chief guy that we like the neighborhood guy who runs the neighborhood yeah I think for us we just sort of I just naturally injected myself into the community yeah and so there's a guy who goes around who collects the donations and he just comes to our house now Yeah, but you've done a lot too. like ah Like we do have some neighbors that kind of took us in more than other neighbors and they kind of let us know things as well. Like they they make sure we're in the know in some ways. And that's been awesome and super generous of them for sure. And they they stay in you stay in touch with Makisan about like things that come up in that community. Yeah. There's a neighbor who who always is out gardening. And every time I go by, not every time, but if there's something that I should know about, she'll tell me.
Speaker: Just stop and make a point of letting me know the dates and being like, yeah you should come to this. but that That brings up a really important thing that gardening is the biggest icebreaker in this part of the world. like Until we started gardening, people didn't care. like But then when Mika started getting going out and gardening,
Speaker: Like you could see the ladies, you could see the heads poking out of the houses and starting to watch and starting to walk down the street. Very interesting. It was it was amazing. Night and day. yeah Garden. yeah With the full gardening outfit too. Making sure we're not doing it wrong. They've been super helpful. where You guys have a little plot. Is this is this all that stuff yours or where where's your plot of garden?
Speaker: Well, we have this area up here and then the fields are not ours. Got it. But if you go down the road and on the other side, we do have a little strip that we take care of. What are you starting to grow? but was what would Tell us about that journey. i'm I'm interested in gardening now because we do yeah and one i want to garden, but also I think it's a good, as you said, Jesse, a good way to break the ice.
Speaker: Tomatoes. Well, this year we've been really. i'm embarrassed Okay. Last year. Yeah. what do you gros yeah herere was our first real hard attempt to, to garden and and it was somewhat successful. I think one of the biggest challenges is to keep the monkeys out of the garden.
Speaker: monkey ums the garden Not deer, but monkeys. This year the boar happened really bad. no and she she joey okay yeah The devastated people's fields. is really yeah At nighttime or like you see them in the daytime or like both. Can you hunt the boar? Is that legal?
Speaker: alright I think you need a license. Yeah, you can absolutely hunt the boar. I'm not sure what the licensing is, and I know that getting a gun is almost impossible. So I think what they do, I think, is they trap. So people trap here, and then they dispatch the trapped animal. But yeah, it's not uncommon. Have you guys considered going like an off -the -grid groin, all your food? I know this is actually a big fishing river too, right, maybe? Have you guys considered that, or are you like, nah, let's I think the reality of maintaining that would be too much work. I don't think anyone works as hard as a farmer. Yeah, yeah absolutely not. Sorry. I can't imagine. I think I love going to the community when I get a chance. and I'm not giving it up. Me too. I like the treats. We talked to a lot of people who kind of want to go off the grid and we're like, I don't know if you're not really familiar with Japan. It's it's it's tough to really just figure basic things out here, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean off -grid anywhere is is a huge undertaking. yeah And to do that in a different language. What simple things were very, very hard when coming here where you're like very surprised by like, ah that should have been very easy when moving here or whether it be setting up internet or things like that.
Speaker: I think the internet was a little bit hard, wasn't it? Because we were in a really remote area, so some of the major internet providers weren't available to us. yeah And so we ended up having to find out from a neighbor that the only internet available was through a local television company, like cable company. And I think Jesse's boss actually helped us with that, making a bath. or Firewood, yeah fire getting firewood so straightforward in Canada, man. There's anyone who sells it and you can get it. and There's always like you can buy into woodlots or whatever, but here it's a little bit convoluted. Really? Yeah, it's not so straightforward. I see you guys have quite a few logs out there. I'm very proud of that. yeah
Speaker: I wanted to ask about your search for a house. I saw your last video. You guys are searching for a house. are you You mentioned you're looking at some websites and other methods. or have Have you tried just asking around and I wanted to ask about your experience there? Yeah, we definitely have asked around. i think Just from our experience here, we know that having someone in the inside is helpful. I've made some friends with some a woman who works for the city hall, but one of her jobs is to go around and, I don't know, she's like a community coordinator. a liaison kinda And she takes care of letting people know of some of the events that are happening here. But she also knows about a lot of the Akiyas. She sounds something to know. Yeah so she's been able to point me to point us sorry to some of the houses there was one house that we were kind of close weren't we but and we can talk about that in a second but and I also registered at a local Akia bank one that isn't available for
Speaker: kind of on the regular like at -home yeah websites. They're the ones that you have to register as long as you're a resident. And that's been really great. You go into the city hall and you meet someone and that person will take you to some of the houses that are only available on these sites.
Speaker: um I had no idea. This is interesting. But it's been great because ah some of the people are also locals and so they'll kind of keep your their eye out for you. But it's been challenging in this area. I think the overall feeling that we're getting is that a lot of people don't want to part with their houses. yeah Some of these houses have been in the family for I don't even know how long, like generations. And so it's, I think it's hard to part with something that has that sort of sentimental value. It's not just a house, is it? yeah Yeah. Often there's family graves, right? And all sorts of things like that, where they come back, they clean the grave every year, even though though nobody's living there. Yeah. yeah
Speaker: I guess in in this situation, people probably ask you this question. You guys have are the best tenants, I would say, in that you guys are renovating, you guys are making updating this house. Have you guys tried to buy this place? or have you know Right. No. The answer is no, we haven't tried to buy this place. Although it does come up in our conversations. like if If we were offered to buy this place, we would. And I think like not as necessarily a permanent home forever, but I mean,
Speaker: They kind of love it. yeah You guys put a lot of soul into this place. has a lot You got to respect a house that sheltered people for over a hundred years. right like It's kind of a special place, but it wouldn't be our first choice for any number of reasons. like Number one, it's a hard place to have people come visit. like We do have like an outhouse and in but and the house is tiny. right like ah It's a tiny little house. and We do love the idea of having family members come from outer country to visit and spend time with us. So we've kind of been looking for a place that could accommodate that. yeah But yeah, we we do think about owning this place. And I mean, I think if it came up that it was available, we would probably take it. Yeah. Curious, have you like talked to the owners about it or do they know that you're interested? I'm i'm assuming it you deal with the the two kids at this point more so than the mom, right?
Speaker: Has it been like slipped in conversation like, Hey, you guys ever looking about maybe selling this place or? Well, we, we really don't have much conversation. I think maybe one of the things that is kind of an unspoken agreement is, is that we would be tenants that didn't bother them too much. I mean, they're great though. Every time I've reached out to them to send them a renewal for renting, they'd always phone me and thank us for.
Speaker: being here and taking care of the house. Yeah, they're good people, but we haven't slipped it in conversation. I think we're part, there's a couple of reasons. i I think that we are trying really hard to save for our permanent house. yeah And while we, I think we've seriously talked about buying this one. I think we're just trying to prioritize where our savings are going to go right now, but know I guess it does come down to money more than anything. like The move to get here was pretty challenging for us. And you guys probably understand what visas are like. and yeah And I had to do some visa gymnastics to get into the position I'm in right now. And one of those things involved working for a year without pay and things like that. who yeah Year without pay? Yeah, exactly. really I had to go on a cultural visa, which is much like a student visa, how before I could get a work visa.
Speaker: okay And so there was a lot of like a lot of things that kind of would slow down our purchasing enthusiasm. And I think now we're starting to get back on track and things are starting to build up again. We're starting to look a little bit more seriously into purchasing. But yeah, it's been a bit of a journey. And it's kind of a year without pay. Yeah, it's pretty real. yeah You're there to learn, I guess, is the purpose of that visa. That visa is yeah it's a great visa for people who want to do like a traditional skill for a little while. like If you want to do like flower arrangement or
Speaker: a martial arts or something like that. you know I think a lot of martial artists get it on that bandwagon. But yeah, and and I mean, it allowed me to make the change that I have now, which was phenomenal. But yeah, there was sacrifices. gar Have you guys gone down the road of like looking at a loan? our no No. I think you guys would, again, we haven't done a loan ourselves, but with the interest rates being very, very low in Japan, it's like crazy. like If we could, we would definitely try to. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. I think we, I think we've always felt like we weren't, we wouldn't have been able to have gotten one as foreigners. Yeah. I think we were nervous at qualifying because it's so difficult to get credit in Japan, like to get a credit card as a challenge. Tell us about it. I still don't have a credit card. Oh, you don't? Okay. Mine's like a prize possession. like It's like bragging. I could look at this.
Speaker: But yeah, no, I think that getting, getting alone would be great, but maybe we just doubt whether we would qualify. But also I think part of the romance that I had around doing this whole thing was that but it's affordable in a way that you could do it without any sort of loan, right? Like that's part of, I mean, I might have to give up on that dream, but I mean, that was part of the dream. Yeah.
Speaker: Awesome. I guess, where are you guys in your current Akiya search? You had mentioned, are you guys still going hard trying to find something or is it kind of just like you were burnt by the last couple of viewings? and how did you guys How many places did you guys see before?
Speaker: Well, we saw, well, we saw a bunch of houses just on our own, but there were two houses that we were very interested in and got kind of close to. One, the first one we mentioned that there was a house kind of close by that it wasn't really a house anymore. It was basically a ruin. So it would have to have been a rebuild, but it was like a beautiful property with like terraced fields and what was it? Chestnut trees. Yeah. You'd buy it for the land. Yeah. There was nothing to save and the house was completely gone. But I think that one again, like the,
Speaker: The person who originally owned it passed away and then it got inherited by all of their descendants. So ah we ended up being able to get in contact with one person who was at first interested in our proposal and then ended up kind of withdrawing saying after, you know, basically it was a family home and they didn't want to part with it, even though there wasn't a home. And then there was another one.
Speaker: close by that was owned by a neighbor who had bought it. It's it's very convoluted. Most of these things are very convoluted. right like yeah I don't know if we have the whole story on it but there is a property that we really like and it's got a beautiful old house on it and it was just kind of perfect.
Speaker: But and it was owned by a friend. So it seems like everything's checking all the boxes are like this, it would definitely can get this one, right? But it turned out that he bought it from the previous owner for a friend of his that lives in Osaka, because she wouldn't sell it to somebody from out of the community. Yeah, right. So he bought it for this friend who was going to turn it into a so sort of like a bed and breakfast or something like some sort of like retreat. And he never did it. He just like,
Speaker: promised to buy it and never bought it. So our friend owns it and he's waiting for his friend to buy it. So we're like, okay, like we'll put our two cents in. Let's have a go for this. So we talked to him. He's like, yeah, yeah, that sounds great. And he's like, but there's something you should know about it. He's like,
Speaker: When I bought it, the lady had already tried to sell it once. And the person she tried to sell it to passed away during the transaction. And they actually had a mortgage on it. And that mortgage got inherited by that person's child. oh no But she did sell it to our friend. so no And my friend our friend tried to contact that guy who had inherited the mortgage to settle with him. right But I think that he probably believes he owes money on it or something. Like he inherited some sort of debt. So he's not coming forward at all, right? So he can't get ahold of this guy. yeah So there's still somebody who has like an interest in the house who he can't get in contact with. And then there's this previous agreement he had with his friend. So he was like, yeah, okay, no problem.
Speaker: No problem. you guys You guys can take it. no yeah We'll work out money, no worries. right And it's beautiful. It's like a hectare on the river. It's gorgeous. right Beautiful old house to restore. It was perfect. right and then yeah And so he called up his buddy that he had this prior agreement with. He's going to be like, oh yeah, there's these people who are interested interested in this. But he's like, oh, I still want it. And so like anywhere else in the world that would be like, yeah, too bad you had your chance. like but in Japan those agreements are like contracts like he had an agreement with this guy so he's like I'm sorry guys this guy still wants to buy it even though he's sat on it for five years and hasn't paid me there's still this prior agreement he's still interested I still have hope somehow it's hard to understand but it's the way it is yeah
Speaker: Yeah, so I guess to answer that your initial question is is that I think we were a little bit disappointed, but we are still continuing hard with our Akia search. It's great. You guys are going into the Akia banks like that. Our website doesn't and necessarily go that deep because it's hard. There's a lot of different formatting on the Akia banks. And as you said yourself, that you have to be living here but to access those, right? Yeah. Jesse's taken down some got some wind. or You got some good breeze in here. Yeah, I agree. The cross breeze is awesome.
Speaker: By the way, what was that alarm siren thing right there? It's noon. Time for lunch. Time to break for lunch. You get that every day? Yeah. Okay. Do you get any other alarms? 6 PM?
Speaker: i So you got a 12, you got a noon and 6 p .m. alarm. And 6 a .m. same alarm. You got a 6 a .m. alarm? No, that alarm is 6 a .m. What time do you guys wake up every day? 6 a .m. How long did it take to get used to that? That's funny. It seems like you guys are used to it now, right? Yeah. I think I sleep through the alarm now. Yeah. In the morning. Yeah, it's funny why people react to it because I haven't heard it before.
Speaker: and we we We stayed cool and I was like, everything's okay. They had in Shizuoka when I lived in Shizuoka, there was something similar I remember hearing. There's always some sort of jingle or something they'll play at different times in the day, but here they just use the air raid science. We get a lot of questions about natural disasters, being afraid of being XYZ. Have you guys been through any natural disasters here yourself. You guys are obviously a very hilly terrain, any landslides or things like that. Luckily, no landslides. Typhoons, but I mean, we've had one bad one last year, but with some flooding, but um we've been pretty lucky, haven't we? Yeah. Had a couple of earthquakes, but not bad ones. Who do you think is the right person to kind of do the same adventure that you guys went on? Do you think there's
Speaker: I believe there's people that maybe aren't the best fit and then people that really have what it takes. What do you think are those qualities? i think if
Speaker: I'd be careful about romanticizing anything if you try and set some realistic but expectations. I'd be worried about doing it by yourself. yeah like One of the the big strengths I think we have is that we are a couple and I can't imagine doing this by myself.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree doing it with tight. We're not a couple. A lot of people think we are a couple, but yeah, doing it with a friend has been, yeah, so great. yeah We really do lean on each other. Absolutely. there There's some tough times. I'd say we're like, this is, this is rough and like not a one person job. Is it? Yeah. yeah As long as you have some sort of support, I don't think it's impossible to do it by yourself, but you do need to accept the support and help when you can get, find it.
Speaker: That's a good point. Plus it takes a lot faster. it' a lot faster Yeah, absolutely. I think a a lot of people, a lot of people we chat with, we do a lot of consultations. They definitely romanticize like, I'm going to live in a traditional Japanese house. It's going to be awesome. But I think you guys have really felt like, okay, there's a lot of hard work ah maintenance wise and just in community wise even. so yeah I think if you're ready to be a little bit uncomfortable, then that might be a good quality. Be ready for that. It's worth it though. You understand really quickly why people moved out of the country and into the city, into apartments. It seems confusing at first because you're like, oh, it's so beautiful in the country. Look at these houses.
Speaker: and wouldn't that be lovely, but it's just more work, right? And I think, I think so for a lots of people, that's not a problem. I think they enjoy it. Like I enjoy the work that the the kind of things I get to do here are the kind of things I like to do. Like I like getting firewood. That's, that's awesome. ah But if you don't like that, of course, it would be a problem. And just there's, ah there's a ton of people out there I think who would love to have that sort of lifestyle and and aren't afraid of that kind of work. And for them, it would be perfect.
Speaker: Absolutely. I think that's a great place to end on. Thank you guys both for having us here. Where's Pancake, by the way? He's he's been quiet. He's in his little house. He ran away like 10 minutes ago. Well, we're excited. Thank you for having thank you for having us. We're going to go try to jump into this river right here. I'm pumped. This is such a cool spot you have. ah We're excited to explore the area. but and If anyone's looking to contact you guys, what's the best way? Is it to go to your YouTube channel? Or how would you, if you want to be contacted or take a look? Yeah, take a look. Can I plug myself? Yeah, definitely. I have a YouTube channel called my Goika where I document a lot of our daily activities in the countryside. Yeah, just leave a comment or i have a website. Jesse has Instagram. I have Instagram. Cool.
Speaker: Is my go lost child? Is that what the translation? How did you how did you come up? It's catchy. Well, it two words that start with an M. Alliteration. There's a longer story, but it's not that interesting. There was some talking to it for sure. yeah Cool. Well, thank you so much for having us. We look forward to continuing to watch your content. It's, I think, some of the best out there. So thank you keep on doing it. And Jessie, we're coming back to make a knife or some sort of blacksmith type thing. so I look forward to it. Cool. Thank you.
