Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to the number one Akia podcast in the world, the buying a house in Japan podcast. I'm your host, Joey, joined by Take today, or ever most most every podcast, it's both of us not joined by Take today, but we are in different places. Again, Take is still in Japan, and I just made it back to Nova Scotia.
Speaker: It's crazy. Every podcast I was talking to you about this is like, it's nice that we're recording these kind of as a timestamp looking back. I feel like every podcast has been recorded in a different location.
Speaker: i do sometimes go back and like, I'll listen to a old one or like not the full thing, but I'll listen to like a little bit of an old one, old episode just to kind of see for exactly that reason, like what we were doing, what our opinions were, what we were thinking, you know, see, because sometimes, you know, there's different like problems and solutions that we figure out to these problems. And it's just interesting to see ourselves thinking about solutions to a specific problem. And then and then we can go back in time and observe that behavior. Fools.
Speaker: and yeah Our opinions have definitely changed a little bit, at least on some things. For sure. Where are we? We started this April 2023, I think was when we first started talking about buying house in Japan. So We are now July 2025. Officially two, two, two and a half years have flown by, Joey.
Speaker: And it's been crazy. It's been about a year since we officially, I remember this time last year, we were in Tama. in Tokyo at our house and we just got it and we had that we put the whiteboard up and we were kind of brainstorming like how do we help people through the purchasing process and that's where it kind of happened it's been a year since and a hun close to 100 people we were helping through the purchasing process so kudos to us you know it's crazy how how far we've come yeah we've only had our purchasing process around for about a year i remember that day in uh
Speaker: the Tama Basecamp house when we first got the whiteboard up too. were doing some like forecasts like, hey, can we get Take off of his job anytime soon? Success there. Look at us. look at us Yeah.
Speaker: Since we last recorded, Joey, you you're now again in Halifax. is that right? Yeah. Outside of Halifax, South Shore, Nova Scotia. So you've since been California to our start sanne Saratoga, Santa Cruz, San Diego, now back home, right? How does it feel had ah Had a little bit of a California adventure. Yeah. Good to be back. That was a long trip for me.
Speaker: I left like first week of May. Yeah, went to Japan first and then Indonesia and then back to Japan and then California for a little bit. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah. And now we're recording a bunch of stuff. You're in Japan and I'm not. It feels weird. It's usually the other way around. I think I mentioned this last podcast episode, but.
Speaker: Yep. I am recording live in Tama Base Camp. It's next to the whiteboard where all the magic happened. it's It's good to be here. This house is like really good, actually. All right. So I heard from your fiance, this was another big driving trip for you, Take. Has this trip been a lot of driving? This has been the number one driving trip for me. I've driven. Number one, because we do a lot of driving. I did i think usually we split it up.
Speaker: So for me, like just me solo, this has been, i think, the highest taxing trip I've driven. ah from tokyo down osaka where we took the ferry to bepu then we took the ferry back and i drove back to tokyo from tokyo drove to karuizawa and nagano and then drove back to narita dropped my parents off at a next to my aunt's house and have done multiple back and forth trips from narita to tama and this is the car is finally done we're gonna go drop it off at the shop today and get it shot in
Speaker: Yeah, probably the Beppu leg of your trip was unnecessary, seems like. It was not necessary, but it was productive. Glad went down to Beppu just because they they cleaned up the garden overnight.
Speaker: Mizoto-san's cut down a lot of trees. It's already looking better. So I think these but frequent check-ins are are still really helpful. Yeah, actually, i do think I know this was not supposed to be a work trip for you. But I do feel like we got a lot done with on this trip.
Speaker: No, it was cool. i had a lot of fun. I think definitely too much driving. I think I would if I were to redo it again, let more trains, maybe more flying, more ferries if possible, too.
Speaker: Yeah, I took the bullet train when I, one of these recent times I went to Japan, ah missed one of my connecting flights, ended up in Osaka when i was supposed to be in Tokyo. And I ended up taking the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo. Really nice, really comfortable. Actually.
Speaker: I, I wish there was a way, I mean, I guess it's renting a car. I was going to say, I wish there a way to take the bullet train places and then have a car waiting for you. But I guess it's just taking the bullet train and then renting car places. But yeah, very comfortable. I would say bullet trains and ferries are, I like them more than flying in Japan.
Speaker: Driving's also Yeah, that being said, having our car with great AC has been so, so clutch. Not having to sit in a super humid hot train or even walk to the station has been really good, especially since my parents are like in their eighty s super not mobile.
Speaker: I think they could not have gone to the train station and dealt with the crowds. So the car has been super, super helpful. Yeah, even when you got Mariko's help to book the hotels and stuff for your parents and make sure that they were elderly friendly, i was thinking about that. I was like, all right, Japan is probably like the best place to travel with elderly parents right now because I'm sure at the hotel when Mariko called them and she was like,
Speaker: hey, some elderly people want to stay here. Like, what's the setup look like? I'm sure they knew like exactly what to do. They'd probably seen lots of elderly people guesting before. Like, I'm curious to hear what, you know, was this trip very elderly friendly or despite you having drive everywhere, you being the chauffeur?
Speaker: Painting the context and Joe, you know, you've dealt with my parents. Thanks for sending them to the airport. Actually, they're pretty low mobility. My parents have, my mom had like a It's like a memory issue. So short term memory, they've lost their hotel key cards, they forgot their room numbers, they've lost their cane. So, you know, Japan can solve about that. But that being said, it's a very comfortable place to bring your elderly parents in the sense that people are really helpful.
Speaker: We have thankfully found their canes every single time they've been lost, they've gotten back to their room. So I do feel like if I'm in any country and just like letting my parents, if they get lost, like the hotel staff and people here are so helpful to to get them back on course.
Speaker: Driving, I feel like I have, this is probably what it feels like to have kids, like these rest stops at least. And whenever my dad's like, i need to take a piss. and like, all right, pulling off at a rest stop is actually really easy.
Speaker: you know They have food, they have water, all the all the bathrooms are super clean. Didn't help. I had some diarrhea for a couple of days. yeah we At least the red stops were really good. So, you know, I think for a potentially very, very uncomfortable situation, Japan is really good for elderly folks.
Speaker: The bathtubs are very high though. Like you say, you really have to try to find like the senior showers. Oh, right. And then very, very last thing I talked, took my dad to the onsen. So that was a little struggle bus, but we did it.
Speaker: He really wanted to go to the onsen at the hotels. So, it's all kind of catered toward elderly, but you still need to hold their hand through the process. I think. Yeah. They've had a good time.
Speaker: It was funny when I brought your parents to the airport, you guys had, had prompted me a few times, like make sure they got their phone, make sure they got their passport. And like, we're leaving the, uh, where your parents live. And,
Speaker: I asked your dad if he has the passports, you know, I'm trying to figure out where the passports are. Do they have their phones or something like that? And your dad's like, I've got the passports. I got the passports. and i was like, Mr. Kurosawa, I need to see the passports. Like, I just need to triple confirm here.
Speaker: That a boy. that was Yeah, that's the one thing. yeah But overall, I'm happy to have brought them here. I don't know how many trips my parents have in them to come do an international trip. Shout out to Zip Air. The lay flat seats are pretty reasonably priced.
Speaker: ah was able to take my mom and dad to Tama Cemetery to see where our parents or grandparents are buried. So that was a trip. It's actually only so it's six minutes away from our Tama house, Joey, and it's like a huge spot. I'll take you next time. Six minutes away. That's close.
Speaker: But there's, I think it's a cemetery that is like a war or something like military cemetery or something like that. It's got, it's like the biggest cemetery I've ever seen. Which direction do you drive in?
Speaker: Like towards the onsen or towards the... Inagi kind of. Like Inagi across the river and it's like somewhere around there. But, you know, pretty wholesome experience. We almost couldn't find the grave. My dad thought it was in a completely wrong section.
Speaker: he got in a little mini fight with the people who are helping us find the grave. We found it. It was like 110 degrees, mosquitoes everywhere. But it's glad it all went up. Like they, in Japan, they pour water on the grave and there's like usually pools of water everywhere. So lot of mosquitoes.
Speaker: Oh, okay. stay Standing water. What was the impetus for Kaduizawa part of the trip? Was that just something nice to do as a family? Or like, was there a reason to go Kaduizawa?
Speaker: It was mostly because the heat. So my parents don't do well in heat. We're recording this one mid-July. So I was just like, okay, Kaduizawa Nagano or somewhere in that area is pretty well known to be, i think, like luxurious kind of resort vibes, but also a lot cooler. So that was like the main reason. I didn't want to be dragging them around Tokyo and like,
Speaker: 34 Celsius heat and just like everyone in pain. So I actually thought Karuizawa was Kanazawa. I had messed those two up in my head. Karuizawa was actually Nagano.
Speaker: I thought it was like wherever Kanazawa is, Fukui or Ishikawa or something like that. All right. What's going on in Kadurizawa? Okay. For the listeners, yeah, Kadurizawa is in Nagano Prefecture. I would say this was a very, very cool city. If you've never been to Kadurizawa, you're looking for something different. You're coming to Japan in the summer. I do think this is a really freaking good option.
Speaker: Like so much so, Joey, if we were forced to spend summers in Japan, I'd be like, maybe we get a Karizawa like forest retreat because the temperature is is just night and day. It's like 20, 22 Celsius, maybe, which is like what, 70 degree or something when Tokyo is like 100 degrees. Like Santa Cruz, Saratoga difference.
Speaker: So I think big thing, there's two ways from Tokyo takes about an hour and a half, two hours drive, or you can, there's actually a Shinkansen that goes from Tokyo station to Karuizawa station. It's an hour and 40 minutes. That's crazy. So I can see why people come here Karuizawa to be like a local or sorry, domestic vacation resort spot.
Speaker: So it's like hiking or what do you like, like what do you do in the summer there when you're trying to beat the heat? It's like hiking. It's a sleepy town. It's traditionally like a ski town, but it's a lot of hike and yeah hiking. We all hiked up this like bird watching mountain.
Speaker: It's crazy how many bird watchers are are in Japan. A lot of golfing. There's like a couple lakes you can jump in. A lot of biking. yeah it's ah It's a really, yeah, really nice foresty town.
Speaker: But I think my dad kept saying like Elon Musk has a house here. Supposedly a lot of like like moguls have a house here. I think Bill Gates has a house here. so I think it's in you it's an interesting spot. that was ah It's a lot more upscale than i thought it was going to be.
Speaker: So you checked out a a property there though. Yeah. so along the way, one of our agents was like, Hey, you know, I checked out this property. So i was like, ah okay, let's check it out. The cool thing about Kaderizawa is they still have like the red fall leaves here.
Speaker: I think the mace, the big seasons here are fall and winter, mostly for skiing. And then I think the Koyo or what, is that what it's called? When the fall leaves change? Yeah, Momiji, Koyo. Exactly. So I wanted to check out Anakia because it won I don't do well in heat. And I think summertime, wanted to see like, okay, what's it really going to be looking like to get a property out here?
Speaker: We checked out a property, it's about 36K. It was in a resort area. So when looking at properties in Akia specifically in resort areas, just know there's like an additional, think it was an additional like samman per month or something for road upkeep. And i think it's totally worth it for the snow and stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah, makes it it's like a HOA kind of fee and they use that money to yeah fix the roads and plow them, I guess, in the winter, right? Yep. property itself, you know, got on a video tour. So just want to check the road, road up and good thing I did the road up was terrible or not terrible, but just like super small. So just know like when you look at these cheap Aki is looking at road access and like how to get there, how to drive there, I think has been such an interesting thing for us.
Speaker: Yeah. Like just thinking back to Beppu, remember the Asami Luxe place trying to find that that road was kind of crazy way up in the hills, like very, very narrow. And then like, i feel like none of our properties have great road access to, you know, it's it's fine road access, but like parking is still very difficult for us. Yeah, that's a great point. Just know that it seems to be a kind of common theme, at least with the properties that we've purchased.
Speaker: Roads are narrow. Yeah. So when looking at these cheap properties, yeah although property could be in immaculate condition, like the road, if it's difficult for you to get up there or construction truck to get up there, might be a deal breaker.
Speaker: As I drove up here, the road was like, little sketchy especially if there's gonna be snow or rain like uh gaga was in the car with me and she was like this is a little little sketch even though it was in a resort area yeah probably way more sketchier with ice on the road yep i'll post a photo as the podcast cover but the It's like deep in the woods.
Speaker: Pretty awesome. I would say from if this is the project you want for me though, especially coming just straight from Bepu where the plants were overgrown, pretty much the trees are like overtaking this place.
Speaker: There's just like so many plants all over the place and it's, it could be someone's, you know, it could be a perfect opportunity for someone else, but like but I rocked up it just like, This is just seeing the outside. This is going to be a lot of work. I didn't see i saw the single pane windows. I saw just the plants encroaching on the roof, encroaching below. and it was just like, okay, it's priced 36K. The inside looks good.
Speaker: Road is a little sketchy, but this is just not the deal I think we're looking for at this point. So kind of just... Honestly, just drove away. Yeah. And it's not like there's anything wrong with that property. It's just like, it's so similar in the sense of the single paint windows, like cutting back the jungle every time we visit, it's just that me and Taki see this already in the properties that we own.
Speaker: And we know how much work it is to keep working on the Bepu property. We're two years in and I wouldn't say that it's Airbnb-able yet. And so it's just like when you see these other homes that have those same, I wouldn't call it an issue because there's just so many homes in Japan that have those windows aren't single pane, no insulation. The forest has grown around the house over the two or three years it's been abandoned.
Speaker: It's just that, is that another project we want to take on? feels like very ah Again, going back to my forerunner, it's a project car and you definitely need time to allocate time and money ah aside for any sort of project car project house. And ah just don't know if we have that in us right now with all the, with the sprawling a property ah quiver that we have.
Speaker: Yeah, just emphasize that just like i just thought, do we have the energy for this? Absolutely not. Someone in the world will have that. So if you are coming to Japan, and you're like, I want to buy an Aki, and you're ready to have put some elbow grease in the property and clean it up yourself. And I think that this is the right project. But I think from what we found is especially because we're abroad, and we come back frequently, but it takes so much energy to really revitalize these places.
Speaker: you can throw money at it, but it still takes energy and headspace just to like coordinate what you want and to get it done correctly. Yeah. I really think like one property because it's me and you to like together on this two properties, I think is where we're at. Like but the Beppu house and the Tama house get 95% of our energy.
Speaker: And then the remaining houses get the other 5%. It's just, it takes up a lot of time and energy, money to do these projects. So I really feel it's one house per person. and And between the two of us, we've got two houses that take up most of that energy.
Speaker: It doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with this Kadri Zawa house. It's just that we can't fit it into our setup at the moment. Just like going to the outside, looking at the plants and being like, looking at some basic things like, okay, it's 36K, but I would rather save my money and buy a 100K spot, maybe with better road access, maybe in better condition, just as a starting spot, like I'm sitting here and in Tama, which was pre-flipped, which who im I'm really glad we went this route versus buying the cheap Akia and putting a lot of energy into it.
Speaker: Yeah, one thing that we have been talking, it's interesting, you know, definitely yeah I feel like you were the first one to be like, hmm, like, do we really want to do another Akia project? And I guess I was a little slower to come around to it, but I do agree with you that I don't know if we have it in us right now to do another Akiya project, but we have been discussing like a container home or some sort of prefabricated tiny home situation where we buy a plot of land and then drop a container home or some sort of prefabricated tiny home-ish structure on the land. And I think that's the most exciting but project that we've thought up between us at the moment and
Speaker: That would probably be less work than one of these Akias. Absolutely. i drive around Tokyo and you see all those like shipping container or like storage homes where they stack two or three on top of each other. I'm just like, why can't we do that? So I know we're discussing that maybe for Miyoko, hopefully, which time's ticking. Like we're already mid-July.
Speaker: Snow's coming. Snow's coming, but... Yeah, putting a bow on the Karirizawa Akia yeah is is a great property, and but I think it needs to have someone there on the ground, someone who wants to put in a lot of energy.
Speaker: And ah the short is, I would rather just save up 70 and buy something better that's already insulated. has the windows cleaner better parking better drivability but kaduizawa highly highly recommend i'd say nine out of ten there's some like really really high-end restaurants probably some of the best italian restaurants i've had in japan okay okay yeah they really love the date night brought her to like a crazy nice italian spot very well priced we bought like everything we wanted and the bill came out to like 65 us dollars so very reasonably nice
Speaker: We were hitting some pricey dinners in San Diego. I mean, it was just like normal dinners, but prices are expensive in California. Absolutely. So if you want to go on a vacation with your boo, or um brought my parents in this case, and my boo, try it. I do recommend it, especially for cooler temperatures. We stayed at some pretty nice hotels.
Speaker: ah Very great sleepy town with a lot of big upside on restaurants and cafes. And I think the architecture is just like really cool there. So Joe, you should definitely check it out next trip.
Speaker: Cool. Okay, next topic, Japan events. Small note, but I was here leading up to July 5th. It's crazy. There's like a little superstitious event where there's like a manga author who had predicted the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. So I heard about this. So who is this manga author? that's that that was my like I didn't read any articles about it, but I saw a headline. And I'm like, who cares what this guy or the manga author says about an earthquake? Like, why did people care?
Speaker: I think the manga author had predicted that there was going to be a huge earthquake. She predicted, I think, the March 11th earthquake a while back. But her next prediction was going to be July 5th, a couple of days ago.
Speaker: And like a ton of people were spooked out. And it was like it actually affected tourism. It was like a running joke on on X. I feel like everyone's like, what are you doing your last day before doomsday kind of thing? But yeah, like I i think that was part of the headline. I saw people really were changing their travel plans. And i was thinking, but who is this manga author?
Speaker: Why do people believe in them? Ryotatsuki is the person's name. do Did you notice any difference on the ground? Lack of tourists? or Yeah. So basically it was big hoax, but I think there was a lot of people that were like, at least online, that were like, okay, watch out. The earthquake's coming. Well, glad nothing did.
Speaker: Nothing did, but okay. Not even a little earthquake? Not even a little earthquake there. I guess we're in a heat wave right now. There was maybe a tornado coming in Nagano. So it's been a been a long ah long journey for me weather-wise. I'm excited to go back to California. Anything you need me to do in Tama Base Camp? Going to get our Shaken. That's actually an interesting topic.
Speaker: Because our business owns our minivan, we need to get our registration or like Shaken approval every year now, Joey. It costs about $1,000 a year. So an unexpected cost, unfortunately.
Speaker: Yeah, that's quite annoying, especially in the sense, like I thought it was, so it's because we're a business, right? If we were just an individual owning the vehicle, it's every two years?
Speaker: Yes. The shotgun costs about $1,000. I think they're going to probably find something wrong with our car. Our car and needs, I think a couple of small things, actually. We need to probably get our brake pads renewed, but it's, um I think this the shotgun is equivalent to like the registration, renew like vehicle inspection and registration. Is that right?
Speaker: Yeah. My understanding it's kind of like safety and registration. Okay. Okay. Hopefully we don't. Yeah, damn, that is going to be expensive. Hopefully that we don't get stuff. And I'm just reading it right now. Ensuring brakes are functioning correctly. I think we need a new brake pads, undercarriage inspection, exterior inspection. We have a couple scrapes on the car. Hopefully that doesn't mess things up. But I think overall, it's like it's a good thing for Japan, though, that people do these shakken, make sure road cars are road safe.
Speaker: When you're packing up the house, either if you have time or if you don't have time, just ask Linda if she can handle it. But I usually go to Daiso and I buy some of those like desiccant packs and I just, I buy a whole bunch and I just leave them in the rooms.
Speaker: I have no idea if it does anything. They're full of water. Every time I come back to the house, they're like really, really, they they do soak up a lot of water, but I just don't think that they're effective given the amount of humidity in the room. Like they soak up all they can, but the humidity is just relentless. so I don't know if it's does anything. maybe Maybe it does, but that's what I do when I close up the house. I just go to Daiso, buy the desiccant packs as many as I can and like put them in between the sheets and that kind of thing.
Speaker: I talked to Fumi about this actually in Bat Boogie. You had left a couple out and they were like to the brim, super full. And I was like, Fumi, are these... Like, is this going to be, she's realistically like you can keep putting them out and they will keep filling it. So I think the move is, and you did this well in that food before you left is like putting stuff in boxes and then putting the desiccant packs in there. So yeah, will ask Linda to do that. I probably don't have time today, but overall the Tama Tama is looking really good.
Speaker: Our plants are growing like crazy, man. Like they are touching the ceiling. I actually, yeah one of them, I don't know what to do with it, but. Linda's doing a great job. House looks great.
Speaker: the um The biggest improvement I think we need to consider is really sealing the house from the cockroaches. you can Okay, roaches. Yeah, they're definitely coming. Roaches insulation?
Speaker: Which is more urgent? I think roaches is a small thing. I think there's just a couple areas where they can sneak through. So working on like sealing the house, I think that should be a small fix.
Speaker: So I would say that's probably, before we have other guests, that's probably the main priority, I would say. Okay. I think insulation is going to be great.
Speaker: If we can double pane the windows with our ACs right now, I really think that might be the solution mid to long term. I just live with the roaches. I don't know. I'm not sure that they can be completely shut out. She was like packing her suitcase and like she heard like screams and she found a roach in her suitcase. i'm like, oh no. So definitely into Japan's got roaches, everybody.
Speaker: Yeah, it's impossible to get rid of them, but I also think there's a couple easy things we can do to mitigate specifically. Yeah. So you think double painting the windows over insulating the roof.
Speaker: If there's any visitors out there that know more than us on trying to how to keep this house cool, let us know. Should we double paint the windows or should we insulate the roof? I think double painting the windows will help considerably all around.
Speaker: I think putting insulation the roof will considerably help just the upper rooms. both have If we want a targeted approach, and maybe the the roof is going to be the highest impact for the rooms. But I think double painting all the windows will help the entire house keep cooler, in my opinion.
Speaker: All right. We need an expert's opinion on this. so Overall, though, it's really hot out right now. Thomas, i have two. the The double ACs in the office room have been working quite well.
Speaker: I think we are almost done with this house. I think we should get those like Tupperware things. I got those from the hardware store in Beppu. We get one Tupperware thing for each room. And then when we leave, sheets go in there with the desiccant. We should just buy like a ton of desiccant packs on Amazon to just have them ah in the closet.
Speaker: I will ask Linda on that. But yeah, I think that's a good idea. It's not, the house just seems very clean, which is good. So it's really night and day from Beppu. Our cleaners here are doing a much better job.
Speaker: than they were in in Beppu, unfortunately. And the um the the self-watering lawn, is that working out? Lawn is looking great, looking lush and green. The concrete crack is continually kind of growing. So actually that might be a priority too. When we've gotten a quote, it should be, I think like $2,000 to $3,000 to fix that. So I'll also talk to Linda.
Speaker: But I think house is pretty close to being super done in my opinion. Yay. Yeah, the... ah Again, for all those listeners out there reflecting back two years, the Beppu house is ongoing.
Speaker: There are parts of it that still kind of feel like Akia we've poured. you know, maybe a hundred K into it at this point, maybe a little bit more. And the Tama house was about 120 and then we furnished it. So I don't know, all in maybe 150 all in, just feels so much more comfortable in the newer house. Unfortunately, guys, i know a lot of people love Akiya's. I love the Akiya's too, but that's thought our honest feelings, I think at this point.
Speaker: The two year look back, if we were to redo it again, just get, I think getting a more expensive initial property, unless you're super into the DIY, you want to go to Anton in Japan type route. But if you're going back and forth to Japan, like us, I think having that higher level starting point is such a big difference. Like our Beppu house is a little janky. I still don't feel proud to put it on Airbnb, to be honest.
Speaker: Yeah. That being said, I like the Beppu house. maybe Maybe it's emotional attachment to the Beppu house. You can love your Akia. I still, I love J-Lux even though it's, yeah, it's a little bit janky still.
Speaker: It's just in comparison to the Tama house, the Tama house is arguably better. yep In comparison to United States real estate though, heck yeah. We own a couple of houses in Japan. i think this is all, it's all still so much fun to know that we're not paying a mortgage on these places and we own them outright.
Speaker: Joey, you know, two years later, we own ah six properties in Japan. Let's see. Let's go out and someday one of those tropical islands, there's going to be one on there too. Kaduizawa also on the map. I'd say when we do someday, hopefully make a lot of money getting a nice Kaduizawa kind of like high end house could be such a cool spot.
Speaker: So I'll have check it out. Okay. I will catch you later next time recording. Not in Japan, probably in California. Safe trip home. Thanks, man.
