Transcript
Speaker: It's interesting that you got snow on the beach there, basicing right? Yeah. You could feasibly go snowboarding in the afternoon, like surfing in the morning or night or something, right? I could snowboard down the beach into the water. That was awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, it's literally there's snow on the beach and the waves are hitting It's like, it's insane.
Speaker: Welcome to the Buying a House in Japan podcast. Today we are recording live from Hawaii. yeah Excited to be here. My name is Take, I'm of the hosts. Unfortunately, Joey is not here today. He is joining a cold plunge into our Tama Bay Stamped property. So, joined by one of our previous Akima Direct customers, Chris Rose.
Speaker: Chris, thanks for having me today. Yeah, thanks for coming, Take. I really appreciate you being here. Love to share my story. Yeah. to First off, where where the heck are we? Yeah, or well this is Ho'omalahia Botanical Gardens, one of the beautiful hidden gems of that way the east side of Oulu. I actually run this road here. It's two and a half miles from fence to fence to run through the botanical garden. If you get here before 9 there's no cars allowed. really? So you can run the whole road all by yourself.
Speaker: um And you'll see walkers in some of the neighborhood families coming out. Cool. It's pretty sweet. Yeah. So fenced events, two half miles, round trip, course, five miles. Highly recommend this spot. i Fun fact, actually got engaged to my fiance right out off a camera right here. So when Chris was like, hey, listen let's meet here. I was like, oh, well, know who else is.
Speaker: Yes, I know that spot really well. And actually, like so many places here. But you picked this one table, which is like. 50 meters. yeah Yeah. So my fiance is going to be a little sad she wasn't here today. Oh, but I'll have to bring her back. a Great minds take a light. Right. to be know Yeah. Awesome. So as I mentioned, Chris has been one of our customers. He's been awesome customer. I think it's been about six months, four months, five months since you purchased your property.
Speaker: Yeah. im done to Chris, actually, before going to it tell us a little bit about yourself and how did you get interested in buying a home in Japan? Yeah, well, um she joined the army right out of high school.
Speaker: And that led me to a government job in um at Pearl Harbor once I got out of the army. And within that job, I was able to pretty much apply to other government jobs anywhere in the world. And I, my wife and I faked Japan.
Speaker: And So we took a job over there and it was in Okinawa and we had our son over there, who in this Luke and super excited about that and we were right on the beach, loved everything about Japan, traveled to the mainland of Japan and went to all the sites and just really, really ingrained ourselves into the culture of Japan.
Speaker: Being in Hawaii for, at that point, about 15 years it has a lot of similarities yeah so going over to japan was was pretty easy for us we spoke a little bit you know and we actually had our son luke in a japanese hospital yeah and you know you had the option to go to the military hospital or a japanese house we chose japanese which is very very rare And how'd your wife to decide about them? She was all on board. Really? Yeah. This is our first baby. We're like, let's go, right? All in.
Speaker: And what an experience that was. Just amazing experience. So much different than the American ways ways. for the hospital specifically or the the birthing of or like all of that really yeah all of that it's it's right i can give a whole episode it is the baby but yeah yeah that was a lot of fun um good experience and spent two years over there right at the beach and you know the community we're in was el sunabe which is just this beach town in okinawa and
Speaker: That was a great experience. We really got to know the neighbors and got to know all the the shops and everything around there. We were walking every evening, watching the sunset, sat through a few typhoons, category fours and fives. Big typhoons. I'm telling Joe about that. He wrote an Ishigaki in there. Like, Joe, are you sure you ran out of typhoons? Every year he's going to get, you know, a Slam, slam, chuck every year. ah Every year.
Speaker: and um But Okinawa is ready for it. Every house is like made out of concrete. Storm shutters. yamen And it's not pretty. you know The neighborhood is not pretty, but it's ready for storm.
Speaker: Everything's concrete, it's all square. But it's perfect. I love it. Taegun swells for the surfing and all that. okay a re Okay. So how long were you in Okinawa for? Yeah, two years in Okinawa and went back to Pearl Harbor, kept my old job and and just kept kind of thinking and dreaming about Japan. know, it was just always on the mind.
Speaker: um Then ah resigned from the government service after 20 years and spent 10 years with the kids as a home home home dad. Nice. And that was a lot of fun. and I'm still doing that today. so I'm homeschool them now and oh we just had this, sorry, moving into and over the why we but why we chose Japan.
Speaker: um Yeah, homeschool the kids. And we had always talked about like, gosh, let's just travel, like travel more with the kids. So she since we're homeschooling, we can bring school with us and all that. So Japan was always first on the list. And it was a no brainer to once I've actually started seeing the algorithm of Instagram and all that. Amazing how strong that hits. Like once you start looking at these Japanese properties, it's just like you get a flood of lippies. I do. yes Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: were As we're doing some like meta ad targeting stuff, there's a specific category for like people who are interested in homes in Japan. and yeah So it's interesting how they know that. but yeah go had no that's That's what happened. um The Instagram feed just started feeding me all these Japan homes for 10 grand, 20 grand, 50 grand, 100 grand. I'm like, what?
Speaker: yeah So I just started digging in and found you guys' podcast, started listening to that. And you guys were doing it right. You know, it looked like a Zillow of Japan and nobody else really had he um that all set up like that. It was very easy to navigate.
Speaker: And I was like, this is this is the site I want to be on. there And then you guys were like, hey, you know, if you're looking for house, we'll help you. And I'm like, yes, OK. So I set up the consultation. and And it was history from there, man. Let's go. Good. So you own a house here in Hawaii, right? Yeah. And up in kind of like, is Kaaba considered North Shore? or like It is. It's North Shore. city Okay, North Shore, Hawaii. How long have you had that house before you were like, let's move on and buy a house in Japan?
Speaker: um We've been in that house for five years. but Before that, we were on the west western side a near Pearl Harbor in Ewa Beach for about 15 years.
Speaker: And so we've actually been here 25 years. 12. Okay. um And we don't plan on ever really leaving Japan. ah Excuse me, leaving Hawaii. But... um You never know.
Speaker: You never know for retirement purposes stuff like that. The kids are going to be taking over at homes and who knows where, you know, the wife and I will go. But okay um yeah, it's nice to be able to have a home that's all paid off and in a place that we love, which is Japan Fair. Awesome. So obviously you've spent some time in Japan, you're thinking about it, the kids are of age where you can probably do more of this travel and flexibility. or Yeah. What was that like moment where you're like, okay, let's, let's go for it. Was it, you know, sealed Instagram posts? What kind of catalyzed this whole dinner consultation with us and going through the purchase process?
Speaker: um You know, it was a matter of just being spontaneous and living in the moment. or And what if I miss this opportunity? That FOMO, right? That FOMO kicked in.
Speaker: And I was like, bro, I better buy now, right? So i was like... Bam, bam, bam. I mean, if you listen to my kids, my wife, they'll tell you, man, I was on the computer. a Yeah, i was up until like midnight. I was up at 5 a.m. No, it's fun though. like Oh, it's so fun. It's really addicting. And I was in search of, and this is one of my topics I wanted to talk about, was like the search, you know, the filters and all that.
Speaker: um I just I wired down your guys's website and I just was fine tuning all the places that I liked i was saving them to my favorites and all that and um Yeah, I was ah spent many hours there. I probably looked at were all nine million. Yeah, were your kids and wife on board for this? And you're like, hey guys, we're we're doing this? Or was it just kind of like, hey, I found this perfect home. Are you guys cool with this? Or how did that conversation happen?
Speaker: um It started with, you know, waking up early and staying up late. And my wife's like, what are you doing? What's going on? She's like, what are you doing? Well, I mean, we right we'll see what see what you got going on. and she just She's just always like looking over the shoulder head a little bit. But she was really busy. she's She's a hard worker and I love her and mi mom to adapt. But she's she's a hard worker. So she's let me do my thing. and you know don't do anything stupid right ah don't don't pull the trigger until i see and but make her good for her yeah but she um was like hey there's this property oh wait hey here's another property here's an and she's like okay whatever but at one point i i got the filters to show me and i i've been doing this for a while but show me the the listings that just came out in less than one day yeah they're new listing the newest yeah and that's where I started hitting it every morning I was up right away just to see the new listings yeah new listing new listing and then like after a week or two one popped up and that's when I jumped on it goal yeah and it hit all the little checkpoints that I had that i wanted in a home okay i yeah was that first property the one you ended up buying
Speaker: It was not. Okay. Yeah. Typically, I feel like that's pretty typical. Actually, like there's the one that gets you in the game and then things change. Maybe it falls through, but then you find another property. So tell us a little bit about that. Like what was that first property you're looking for? Yeah, it was in Miyoko. Yep, that's correct. Miyoko is a ski town, as probably a lot of viewers know. that um And it's very popular. Super popular. Crazy popular. So you're getting homes that are, you know, 30 grand, 40 grand, whatever. Yeah. And they're not in the best condition.
Speaker: I wouldn't want to bring my family there and... And not just that, it was the the maintenance required in a lot of those ones. Yeah. ah you The regular maintenance of like landscaping and cutting the grass and and just like the trees are overgrown. I couldn't find anything that was like zero maintenance. Hard to find somewhere. Yeah, like, yeah.
Speaker: yeah and it didn't check a lot of boxes it checked the snow excuse me the on the skiing box i want to ski and my whole family loves skiing snowboarding but that's the only box it really checks um whereas when i found this house that we bought it checked all those boxes it checked close it was 40 minutes to a a ski resort okay um and we can get into that too but and the all the boxes that um that needed to be checked How did so you, so you found that first listing, you did a consultation, you're like, I want to buy this prop, Pia, like, how did it, did you decide it was like a no-go or did it sell or what, what kind of, how did the falls? Right, right.
Speaker: One particular listing was walkable to, you know, some of the 7-Elevens and family marts and the shopping areas. um And it was and had a garage, which is one of my checks. um And it was too expensive.
Speaker: My wife and I agreed that it was just too expensive. It was like $50,000. And we weren't ready to spend that much. okay So I let that one go. and Were you already in the process with us at that point?
Speaker: I was. okay yeah I was actually... You were enrolled in the Acumart Direct program, working with Yoshi. um Kind of. Yeah, I had done the consultation.
Speaker: hadn't paid any fees or anything like that yet. So I was just done the consultation. And then they're like, okay, because mind you, I'm on there. The site. Honestly, I was definitely on it. and Once I did the consultation, all right, game on.
Speaker: Yeah, and just kept looking after that point. but mean So my my wife and I decided that one was a little bit too much. We decided on moving on. So... immediately started to grind again found a gem.
Speaker: Sirius, how long from the start of your grinding on site to like when you were like, let's go full force through that tape? Was that a couple months, a couple weeks? um First of December, 2025. Okay. Which is, sir what is it? the Seven months. Seven months. Okay.
Speaker: um This is when when I started really looking. And in mid-December is when we put an offer in offer. Yeah, basically. denverre basty Okay.
Speaker: okay Yeah, I spend a lot of time. A lot of time when they... Yeah, we'll go back to your cert. Let's talk about the property you ended up landing on. yeah Where is it? what Give me the specs. like what what How much did it cost? yeah that um It's in Itoigawa. It's two and a half hour Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo. yeah straight across so if japan is north south you just basically go from west to east yeah and um or east to west sir and you'll run in you'll go through nagano yep and once you dump on the other side of nagano right into the ocean that's where the house is out here so it's literally
Speaker: super close to the snow or, you know, to super close to the ski mountains and all that and the and the major resorts and really close to a private ski resort. Oh really? It's like 40 minutes down the road.
Speaker: And whereas Miyoko and all that is about zabo little less than an hour. If I remember correctly, you're like on the ocean front, right? Or is it sea front? Ocean front. Yep. The Japan Sea um is is my... Japan Sea. So just for our listeners here, it's in Niigata. Yeah. It's a little bit south of Miyoko and closer to the coast, right? Yeah. Yep. Okay.
Speaker: And then like Kashiwazaki is further up. Okay. So it's on that coastline. You're 40 minutes to the snow. You're right on the coast. How did you find this spot? You just kind of... Did you know this town before you... you you decided to buy or you kind of i'll know on akimart and then went from there well i wanted to be close to myoko because that we i mean one of the main reasons was to go ski trips every every winter um in myoko we just kind of branched a little bit away from myoko more towards the city yeah and joetsu is right outside of myoko and more toward towards the coast
Speaker: And that's kind of a major city on that side. And I didn't want to be in the city. I wanted to be a little a bit closer to the ocean, but also closer to the higher. Yeah. So we definitely look in Joetsu. In fact, the first house that we put wanted to put an offer on that was Krippi Dalvin was Joetsu right here. when i When this one popped up, you know it's ah I set it for you know less than one day old.
Speaker: It popped up right on the ocean. was like, ooh, it's this. there And then as soon as I saw it, I really jumped on it. That's awesome. That's exactly why we built Akimaru with the map-based kind of UI because most the Japanese websites don't have that map.filter kind of thing. Yeah. We're always looking for their surf points. I mean, saw it on the ocean. Yep. So you're a big surfer or you like to surf. Have you surfed there yet? Yeah.
Speaker: I am a big surfer. I grew up surfing and my wife and I, we we surf together all the time. good. i'm trying yeah I'm trying to get my, to be honest, favorite surfs. Yeah. It's hard. It's slowed down a little bit with kids, so I definitely recommend doing it before the young kids and i agree i'd really get into it. and Yeah, so, man, there's a surf spot right in front of the house.
Speaker: And it's it's it's not pipeline, you know, it's not it's not really a boat. I don't want pipeline. But it's it's something that we can do. we We're going to get bored and we're going to be surfing every time we're there if there's something agarable to ride, sir.
Speaker: All right. Fun fact, actually, Wilcoff or like Fardoff or one of those used shops, they got like such good used boys. Yeah. I saw couple of like handshaped Takayamas out there. Like I do recommend that. Yeah. you're trying to pick up a longboard, check out those used shops. Yeah. Tunnel supply.
Speaker: Yeah, we um we just recently we went to Japan and spent a lot of time in those book offs and hard offs, whatever they call is at it. Okay, so you bought the house, Itoigawa, how much did it cost?
Speaker: At the time it was 16,000 US dollars. Yeah, 2.5 million yen. How was the transaction process? with Pretty smooth, any hiccups along the way? here were working with Yoshi, one of our rockstar agents. How is that process going through with him?
Speaker: um everything's going great with yoshi he he's he's a legend yoshi song i love that guy um definitely recommend him as or as an agent yeah and man when i saw that house i immediately know this is five in the morning hawaii time in whoever the time zone is you are it's uh It's 5 a.m. late night when it's 5 a.m. here. Yeah. So I'm like emailing you guys, CCing Eric and and all these Akia Mart guys. And I'm like, this is the house. I want it now. And this is the one. I'm not going to change my mind. Let's get on this. I send it. yeah Yeah. And as soon as as soon as and I think I see see Yoshi on that one.
Speaker: As soon as this realty off realtor office open, I want to be the first ones to to tell them we want the house. Right. So basically be at the door when they come in with the keys right there. I want this house.
Speaker: And I know it's not aggressive like that, but I was super excited about the property. i was like, hey, as soon as they open, I want to be the first one to put in the offer. And um I wrote a letter, which is one of my topics here. I said, hey, we're just a family from Hawaii. Yeah.
Speaker: I have three kids. One of them was born in Okinawa. We love Japan. And we're going to use it for this purpose, which was ah just kind of like ah a vacation home, retirement home, not going to be used for, you know, money making purposes, some of that, which is true to this day. So, yeah, that helped. The letter helped. And I recommend if you just put in an offer at one of these homes is to write a letter. Put a photo of a family there, too. but that That'll sell it for sure. yeah Yes. OK. getting to that point it uh it went fast within that same day um we put in an offer and yoshi-san kept going back and forth with me he's like okay um you know do you want to come out and see it i was like no ah i want to do it right now so just you know i'm game let's go yeah and and the reason why i was so aggressive with it was it checked all of our boxes
Speaker: The main one being real close to the ocean yeah um had this bike path. My wife and I have a always envisioned us going to a vacation home where we have a bike lane. Like, Coeur d'Alene in Idaho has this amazing bike lane.
Speaker: You know, there's all these bike lanes. In Hawaii, we don't have any bike lanes. It's still a bike lane. So to throw the kids on this bike path that is literally 20 miles from Joetsu City to Itoigawa City, that's that's right, along the coast. okay And it's right in my in my backyard. It's right here.
Speaker: it's It's just amazing. So that checked out biking all check block and the surfing part is there. Walking distance to a ramen shop. yeah Walking distance to the train station.
Speaker: There's a bus stop right in front. 7-Eleven is two miles one way and four miles the other. So I have a two. okay um Right. Here, was wrong when you got the offer accepted, how long did it take to get the settlement done? Was it a couple of months or?
Speaker: Yeah, I was looking at the the dates today and it took about two months. Yeah, two months to officially get keys. was It wasn't too bad at all. And a lot of it had to do with snow.
Speaker: Our house is in snow country, Niigata. And it's so funny to see each house covered in snow. But we went there in early February. and Or actually right when we got the youth, mid-February.
Speaker: midveror Um, we, we went there and he's covered us. Yeah. So it was, it was a fun, fun farm. That's a water temperature. Uh, yeah.
Speaker: Can you see like a five, four wetsuit or something? it's In the winter winner is pretty much, well, when we were there in February, there was waves and there was servers out there. Um, and yeah, you need, they needed wetsuit.
Speaker: Yeah. and And then when we just went is here in, um, in June or, uh, it was perfect country. true Just perfect. Yeah, and it's crystal clear. It's nice and calm.
Speaker: And yeah, so going from February, seeing it then to June, seeing it, two different ah perspectives on the ocean. You kind of describe the house to the audience. Like, how big is it? Like, what what was the condition when it first got in?
Speaker: um Man, it was it's a beautiful house, two stories. um My 3LDK, I think it is. I don't know why that was spelled. Yeah. My 80s, I just suck out. That'd be sexed out. Yeah.
Speaker: And, um... Yeah, it's huge. It's a huge house. And it's a little bit weathered on the outside yeah because of the always had the ocean and just the and the snow and the environment.
Speaker: But the roof is perfect. Oh, really? That's great. And so that's there's no leaks. The inside is immaculate. It's just amazing. and But the siding would probably need ah redone at some point. It's it's definitely...
Speaker: see Yeah, it literally. Did you get any any info who was a previous owner or how long it was a bacon for anything like that that kind of stands out? A previous owner had lived in it and was living in it.
Speaker: I'm assuming they they got too old for the stairs and and just the environment of the the weather, I would say. Yeah, yeah um but it was never officially bacon. Okay. i um So it was quite in. Okay. It was couple of the rooms had been remodeled, which was really nice.
Speaker: And this still leaves a little blank canvas for us to do the things that we want to do to it, which is not a lot, but just maybe update the kitchen. Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh, 11 space heat. Okay, so transaction complete after a couple months. I think move things move relatively fast. It seems like it was quite smooth. when What was your first experience getting into the house? You obviously we had the keys on the lot and box for a year. like Describe that. that a scene or emotion you felt. Yeah. Yeah. um So, man, Eric, sweet, awesome guy. Yeah. um he He brought heaters. That was a big thing. Yeah. I was like, okay, so Yoshida, there's no heat, right? There's no insulation. He's like, that's correct. so we we So we coordinated with Eric to have him go here buy some heaters, bring them to the house, and have them staged for us so when we arrive, the heaters will be there.
Speaker: Worked perfect. Yeah. He also brought a a lockbox with the keys that he got from Yoshi's yeah and put them inside the key bar Locked them up right outside the door um that's That's at the stage of like confidence going in. Like, all right, we got heat. I'm going to my son. and and I'm bringing my son to my friend. I'm like, yeah, at least we got heat. are da yeah i Who came with you on the first trip? Yeah, so my real good friend, Eric, and my son, Lou. Okay, that's the right. that's right
Speaker: Don't bring the buyers. Yeah, bring the boys. Yeah. but and Because we can kind of just sleep. Yeah. yeah um So that's how it was. We assumed the worst, and and everything worked out even better. So...
Speaker: I also had Eric print me up a little paper that said, please leave packages right on the door's mark. Yeah, and and this is the address. So I put, this is the address, and please leave packages here at the door.
Speaker: And he printed it off and printed it and put it in a thing and set up into the door. Did it work? It works perfectly. It works? Yeah. Sometimes it doesn't work. Man, when we showed up that day, we drove right by the house, and there was like 100 packages. Okay. All right. Do you guys use Amazon or what? Amazon.jp. Amazon.jp. You had Eric put a piece of paper that says leave packages. This is not a vacant home.
Speaker: You came there and you had a box, like mountain of of cardboard. Yeah. Right? Okay. A cardboard. um yeah that's correct but it was all like um blankets and a mattress yeah just uh yep stay the first yeah all night yeah yep and um and actually bedding so we we we love the japanese style of sleeping low and on the ground but we wanted beds yeah kids want that yeah even though they probably have fun it's like a sweep over but yes So we got all the beds, all the mattresses, all the bedding, which pillows and blankets and warm stuff and Had that all delivered and it was out little bit Yeah, okay house you'd seen it for the first time like anything that was way different or like any surprises You know, did you find any like a moldy wall or something like that? And any negative or positive things that were different than in your mind when you first saw the place?
Speaker: um yoshi yoshi-san we we did a little zoom call when we were first seeing the property he showed me all the little damaged spots yeah that had been repaired just not 100 percent repair yeah but as far as like the patch had been done but they didn't retile it kind of kidding there um which is fine but it was it was evident on based on that zoom call And so there was no, nothing unexpected when we pulled in. In fact, it was probably a lot better than what we had seen on the zoo.
Speaker: Just because it's so big. Did we walk in and like, because it's huge. Yeah, yeah. You know, all the shoji doors were working and, you know, so you could cordon off, you know, the heat zones and all that.
Speaker: Which is a story, you know, because you get that heat zone in living room or wherever you're sleeping and leave it. You can't leave. Yeah. Don't go to the kitchen because the kids are going be freezing or the bathroom. Like, yeah. So, okay. You definitely got to buy a lot heaters if you don't have this. So you got off the sink. I'm saying, did you stay in hotel the first night or you just went straight in?
Speaker: All right, good. Yeah, so we flew from Honolulu right into Haneda and we kind of have this system down now. We've done it not twice, but that's our system. It's important. Like you need to establish it. And then you can modify it from there, right? Yeah.
Speaker: So we'd fly into Haneda and we'd immediately get a hotel somewhere near the Tokyo train station. Okay. and and then go out to dinner that night and hop on the Shinkansen bullet train first thing in the morning or take that 8am, 9am bullet train two and half hours, it's actually two hours, two hours to Jowetsu is where we rent the car. okay We rent the car from Joetsu and we drive, we'll pick up groceries along the way and hit that hit up the house and then unload groceries and just start the process of living.
Speaker: um So yeah, that's our little procedure. We're considering flying into Haneda and then immediately taking a little commuter train or commuter plane to Choyama, which is about two hours for an hour. That's interesting. yeah and there's a costco up there yeah um so it's just a quick little you know a puddle jumper over chayama yeah yeah and then we can rent a car from a there and drive down that'll eliminate the hotel yeah so it's just like modifying what you've already got stopped we have the same thing we're trying to like finesse like okay what is the most comfortable way to land and then get to the house and be settled and i mean it's a constant like oh maybe this route's better maybe that's right Yeah, but exactly. Okay.
Speaker: So that's where we're at we're We're trying to think about best ways to do it. We had this conversation this morning. We're like, okay, so, you know, we land this time. Can we make the Shinkansen at nighttime? It's, you know, you got to rush and there's a custom and all that. Yeah, so we just want, and the thing about Japan is it's all peace yeah then, right? You don't want to rush every flying, she doesn't make kids crying. As soon as you land, you feel this sense of like peace. Man, it's it's a comforting feeling and we don't want to ever jeopardize that or something.
Speaker: So yeah, again, sorry, going back to the first time you stayed there, I think you had mentioned you got it cleaned before or like, what was that kind of like? or Yoshi-san, I said, hey, we're coming in on February 13th.
Speaker: Can you have the cream? We're coming on February 13th, but the the old the old owners of the house, they they couldn't move out their goods, all their items, because of the snow. Oh. It was too much snow, so it couldn't get in and like you know get their stuff out. I think they wanted to get contractors out there to to remove all the items, and and they had done out that. But it kept pushing closer and closer to our arrival day. Oh, yeah. And so, like, on the 11th, they came.
Speaker: And then on the 12th, the cleaners came. You know, 13th, we came. They worked. They worked perfect. Yeah, that's awesome. So we we did pay. It might have been, like, a a little bit higher charge. Under $80. No, we paid but we was that about $900. Okay. i mean And it was a detailed pay. Yeah. Because I wanted, when we first moved in, I wanted it to be just super...
Speaker: Yeah. Can I have a side like how good of an idea that is? It's definitely worth the thousand worth dollars. Absolutely, yeah. Because I feel like Joey and I remind everybody and we're like scrubbing stuff are like, this is still real nasty. and Yeah. But it's good that you're the previous owners, there was like a a short period where it wasn't, where was vacant, really. Yeah, and I didn't really, man, okay.
Speaker: which was Which was great. We we really appreciated that. And in nothing against vacant homes. It's just critters come in and nature takes over. It's a critter, yeah. Speaking of that, any, like, garden, if like, any nature stories that with Japan so far? Any crazy bugs come in in the house or stuff like that? Yeah, good question. That is definitely one of the to boxes. I got about 100 boxes out of the ship. No.
Speaker: But one of them was um zero maintenance. its Wow. Because um we're not there. Yeah. And if I buy a, and I recommend this, like, if you're not going to live there for the six months you were able to live there or whatever, 90, 90,
Speaker: um you're going to have to go cut the grass or send somebody and pay a maintenance fee of somebody coming out to cut the grass and and keep it clean. I didn't want to do that. or There is zero basically zero maintenance on the house. there's There's a little garden in the back. Yeah. um But it's so minimal. It's very tiny and it's not going to grow up.
Speaker: It's interesting that you got snow on the beach there, baing right? Yeah. guys So yoy you could feasibly go snowboarding in the afternoon, like surfing in the morning or night or something, right? I could snowboard down the beach into the water. That was awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, it's literally there's snow on the beach and the waves are hitting it. It's like, ah it's insane. Yeah, all right. Especially living in Hawaii all these years, and you don't see anything right down there. How would you say, like, neighborhood-wise? Did you, any other foreigners in the area? Do you meet some neighbors, things like that?
Speaker: Yeah, we brought gifts for our neighbors. a Good job. Yep. Right away, um
Speaker: we brought gifts. And that wasn't even a question. We we knew we were going to that. So we immediately met the neighbors, gave them gifts, and tried to speak as much Japanese as we could with a little bit of help from bureau translate Google Translate and in the apps they have on here.
Speaker: And... We didn't get a lot of talking, he knew nothing yeah especially the first time as me and the boys, right? We were just like grinding with, you know, putting the houses together, opening the houses and building furniture.
Speaker: But this last time in June when when I brought my wife and and three kids, I mean, we made it at a point. So like every neighbor we saw, we're like, Ohayogosayin, konnintibawa. Yeah, is very we're very excited to see them and just introduce ourselves.
Speaker: And with a little Japanese we do know, it worked out really well. so And all Hawaii guests as well, like macadamia nut, chocolates. They love Hawaii. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Any other foreigners in that area or you so you guys were there at the token?
Speaker: Real the token, I'll lose their hair. Yeah. um And we're OK with that. And we didn't really. We rode our bikes. and that's That's one thing um that I wanted to bring up was when we did get there this last June, or excuse me, last week, whatever, we bought we bought bikes. That was a big deal.
Speaker: And that was highest priority of when we got there. The kids want to get on bikes. We wanted to get on bikes and ride that bike path. Because in February, when i went there, covered in snow. There was literally two, three feet of snow on the bike.
Speaker: um So this time we we got to meet a lot of the neighbors, like I said. But yeah, no foreigners. We didn't see any foreigners. We did go to the local ramen shop. We went to the little knick-knack store, Zappa Tree, believe it's called. and met her and she's she speaks a little bit of english and um we are we also brought her hawaiian gifts there you go um and she's actually a ski instructor at the ski resort at the ski resort in each of y'all so uh it's good to know all these people yeah do you we get this question a lot do you feel like there's any animosity towards foreigners buying in these areas or you feel like they're pretty welcoming
Speaker: Gosh, everybody was very welcoming. And we when we were in the neighborhood, you know, of course, the three kids, I've 15, 11, and eight. They're riding bikes up and down the streets and just like being loud and everything's hey, shh. Yeah, yeah. Bringing some life into older. Yeah, exactly. A little bit of energy.
Speaker: um And I think they enjoyed that. You know, because a lot of them and like you said, there're it's a little bit older community. And I could tell it was a little bit sleepy in the area. Yeah. and for us to bring our tree kids in our house.
Speaker: And our garage is like maybe 50 yards from our house. Oh, it's not connected? Not connected. Okay, well, which is kind of neat. It's a little bit different. And it's a very big-sized garage.
Speaker: So that's where we stored the bikes and stuff. they' were always like And then the vending machine, a little bit further than that, So where the kids are out and about getting their bikes, getting the vending and just like, that's awesome. So the family's role is like, hello, you know, like, yeah, it's super cute. Okay. So you've you've seen the house two times. First time it was the strike mission with the boys. Second time with the family. know You know, what yeah any any learnings, things you wish you had known prior to purchasing or like what whats surprised you out of all this?
Speaker: um I guess what would would surprised me was how often the water was. really yeah i mean jumped in there with with all the things google maps yeah you know street view you know where everything's at i really gave you know got into it and and saw everything yeah i used pictures and all that um but the clarity in june when we just went of the water was just like immaculate it was just amazing and it was a nice sight to see my wife and i just loved walked across street to the to the sand and walked the beach um and had nothing really really surprised us because i just we know jukan is he's our gem and yeah this week we already had high expectations and ananea who were all met Yeah, it's awesome that you have this spot for kids, you know, seems like they probably have a ton of fun.
Speaker: You can let them free without war. Like, are you worrying about them or just like you it come back before dinner kind of thing? or Yeah, but um I said my son's 15, my daughter's 11 and my other son is eight. Eight of eight. I mean, eight's ochre. Yeah. what What was that like? Yeah. yeah Like, go out, have fun on the beach and go bike. yeah i like Yeah, um the beach is a little bit... We do have a road in between us and the beach.
Speaker: I don't really don't want to send them out on their own. look My oldest and maybe my middle can go probably, but we we don't want them to go across the street and to the beach yet. okay But that bike lane that's behind us...
Speaker: I mean, it's literally free game. Go get your bikes. You can ride all the way to 7-Eleven. It's two miles down the road. And there's actually a park there. it's it's It's just a little gem. There's all these little shops and ice cream places and ramen shops and sushi.
Speaker: Right on. When I was a kid, that was like my formative memories. Just like, okay, you guys just go, go out and have fun. And you're like, you never had that freedom, I think in the States to like go around and explore, you go in a combi and eat buy all these cool things. ye So yeahp I think that's, that's awesome that you have that for your kids. They're definitely going remember yeah this whole kind of saga, I believe. Yeah, good memories are yet to be had and we've already created some.
Speaker: My son, Luke, he plays water polo here. plays water polo? Yeah, in Hawaii here. um And pretty much almost every day he's playing water polo. He does tournaments and all that. So being away for a whole week, we're like, oh man, even the coach is like,
Speaker: Bro, you got to be working out, you know. And so we we got online with the Pashu Wazaki water poler. Really? Yeah. And I'm out there. Yep.
Speaker: OK, we got in touch with them. And man, those guys are just an amazing group of water poler players and and a coach. He's a former Olympian. Really? And i'm that he he was awesome.
Speaker: And he welcomed us. You know, we brought treats for him too. And like, here you go. Thank you so much. And we were very gracious that he let Luke play. He could have played every day that week, but we're like, is it is an hour away. It's an hour drive. and And we could have done every day, but that would have been our whole trip, basically. So we did two days.
Speaker: two practices Two practices a day. okay One night in a day yep one day was at 8 in the morning and one was at like 4 p.m. so we're like So we killed, but it got us down that road. there So man, we went to Nagano City, or Sudeenigata City, after um and which is was way up the coast. and It got us up that way without even trying. Did Luke want that or did he Yeah, chasing from. No, it was good. But you know what? That's, and that comes back to the homeschool point was um just trying new things and being, integrate yourself into this, these awkward situations. Yeah.
Speaker: And um he did it, man. And I'm so proud of him to do that. That's awesome. Yeah. I used to, my mom's Chinese. I would go go to Shanghai and I did judo growing up and my mom would just throw me in the judo clubs there. I'm just like,
Speaker: What the heck? I like i hated it in the moment, but it was it such a good memory. like i think it's was Was Luke the only non-Japanese dude in the water basically? Frame water follow? um You know, the bet the one of the coincidences was the team from Singapore was there oh out on the first morning that we went and they all speak English. Okay. That's cool.
Speaker: they were all excited to see loose yeah at the the white guy coming in from america but you know they were like where are you from and these they're like or luke was saying i'm from hawaii and everybody's like oh everybody's so excited about hawaii and they all talked to luke and they opened an instagram or whatever yeah they put him on the free area so um Yeah, all good, yeah. And then um the coach spoke a little bit, she's pretty good English, um and and loved on loopers as well. also oh that's awesome. Yeah, that's so cool that you could still keep that kind of routine here, and it like mixes things up, be like some friends. Every time we go to Japan, we will look them up and try to get looped back at that water for
Speaker: yeah super super yeah and they're like come back anytime yeah you're all welcome so damn well you've done a great job i think as a dad bringing your kids there and having this experience i think they're gonna they love it yeah i guess kind of wrapping up the combo here you know there's a lot of folks here in hawaii that are interested in buying me in jucan there's so many similarities like any advice to someone or yourself back in december before you started searching what would you recommend they do or things they should watch out for Yes. Great question. um One, we are the closest of the United States.
Speaker: We're the closest. guy We're already halfway there. Halfway. i'm on the way to Tokyo right now. So it's like bam, bam, bam. If you live in Hawaii, I a highly encourage people to buy. Make it what you want. You know, if you want to make it an Airbnb, go for it and and go down that route.
Speaker: If you want it as just a vacation home or you don't want to, like us, we wanted a vacation home and we also didn't want to miss this opportunity or buying a home anywhere, but specifically Japan. Yeah, buy it for the right reasons, not because it's cheap. Yeah, exactly. yeah they there and 15 grand for the quality we i think we scored a gem yeah because you can't find you won't find something that checks all those boxes right in the condition it's in oceanfront or he had to ski like bike condition nice incredible train station nearby ramen shop down the road all those boxes were checked and we found the gem mainly because we jumped on it as soon as it came listed
Speaker: So that's what I recommend is go onto your site, set your filters for newly listed items, and see where the little bubbles pop up. And if it's where you want to be at or somewhere close, seriously consider it. No. Well, man.
Speaker: Oh yeah, I think we've done a little presentation yesterday for Probson Hawaii. People are so excited. I think people are frustrated with the housing prices here, obviously. And, yeah you know, Japan, people go to Japan so often from Hawaii that it's kind of a no-brainer, I think. yeah yeah I think they from your side of what's awesome is like your family must. I think this is going to be such core memories where you bring your family over every summer or whatever. Move, play, a water polo.
Speaker: in super bikees that Going on the bike path. Hopefully they'll continue to love Japan. Yeah. And then, um, and, and I told my son, and he's all excited about it. I was like, Hey, one day you can bring your boys over here. There we go. And like, you can just do a guy's trip, you know, in Japan. He's like, really? Oh yeah. That's a good idea. So now he's like, Hey dad, going to bring, um, some of my friends over here for my birthday. I'm like, so that's awesome. Hey, I was like 15 and my dad had a condo in here. Same deal. He's just like,
Speaker: bring your high school friends you guys have fun and it's like we're not doing anything crazy but it was like so fun have an independent that's all i'll be safe and yep go to the robin shop and things like yeah and you know the form of respect you know when you come into japan it's like hey you know you can't just throw your trash at certain places you can't just be loud you you have to respect the culture and your whole mindset changes to a better better person when you do land as in japan Awesome, Chris. yeah Thanks for being on the show. Really appreciate you and your help here. Looking forward to partner, maybe get a second home if someday. But yeah other than that, I think you have such an amazing story. We'll follow up with you again year from now. want to see Luke um see luke's throwing down some water polo yeah yeah and in Kashawasaki soon. That'd be cool. Sweet, Kaki. Take it
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.
