Transcript
Speaker: Taki has got the toe toe jams going, working the ROGECaster with his feet. Welcome back everybody to our buying a house in Japan podcast. This is our first video podcast actually.
Speaker: Congratulations Taki, we made it to our first video round. We're pros now. Mika was very impressed with our setup, right? yeah like yeah Yeah, so professional. I'm impressed with our setup. Like, look at this. this is yeah yeah We have been on a string of podcasts with special guests.
Speaker: Today is no exception. We are joined by our Akiyamart preferred agent, Mika. She's a seasoned real estate agent, and we're actually in her family's hometown at the moment.
Speaker: Aikawa Nagasaki. Welcome, Mika. Thank you. Thank you for having me. um Yeah, we're super thankful for we're actually recording in Mika's grandma's living room right now. So in the background, we can see Mika's told us some good stories. She used to climb this this this little wooden structure behind us. There's a couple Pokemon stickers from her.
Speaker: How does it feel to be recording a podcast in your grandma's living room right now? It's so bizarre, ah but I'm really happy that this like worked out. It's like, yeah, a lot of memories and I'm like making even more memories here.
Speaker: When was the last time your family used this house? Was it, was it quite recently or had it been unused for a while? ah My aunt and uncle, they lived here until probably like last month.
Speaker: Yeah. So it was used. But when I used it was when my grandma passed away and everyone gathered here and like prayed. And yeah, it was like ah the last time I used and stayed for a little bit. I brought my two dogs and yeah, it was a whole family.
Speaker: yeah Well, the two dogs came. Two dogs. okay yeah Trippy situation here, huh? where you now like A year ago, i don't think you would have ever thought we would be recording a podcast yeah with us. um Crazy.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. It's just like Ah, not like and i can't believe. Yeah. It's like real. So when did you move to, you're now living in Tokyo. When did you leave Nagasaki and move to Tokyo? I moved in to Tokyo in 2019 and summer for different job, airport job.
Speaker: You used to work at Narita? No, I used to work in Haneda. Oh, what kind of job? Yeah. It's, uh, it's called grants ground stuff. Ground staff. and Were you like doing the lights and stuff?
Speaker: No, and and no, no. It's not that ground. It's like check-in and the gate service. It was super boring. Yeah, I did that job for maybe like less than a year.
Speaker: Sometimes I see the same people when you're checking in your bag and then they're at the gate. Is that like how it works? You're there first checking in people and then a certain time you're like okay, got to go to the gate. Yeah. We need to run and yeah, run, look for passengers and shout.
Speaker: Oh, no. So, okay. You grew up in this neighborhood, right? Not really in this neighborhood, but my my parents, yeah. My parents did.
Speaker: Sorry, my my mom did. And yeah, I grew up maybe like 20 minutes away from here. Yeah, it's a little newer neighborhood. Yeah, still really countryside.
Speaker: then where did you learn English? You're probably, like out of all our agents, I think you have the best English. Yay. I studied English ah in school and university for four years, but it was just like an exam, like TOEIC English.
Speaker: And I had to go abroad to study for ah for at least like a month, like ah just a study program. i wasn't really interested in English, but when I went to Australia,
Speaker: for five weeks. It was really, really fun. It was my first time going abroad and everything was so fresh. And yeah, that's when I started, started like studying English seriously. Yeah. And I went went to Canada afterwards for a year and a half.
Speaker: Yeah. And then I started working in real estate, like for foreigners. I think that's when I improved the most. Yeah. Interesting. How did you get into real estate?
Speaker: It sounds like, yeah, you're working and working on ground staff at the airport. And then like, did you just decide to interview and and yeah, tell us a little bit about that. Okay. Okay. so i was looking for a job because I was really bored at the airport.
Speaker: Even though it was really fun with the people where there are like nice people, but yeah, uh, I wanted to use English skill cause my parents kind of like invested, but my parents paid.
Speaker: good good daughter oh yeah yeah but also like I it was like uh something that I wanted okay I don't know how to say it I didn't really have like a strong interest in anything so I studied English so maybe like I might as well look for a job with English And then, yeah, I just found the listing and I applied and I got this job, like English speaking real estate.
Speaker: It was like originally for rentals. Yeah. That show came out, Tokyo Swindlers. I don't know if anybody's watched it. I personally haven't watched it, but it's about kind of like scammy deals in the to in the Tokyo real estate world. I don't know if people are getting scammed with a lot of money or a little bit of money, but seems like there's like a deep network of like scams in Tokyo real estate world.
Speaker: Do you think that Japanese real estate is a scammy market or what's your general impression? You know much more, Taki and I haveve have just scratched the surface, but you've seen both sides, the foreigner side, the Japanese side.
Speaker: Oh. Are there a lot of bad people in the market or what do you think? i personally don't have a bad experience. I've been working in this real estate industry for almost five years and no, I don't have a...
Speaker: Have you seen a scam? Someone gets scammed? No, not around sign me. Yeah, not around me, but i think in Tokyo, it could be a little sketchy. I know like some thing, like some sketchy things going on.
Speaker: ah if they If you're talking about it, it's, yeah, it's ah like based on a true story. Yeah. We've had two people in our and our adventure buying property here who have gone under pseudonyms, not the who have worked under are not the real name. We're really going straight forward here, Jerry.
Speaker: listeners of the podcast um know who we're talking about here have you ever worked with anyone who's like gone by a different name that is clearly not their real name no I've never seen them okay work work with Mika you'll be sorted it seems like yeah no sketchy stuff at this point tell us a little bit about your real estate brokerage company you work for I know you just switched over to a new new company right yeah yeah so ah how does it work um yeah little bit okay so like how the contract works or how should i answer i guess rewinding little bit a lot of our con or a lot of our akimart direct agents they have their own mini brokerages so they're like one man team so it sounds like with your current company you're working with like a big team you have a lot of resources yeah like legal support stuff like that right yeah right now i'm working
Speaker: with a relatively a big company. And yeah, they hire, like they work with like different freelance agents and we have, ah we share commission and we like, as an agent, all I need to do is show places, review the contract and explain the contract to ah clients.
Speaker: Yeah, and then help them sign. But yeah, I have like a legal team backing up and yeah, they make all the contract documents and check all the legal side.
Speaker: Yeah. And then I also have a personal like advisor at my company and he can like help or he like teach me how to do stuff and yeah, answer questions I have.
Speaker: Yeah. Stuff like that. it actually sounds like a good company. We were brainstorming yesterday. Do we, do we build a competitor? But in, in the end, everything Mika explained to us, it actually sounds like quite a good company run by a good person.
Speaker: Yeah, we've worked with mostly, all our other agents are more kind of bootstrapped smaller companies. So I think there's pros and cons, but the pros of working with Mika, I think, is you're working with a larger team, legal team. They will make sure everything is right. I feel like they definitely are experts in some of these things, right? yeah Cool. Let's switch gears. I want to talk about this house.
Speaker: you know Just for anyone listening for the first time, we've been talking to Mika. She's been working with us maybe for the past year. six months, three months, past couple months. And and somewhere along the way, we're like, i don't know how it came up where you're like, are you guys interested in buying? Like, how did, how did this happen?
Speaker: you remember? I actually don't remember. Did we ask you like, hey, do you have a house? no No, When we like first started like talking, maybe even like before working, I i told you like I have an Akiya that's available. Like, would you mind listing this one? And then, yeah, I gave you the details. And yeah, I think you got interested in buying yourself.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we've been on a street. I think we were had we had just bought the Miyoko spot or something. So we were we were kind of looking for some of those yeah more Akiya's. And for us, Joey and I, our policy is a little bit like we are kind of just going with the flow. you know If we know someone there, if someone's reaching out to us, we take it as a sign just to be like, let's let's try it out. we do Obviously, now we know a lot more about this area because of you versus us just like shooting a shot.
Speaker: I was going to say, we don't really have a policy, but you're right. you know Buy where we know somebody seems to be. If if we have a policy at all, like that is you rule number one. Yeah. So this area, like we did not know what we were getting ourselves into, honestly. and We looked at Google Maps, but this place is like stunning. like the The ocean is awesome. Again, tell us a little about this area itself. um I know you spent of your childhood here, right?
Speaker: Yeah, it's a really small area, like small community neighborhood. And probably the average ah age in this neighborhood 70 to 80.
Speaker: seventy eighty We're bringing it down now. Here we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. More younger people. And yeah, but everyone's really nice. Everyone's probably like kind of related.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. And i I'm like really surprised that people actually ah are interested in this kind of area because it's like so like in the middle of nowhere. No JR train, just buses and I would actually say 45 minutes from Nagasaki is less like less than sorry. Yeah. was like 20, 25 minutes to downtown Nagasaki. 25 minutes i back to our downtown hotel. Yeah. With the car is, um, but I was a not in the, it's like the perfect distance from downtown. I would actually argue it's very comfortable. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. It's like, this is where I basically grew up.
Speaker: So having like mountains and ocean is like so normal, um, But yeah, I'm like, it's a it's a new perspective that, yeah, people actually appreciate these things. And yeah, I'm like realizing how lucky Yeah.
Speaker: yeah So yeah, it's like, yeah, I don't know. It's not really a description of this neighborhood, but Yeah, I think in California, I have to drive 25 minutes to get anywhere.
Speaker: So I think the contrast is like Japan's infrastructure is so good that not having, you know, being 25 minutes away, it seems like a bad thing. But in other parts of the world, it's it's common, if not, I think it's really good.
Speaker: 25 minutes to to the downtown of prefectural capital city as well. You know and it can take a Shinkansen. We're very impressed with Nagasaki so far. I've converted Joey onto champon, which is like a... How would you describe champon as a food? You want my description or Mika's description? No, I want your... Let's hear joe Joey's description here.
Speaker: I was initially against trying champon. I had it for the first time in my life yesterday and it was actually really delicious. So I did flip 180, but my hesitancy with it is people get ramen. You look at ramen, you know, you see the noodles, the veggies, the meat, the egg, and it comes like standard format or or known,
Speaker: ah items are in it. But with champon, it always just seemed like like they just throw everything in it. There's seafood, there's meat, there's vegetables, there's noodles, there's random things in there. There's like the little baby corn sometimes. like I love the baby Just random stuff. So I was always just kind of like, they just it it it looks to me like they you know a champon restaurant. They just take whatever's left over in the fridge, throw it on the soup, and like there's your meal kind of thing.
Speaker: um But I had it yesterday and full 180, it was delicious. Broth was delicious. Noodles were great. Thicker noodles. um yeah I haven't tried cheap Champon. We went to a nice place. So we're going to ringer hut after this, which is maybe known for cheaper champon, but, um, yeah I have a nostalgia thing. I used to get champon every Saturday at Ringer Hut in California in between Japanese school in the morning and Sotoban after.
Speaker: really? Yeah, my dad's like, go get champon. You're you're in Nagasaki. So did not did not disappoint. um What do you eat when you come back to Nagasaki? You mentioned you come back to Nagasaki area about twice a year. Is there any like restaurant you go to? Himawarite maybe?
Speaker: Let's talk about Himawarite. Yeah, only sometimes. Himawarite sometimes because it's super heavy. Really? Okay. you do yeah You do go back there? Okay. Yeah, yeah. It's really close to in my home. So yeah. Anything else do that you look forward to eating? I told you I'm not really a ramen person, but I really love skimming. I'm a big ramen person here. I'm a big ramen person here, but okay, skimming.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. i love Tsukimen and there is a restaurant called Always. Their Tsukimen is like really, really We're going there. Always. Tonight maybe. Yeah. Another heavy food. um we So we spoke to Mika's aunt and mom ah yesterday and one question we asked her was like, any secret hidden spots that only locals know?
Speaker: um i want to hear your answer. You also kind of, you know, not this specific neighborhood, but kind of generally this coastline, like any any hidden spots on your radar? Like coastline? Yeah, coastline or not.
Speaker: Some of the only locals know. I think Hima Wadite. yeah For anyone listening or watching, Hima Wadite is like, spaghetti, curry, tonkatsu, all like combined. it went One plate. Turku rice.
Speaker: or yeah toco too Turkish rice. and yeah I'll have more questions about the cultural infusion soon. but I thought Himawarite invented it, but we saw it at a different restaurant in Nagasaki. This phenomenon is bigger than Himawarite. Yeah, it's a thing here. yeah But yeah many people don't really know about Turku rice soup.
Speaker: Sleeper. Check it out. all right Other secret spots. you know Not secret spots like Mika's. Locals only. Locals only spots. Okay, there is a place that's called, yeah, it's kind of like a rest stop.
Speaker: Yeah, with like a store. okay Yeah, and there is one like 20 minutes away from here. it has like the ocean view, like so, so beautiful. And you can see. this is a grocery store?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. There's like a local vegetable store kind of thing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but yeah, that place, really love to go there, get an ice cream, and eat the ice cream with the ocean view. You can also see Hashima, the the battleship island.
Speaker: Oh, very cool. Yeah, yeah. You can see that too. You can also see, yeah, sunset. Yeah, Gunkanjima. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a really nice spot. But yeah, sorry. no i think I think Nagasaki is like, I'm surprised. I really, I've been here a couple of times, but this time it was really,
Speaker: after doing city yeah After doing a lot more traveling, I just recently went to Portugal and I see a lot of European influence here. And I think Nagasaki does a really good job of mixing kind of the the foreign and what, like, do you feel that way?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, i I think so. Yeah, but you told me like how it's like kind of like mixed like the tiles and the design and yeah, we have a lot of like stained glass.
Speaker: But what is it called? Yeah, the the stained glass. I see a lot of the stained glass. i see the Castela is like a Portuguese thing. I see, ah you know, the coastline looks like Lisbon, honestly. When we were driving back yesterday, i was like, well, this looks like Lisbon.
Speaker: Chinese influence like, why is there why is there such a big Chinese influence here? I guess like it's the same reason. Like ah one, it's like close to ah China, but also like ah in Japan, there are three China towns.
Speaker: Yeah, one in Nagasaki and Kobe and Yokohama. And that's probably why we have that influence. And we were like open during the the ah closed term period. Closed period, yeah.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. it's It's interesting. I really like, I appreciate the the cultural diversity in Nagasaki comparatively to some other countries. And the train station is the biggest, most spacious, like the exact opposite of Shinjuku station from like ah everything.
Speaker: Yeah, they just like kind of like ah reconstructed the station. Yeah, so it's pretty new. And that area, the whole area is developing now. There is like a new stadium and yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's developing. Nagasaki is trying their best to bring back people. Yeah. You live in right now in Tokyo. Yeah. and And for someone who's looking at Tokyo, like would you how would you convince them for Nagasaki? If they're kind of on the fence, Tokyo's too expensive, like what are some of the good points about Nagasaki that you would encourage a foreigner to look at down here?
Speaker: would say... There is like a lot of history here. i mean, Tokyo too, but it's a different history. And yeah, I think I really like the mixed culture and the ah nature.
Speaker: I think the nature is the best thing here and the food is good. Yeah, yeah. People are nicer. okay Yeah. Seems less crowded too. yeah yeah yeah in Tokyo you'd need to like kind of like ice break first and people start being nice to you or friendly to you but yeah in Nagasaki even ah when you're walking like people just come up to you and say hi yeah it's like really nice yeah I love that I definitely agree on the breathtaking scenery. Like when we drove out of that tunnel, we were like, whoa, this is crazy. And like the coastline is is really not something I think people think of Nagasaki.
Speaker: They don't think of the of the coastline. And again, we're a couple minutes away from, I think, Kagurashima. We can see a view. It's like so cool being here. The abandoned school. I want to ask about this abandoned school. Taki I were walking around the house um yesterday and there's abandoned school nearby and it is right up right up ah above our house. We walked up the staircase.
Speaker: right right up above the staircase and there's other akiyas in this little town as well and i feel like the neighborhood we dropped you off and seems like it's it's more kind of up and coming but this area here's like a lot a lot more new builds there this area here kind of seems like it's going the other direction um and any thoughts since i know this isn't your hometown but you grew up nearby any sort of thoughts about seeing certain parts of where you grow up fall into disrepair like so much so that the school gets abandoned
Speaker: I, it's it's kind of sad. Yeah, like, also like this house as well. where We used to have like a really big family. And in this town, there used to be like an ice cream track. And yeah, it's like a really cute old memory.
Speaker: but More like really many people lived here. And everyone kind of like moved out. And Yeah, older people stayed, but they're like dying.
Speaker: and yeah, not many kids here. It's like, it's really sad.
Speaker: Yeah, but ah it's life. So i yeah, it's not like the end of the world. But if like someone is interested like someone is interested in moving in here or like use it as a a vacation home or something, i think it'll be more like cheerful. And people are actually nice here, like pretty friendly.
Speaker: So if you get along and maybe like have a little like meals or something, that's like, that will be really cute. Do you think Tokyo is overcrowded? Do you think that government or somebody should try to incentivize more people to move into rural areas of Japan?
Speaker: Yeah, I think so. And I think there like some of the the cities are trying. I'm not too sure about Nagasaki. I think they are. Yeah, that's probably why they're like trying to develop more and attractive for younger people.
Speaker: what do you think it's going to take for people to not want to move to Tokyo? It just seems like it's relentless. the but i can't People are, we're so crowded on the train and then that train station, I was just like, yes, I could do jumping jacks. I'm like, Nagasaki's where it's at.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, what what was your question? Like, I guess from your perspective, I think jobs are one factor that's important. Like there's, there's jobs in Tokyo, whereas like, you know, especially this neighborhood difficult to find a job here.
Speaker: um is that like, you know, you mentioned you moved to Tokyo for a job. Like, do you think a lot of your peers here in Nagasaki did the same move or thought at least about it?
Speaker: Like gotta to get out of Nagasaki. Yeah, like people who want to like work in like a global situation, it's a little bit difficult to find anything like that in Nagasaki, I think.
Speaker: Yeah, but it's like, yeah, I don't know. It's it's a hard question. Mm-hmm. I don't think that, yeah, it's a tough, it's ah it is a tough question. I think we got to buy the school up there.
Speaker: Make it the Akiamart headquarters. Bring the global to Aigawa. Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, everyone would love that here. how and So question, how would we go about buying that school? I don't think we can. Like, it's cool. Like, we walked up there and it's it's big. It's really, really big. And it looks like it's in good condition. It's like a big dome.
Speaker: And it how long has it been abandoned for? I think when I went to high school, it was already closed. so Oh, it's been abandoned for a while. Yeah. You think someone lives in there now? More than decade.
Speaker: You think someone lives in there? I don't think so. Raccoons. We saw a huge Inoshishi, like boar. we were walking up, it was like on the side of the mountain. like Have you seen those around here? No. You haven't?
Speaker: No, not around here. oh we saw one just like right up. We saw a few yesterday. Really? Yeah, they're huge. They're big. They're really big. What? Did you see it without the car? I'll send you a photo. Yeah, it was it was just like right there on the side of the road. Wait, wait, wait. How are are you okay? like Oh, is it supposed to it's gonna attack us?
Speaker: Yeah. It was far enough away. It was like ignoring us. Wow, that's scary. We did an interview with someone from the Nikkei and she was like, that's one of the problems with Akia or abandoned homes is that a lot of animals are are coming in and I wonder if that school has some wild boars. Yeah, yeah. that's the case, if you saw some, probably yes. Who? owns that school like how you know what what's the government do they're just like it's abandoned let's just let it go or i think so i think they need a budget to do something so i'm pretty sure it's owned by the city yeah nagasaki city yeah but there are so many like abandoned homes how and how do we go about buying that ah school let's hypothetically you know let's just say we want to make the x-men academy up there of akiamart
Speaker: how how do we How do we go about that? Okay. We need to talk to Nagasaki City. I think ask about it or maybe even like research on online. Maybe there is some information about that. Also, like my sister and her husband works in City Hall.
Speaker: got the plug I'll try to get the connection. ok Okay. How much do you think that building costs? And we'll, we'll take a picture and we'll put it, we'll have a, take a drone shot or something.
Speaker: It's also like probably the land doesn't cost that much. And the building is old, probably old, right? Pretty old. It's high up. So the coat will, will, you know, we'll, we'll film a video here so everyone can see the coastline, but the coastline here is absolutely stunning.
Speaker: Um, rocky sort of with, with beaches nestled in, and this school is high up on a hill overlooking all of that. Um, I think the views from up there are probably incredible. Right, right.
Speaker: Can you go with the car? Yeah, there's a little road. We'll go right after this. We'll show you the road. ands like It's kind of a hike, but how much do you think? Like 100 million yen? 100 million? million No, no, i don't think so. million yet Maybe.
Speaker: it I need to see the size. Okay, okay. We'll come back to the quote. If they're selling a samurai house for $40,000. The building is it's big. have You have a full-on like stadium kind of thing. I don't know what we would do with it, but are someone you some someone listening to this might be interested. Yeah, I think maybe $30,000. Okay. my get My best guess.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. I don't think, yeah. It would cost like 100 million yen. Yeah. right, Mika, switching gears here. How do you feel about us buying your family's house here? I know we asked this question to your family. They seem quite receptive, but like, be real. Like, are we, you know, like, are you are you happy? Are you relieved? Are you sad? or like I'm actually happy about it because, yeah, it's like...
Speaker: you're you You're like someone I know. And yeah, I know you're good people. And ah my family is also like pretty excited to be like for this house to be reused.
Speaker: Yeah. Like not just going dead. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm really positive about it. I will miss this house. But yeah, it's like just a good one memory.
Speaker: Yeah, but I'm really happy it's like you can recycle this house. Yeah. What did you think when your aunt first brought it like, Hey, Mika, I need your help selling this house. Did you think it was going to be an easy sell difficult? So I thought it was going to be really difficult because of the location.
Speaker: yeah But yeah, I was telling her actually, like, why don't you talk to the local real estate and you're trying to pass it off to the local real estate company.
Speaker: Yeah, but yeah, I was like, um yeah, I was like, at the time, um like quitting my company and like, I don't really know what to do.
Speaker: but yeah I was gonna ask you. yeah anyway, because yeah, I know I have an experience of like people buying in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: It's interesting that you thought the location was ah bad thing. And I think it's the best thing. Like, honestly, it's further away from the city. It's close enough. It's next to the ocean. It's like so quiet and like filled with nature here that like, I think there's a lot of those things in, in,
Speaker: you know japanese kind of thought versus foreigner thought that like you know people don't think this house has value we're like whoa this is this is such a good house comparatively yeah yeah i think yeah from like a different perspective it's like a really nice location but this is like where i grew up and i always dreamed like like i want to live in a big city and like not go to coffee shops cafes Yeah, like not in this like old really like like dying neighborhood.
Speaker: Yeah, so I thought like, okay, yeah, Japanese people wouldn't probably like this style. Interesting. Yeah. And I think a lot of Japanese people want the new things. that We always tell them like, and it seems like we see as we drove up the road, you know, there's obviously a lot of houses built in the 80s or 70s, but we go up and there's like a whole rowpe neighborhood of like new builds.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. And you think generally most people feel the same that they don't want to like, how many people are interested in in redoing these kinds of homes? do You think? I personally haven't really seen any anyone in Japan or like, ah it's always like when people people are interested in like foreign culture, because we don't really have like have a DIY culture.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. We don't really do it ourselves. So yeah, I'm really, i was really surprised when I first saw like, oh, we're going to renovate by ourselves. Yeah. It's like, what is that possible?
Speaker: I always wonder how much of that is truly like cultural and how much of that is, I heard from someone else, I can't remember who now, that you can't get a loan for an older house. You can't get a loan for an older car. So people just buy what they can get loans for, which is a new car and a new house. How much is actually cultural and how much is just economics?
Speaker: If you know the answer. Yeah, I'm not really used to bank loans, so I can't really answer well, I think. But yeah, it's true that you can't really get loan when you're older.
Speaker: because yeah the so you mentioned that your house that you purchased is nineteen late right? Mm-hmm. right Did the bank... and did you get a In Tokyo. In Tokyo. Yeah. You got a loan for that house?
Speaker: Yeah. Did they like kind of look at the date and were like a little weird about it? No. I think one baseline is after the the new construction law yeah started so it was like still okay i think the the location's good the building renovation history was like there so i think yeah the age she was not a problem interesting to hear putting my tinfoil hat on here.
Speaker: Okay. i've I've noticed over this past trip, like Japan is very follows the news. You know, if you see it on the news, including my dad, you know, morning cur curry, he's curry every morning. Cause it's like the cool thing. But I think Japanese people really rely on the news. And I know in the U S there's been a lot of misinformation, like Do you think the government is kind of, obviously, i I think the government is steering people to be like, no, old homes bad, buy new homes because of economic activity.
Speaker: But also, you know, do you do you think the government is trying to like, get rid of these old homes and and encourage people to buy new homes? Is there something like that you think? not really sure. Yeah, I i don't know.
Speaker: and that's Sorry. That's a tinfoil hat. I i'm like kind of like i got a tinfoil hat as well. We were talking about this in the car earlier on the ride up here, but I was once interested a few months ago looking into earthquake um like standards, as Mika mentioned, the 1981 standard.
Speaker: And then another standard came out in in the year 2000. And I want to know all Takamai properties were built before 1981. Like how dangerous is this? like Except for this one. This is built in 1980. This is our first one. newest property here.
Speaker: And I looked up a stat, there's a you know a few different blog kind of websites that I looked at. They all reference the study done after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes or two earthquakes, M7 quakes.
Speaker: And the way the study was done, they said in the affected area, 30% of homes built before 1981 collapsed. So risk of death. so risk of death um ah thirty percent 30% for homes built before 1981. And I mentioned this to architect friend of ours, and immediately he was like, it's propaganda. He said, it's government propaganda to scare people so that they want to build, buy new homes and build new homes. He said, you can't rely on the government stats like that. And so he was like, in the affected area, they selectively picked an area to make the stats look bad.
Speaker: could sound sounds maybe i mean he is a very opinionated person so um you know i it's interesting to talk to somebody like that about these things yeah when you say that i can believe it okay you can believe it yeah yeah but i think yeah one thing i would say is japanese like wooden homes are not really meant to last long because we always have like natural disasters So yeah, I think one like I know it got like 81, 1981, it got like the really strict rule and people follow that rule. So it's probably safer if you're like in a newer house.
Speaker: Yeah, I think. Yeah, me and Joey learned that same thing. In California, we'll buy anything. Like 1960, Joey's parents' house is like 100 years, 200 years old. Quite old, yeah, maybe 150. In the Western culture, maybe they built things differently, but it's a combination lot of things. But I do agree with you more.
Speaker: you know When we first started this venture, at like nineteen eighty s like no problem. But now that we see the construction quality, sometimes they just like put these houses on like cinder blocks, it looks like. We've seen houses burned down. We're like, what? They just held it up on rocks. ah Yeah, like a rock they find. And every house is built the same.
Speaker: you know We see the same green kind of sinekabe and there's no insulation. So i if you were to tell them like ah one learning from the past couple years that we've been doing this is like Japanese construction quality is lower.
Speaker: than I had initially thought with the impression of like jap Japanese quality currently. Yeah. Just out of curiosity, do buildings like appreciate the value in the U.S.? Yes.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. You could buy a shack in the Bay Area and like guarantee 10 years from now, it's going to be like straight up. it's like the main source of income for home or not, not main source of income, but one of them. Yeah. Big draw. Wealth creation.
Speaker: Wow. Wow. Okay. All right, Mika, I want to, I want to talk about some of the customers you've had. You've been doing this for five years. What percent are foreigners that you deal with? 100% now. Okay, 100% 100 agents here.
Speaker: Yay. But ah before, yeah, I had some Japanese customers too. Yeah. What are some typical misconceptions or like things you want to tell these foreigners that like, again, real estate is very different outside of Japan. Like what are some common things that you you want to tell them now before they start the process with us?
Speaker: oh that's a good question or things to think about you know like you know you've you've dealt with so many customers at this point that are foreigners what are some common things that you're like dang
Speaker: uh just like uh check the fees maybe yeah that's that's that could be a really serious issue so yeah we have like a lot of fees here i don't know like overseas but Yeah, we have like agency fees, like both sides have have to pay agency fees and ownership transfer fees.
Speaker: and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And I always try to make sure about that first. Yeah. And the travel cost and like viewings and stuff like that. But yeah, ah it's possible to buy real estate as a non-resident.
Speaker: That's like a... We did it. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably a little different from other countries sometimes. So yeah. Yeah. um Probably your viewers know that already. Yeah.
Speaker: We try to hammer that in like, hey, if you're buying a $4,000 house, this is how much it's going to cost after closing costs and stuff like that. Yeah. Do you have anything like that? Like any like advice for your viewers?
Speaker: I'll go first and pass it to Joey. I think the big thing we've realized, we've talked a lot about this on the trip, is like we own five properties, but we've made $0. So if you are doing this to like try to make money, you know, in the US it's very common to, hey, let's buy this house or rent out each room. Like we'll get this ah ROI. I think it's...
Speaker: not a good place to invest in that perspective if money is your top metric. I would say for us, it's like if you want the lifestyle, if you want to be able to explore new restaurants and get you know Turkish rice here in Nagasaki or nut champon and like have this kind of adventure, it's for you.
Speaker: ah We're currently sitting in like a really What was a cold room, we literally bought a kerosene heater down here. um you know it's It's not... Drill, baby drill. yeah Fossil fuels. It's not comfortable. This is not a comfortable process, I think, if you're looking to buy a Nokia, is what I'd say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I feel like... So many people are so used to DIY. So yeah, maybe like these like little things you need to prepare yourself.
Speaker: But yeah, people think like you can start living in Akiya immediately. ah yeah, get a hotel. you can Some of our clients. this We could live here tonight, I think.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, potentially. This this is doable. This is better than our other properties. But Joey, misconceptions. Yeah, just to piggyback on what Mika said real quick. Yeah, I do think that um some Akiya you can live in right away, but some you can't. If your budget is high enough. Yeah, if your budget is high enough.
Speaker: um advice to people looking to get into this is that very much echo what Take said. You have to really love Japan for this to be an enjoyable process. I think Take and I spend a lot of time in rural areas, small towns of Japan. There's no stores in this town, there's ah there's a vending machine.
Speaker: i think there's a lot of moments where um there's friction in the process of like renovating your house or doing simple things that you might expect to be simple.
Speaker: And if you enjoy hanging out in in Japan and you know visiting the hardware store, visiting the ah local city government for this document or just... and If you enjoy Japan, this will be a great way to spend more time in the country and kind of have a mission while you're there and go on a little bit of an adventure. And I feel like both Taki and I, um, came into it with that type of spirit and it's worked out really well. So if, again, it's like I said, it's not a ROI play, we haven't made any money off of it, but I think like, if you just want to spend more time in Japan, have a mission while doing so, like that is, uh, that's what Taki and I are doing and it's been quite a fun process.
Speaker: Mika. Yeah. What, Who are not the right people to come to Japan? like who yeah As a Japanese local, like who do you not want to come here? like or you go We talked to a lot of people, lot of different backgrounds. like who yeah again as Who do you not want to come to this neighborhood, for example? um Maybe like someone who wouldn't really like be interested in learning Japanese culture or be friends with the locals. yeah ah But I think that's like not like really common.
Speaker: yeah people who buy properties here probably interested in japan but yeah i think people i've seen people who complain or like don't really like the the life here and leave they don't really like try to learn i don't know it sounds so condescending i don't know it's good to good to hear it like honestly and i think i know where you're going okay Yeah, they probably tried to learn some Japanese, easy Japanese. But yeah, it's really different.
Speaker: Like I've lived overseas and it's so different. People are different too. And the culture is so different. If you're like not ready to get into this culture, I think it's a little difficult.
Speaker: And yeah, I don't know. Like just using as a vacation home. It's probably a fun place ah for almost anyone.
Speaker: Yeah. But as Joey said, it's like so countryside. There is like really not like no store here. You need to drive maybe like 10 minutes to get to like the nearest convenience stores.
Speaker: Yeah. So yeah, you need to like understand that. Yeah, I think that's really important. yeah mean That's something we try to screen out with our Akiyama Direct process. We want to make sure people, you know, we have a lot of people reach out to us. They're like, I've never been to Japan. I want to go. We're like, ah you should spend some time there.
Speaker: Actually, picking the kind of thinking about that question, like if we have someone like that who's been like, I went to Japan once, I'd love it. but What would you say? Are they okay to buy here? Or would you say, go spend a couple of months? Like, what would you advise there?
Speaker: uh just buying a house is good like it's okay but i would also recommend to visit that place that never heard least once or twice yeah because if you don't really like it it's not easy to resell it yeah it it went like especially it's like a countryside property yeah so i would recommend but i know everyone has like budget so we did the opposite we did the opposite we did took a gamble. That's a great point about reselling though, that you know these homes are cheap for a reason. There's a lack of demand.
Speaker: um If you did want to exit out of your investment, it could be quite difficult. Yeah, I agree. Absolutely. we yeah I mean, we we did the opposite, but we took a gamble and I think you were scaring us out of it a little bit. you're like, it's really countryside. like, no, we're going for it. And we we got lucky.
Speaker: So I and will say ah we We do tell people like sometimes action is better than inaction. I think there's just so many Akios. There's so many cool so places. Japan, like, yeah, every town is has its pros and cons. And for us buying here, it was a no brainer because you were helping us and and we knew kind of the area you were helping us hook up.
Speaker: but with a property manager and um yeah, I think this is an A deal in my opinion. Like looking at the ocean and and everything around it, we have the best parking spot we've ever had out of all our properties.
Speaker: Like it's, we can go straight into You know every one of our properties is like, they're like Jenga Inn and it's, um you know, so I mean, thank you for offering us so and helping us get this property. Thank you for buying this property. I'm really happy about that. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Reminded me of another thing that we get asked sometimes in the consults is like, well, if the population is aging and there's more and more Akiya's every year, should I buy now? Or why not just wait 10 years, five, 10 years to buy and then get it cheaper, you know, get it for cheaper.
Speaker: And, you know, just with the discussion we just had, I think that's the wrong attitude to bring to this in the sense that like, you you know, as we kind of all agreed, you have to love Japan to kind of make this whole adventure work. And if you, you know, like just get started today, if you love Japan kind of thing, like it's the wrong sort of way to so think about the problem in your head if it's all about money and getting a cheaper deal in five years time.
Speaker: Absolutely. Yeah, it's cheap already. yeah yeah This house would definitely cost $500,000. believe That's unbelievable. I mean, when we said that to your aunt, I was like, oh, yeah like they're like, what?
Speaker: But it's true. like you're The ocean's right here. like That's crazy. We can jump in the water right now We're not going to. We thought about it. I found my bathing suit today. and It's a little colder than I thought it was going to be It was snowing this morning in Nagasaki. Yeah, my mom was seriously worried about it. Okay, really? yeah Are they going to really swim?
Speaker: Her mom's calling us out. We doing this? sir Yeah, I'm going to film you if you really do. Okay, okay. Mika, I guess in Japan, like just broad question, we have a lot of people being like, I want to invest in Tokyo or I want to invest in Nagasaki. like What other areas are you excited about?
Speaker: like If you were investing from a vacation home or relocating from Tokyo, what but other areas of Japan would you consider that are less known? Nagasaki's the top one, I'd say, too. Yeah, yeah. Nagasaki, for sure.
Speaker: But my one one of my favorite places in Japan is Kurashiki. Where is that? It's in Okayama. it's like It's like one of these like old town-looking, but...
Speaker: Yeah, it's more like the vibe is like kind of like Kyoto. Their architecture is really interesting. It's like mixed with brick and like some European-looking buildings and the Japanese-looking buildings. and It's like really beautiful with the canal.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, that makes sense. They have Minpaku ordinance in Kurashiki. recognize that name. So maybe it is like ah a very nice town that they yeah added extra rules on. Yeah, yeah. It's like really close to Kansai area and there is Shinkansen and yeah, there is no Shinkansen here.
Speaker: So the convenience is there. Yeah, I really love the vibe there. It's not that, like, busy. Yeah. Kurashiki. Yeah, I really like that place.
Speaker: Okay. Is Japan, like, how does Japan, I see that they had some deals where if you fly into Japan, you can get a free domestic flight. Like, what is the government doing to kind of spread out tourism from Tokyo?
Speaker: Do you know, or? I guess like Shinkansen is one. It's like so easy. i know like they have like a JR pass for foreigners or something.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's a good deal. And yeah, I don't know. They're like trying to expand Shinkansen area. Like we're trying to have it. It's like not going well, but I know like, no. Okay, okay. Unfortunately. Tama. And we need one in Tama. yeah is our yeah Tama, come on.
Speaker: yeah but yeah there is probably one in uh hokkaido as well yeah so it's like really convenient it's so easy to like go around japan i talked i recently talked about it with someone yeah it's like in america you need to fly like five hours to get to like the next destination in japan the maximum flight you have is probably like two hours yeah It's really easy. Shinkansen is really fast too.
Speaker: yeah and Joey just did a podcast on this a little bit. We're talking about the ferries. I think the ferries are underrated. and We took a ferry from Osaka to Beppu. yeah It's like a floating hotel. good yeah You know, there is also a pet room and on the ferry. Yeah, cagey room. was like, cage room? But it was for pets.
Speaker: Yeah, there is this like a dog park on the ship kind of stuff. Yeah. Okay. Japan's doing a lot of things right. You know, I hope it'll bring more people down to Nagasaki.
Speaker: Yeah, yes, please. any Any final words to a listener here? Most of the folks are, you know, Japan curious, are looking at Akiya's, following our mistakes and journey here. Any any advice or any words to the to the audience before we close this out here? Okay.
Speaker: um Japan is a beautiful place. Even if you haven't visited, i can guarantee that it's if you're ready, it's a good choice to buy house now. Now that the Japanese yen is really, really cheap. but Yeah, it's a good time.
Speaker: And just visit Japan. Yeah, we're welcome. And I don't know. I don't know how to say it. ah Mika is one of our All-star Akiya Mart direct preferred agent. So if you are interested in buying a property, she could be one of the people we match you up with. If you are listening to this and want to get matched to Mika, we can prioritize that too.
Speaker: Mika lives in Tokyo, but you service everywhere. Is there anywhere in Japan you're like, no way? No, no, no. Anywhere. Like really anywhere. I would go anywhere.
Speaker: Great. Cool. Well, Mika, thank you for one selling us your childhood home here or your grandma's home. Smooth process. Smooth. it's Yeah, no problems. Mika was our agent for this, actually. So we trialed her first just to make sure you know she's she's got the chops. But Mika, yeah, we're really excited to be here. Thankful to be working with you and excited to help people buy more Akia.
Speaker: Yeah, me too. I'm excited. Cool. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Let's check out the school. Ooh, yeah. I'll show you wild boars up there.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, I want to see that. I swear, there's a huge one up there.
