Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to the number one Akia podcast in the world. Today we have our special intro by Eric. Thanks for having me. This is our fifth time having you at this point. it feel like that right? Fourth, fifth?
Speaker: But first time recording in person. First time in person. We're all together sitting in my parents' Akia in California. California Akia. California Akia and old school furniture and it's been a fun couple of days. Thanks for coming out Eric.
Speaker: Yeah, it's been a delight. Thank you for having me What has been your impressions of California thus far? ah The weather is always perfect. There's night and day Can't get better weather.
Speaker: Okay We've been internet friends for like a year now about right maybe six six months eight months. Yeah. Yeah, it's good e friends yeah good keeping track yeah are we uh are we as you thought we were you'd be real with us here yeah for sure oh shit it's exactly as i expected the same ah same guys as we portray over zoom or google meets yeah yeah when was the last time we recorded Last time we recorded was in Indonesia at my bachelor party. right
Speaker: We made it through. We'll record another one tomorrow. but Eric, good to have you. As a contractor licensed contractor in the U.S., lived there for 20 years.
Speaker: Now moving permanently back to Niigata. What's top of mind for you? the Top of mind is the saunas. Okay, here we go. Sauna life in Japan. Okay, okay. Sauna life is top of mind. Okay, yeah let's go. I can't help but think what are the traditional routes for like box saunas in Japan or like what are people what are people doing to get their sauna on.
Speaker: The only, I mean, I don't know about traditional saunas in Japan. The only time I've seen like something traditional sauna like is Mbepu. You got to come visit us one day. But they do these kind of like, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. It looked like a teepee kind of wigwam, we call them. Really? Like sweat lodge. Wigwam? That's what we call them Nova Scotia, Wigwams. we Like a sweat lodge style kind of sauna, but that's because it's Beppu, and so they just pump the straight steam from the earth straight into these little sweat lodges. How big are Quite big, maybe about the size of this room. So like a lot of people, yeah, can fit in there. Yeah, maybe like I think 10, maybe a 10-person kind of sweat lodge. Hmm.
Speaker: but But I don't think Japan has much of a traditional sauna culture. They have so much good cedar. I think they do. kurt i Remember Kurt was telling us like we should go visit him in Shizuoka. That's like where sauna culture started in Japan or something. like No, that was Ryo saying that, but that was the nineteen seventy s They started Shiki Sauna or something in Shimizu. And Ryo, our agent, was saying that, oh, it's like the mecca of sauna. They brought the sauna culture, the Swedish, Finnish sauna culture yeah to Japan.
Speaker: um apparently so I don't think there's much traditional saunas in Japan I could be wrong I think it's more onsen yeah we just brought Eric we're like a Joe Rogan podcast now we bring our guests he came and saunas with us this morning you guys are so famous hosed off now we are drinking some delicious coffee Eric does not like our coffee come on Eric all right i know I know what Sato-san was complaining about. Lots of milk and sugar, he don't we? I like ah like coffee with my milk and sugar.
Speaker: All right, so what's the sauna? So you want to build a sauna? You want start building saunas in Japan? I think it would fun project to just kind of spearhead, right? Like build one for myself. Worst case scenario, right? I have a sauna.
Speaker: Yep. Best case scenario, somebody wants it, and I just start saana bed delivering saunas across your Japan. Sauna's big. I mean, there's a sauna manga right now.
Speaker: we Yeah, we saw it. was It was Totonawa or something. Oh, I forgot. We were reading it. Sauna manga, yeah. Okay. So, yeah I mean, sauna culture and sauna hype in Japan is like crazy right now. Like we stayed at some crazy good, we've,
Speaker: So you've saunaed in Japan. a lot. Where are all the heating units using? Were they all electric? I think they've been all electric. Yeah, we've talked about this. Liquid propane, electric, or wood fired. all I think I've only tried wood or electric. so Yeah, if you get comments from your audience, I'd love to know what people prefer.
Speaker: If you're listener, contact us at contact at akia-mark.com if you know about saunas. Also, got another quick plug I forgot to mention. We are changing our consultations and actually Joey and I are stepping out of the ring and letting Eric handle most the consultations now.
Speaker: We will still have our consultations with us at just for podcast listeners. So find that Calendly in the show notes. Okay. Sorry to derail that. Yeah. Sneaky link for Calendly for Joey and Dougie. Yep. Yep.
Speaker: Okay. Saunas. What kind of sauna? Do you think it's going to be hard? How much is it going to cost? What do you think? Uh... I think an eight person ah with a stove and shosugi-ban.
Speaker: out Out exterior. hoies Exterior, cladded. I wanted to do a ah really cool like copper roof. Yeah, I think the copper roofs are... If you could do like the Japanese towel roofs on top the ground, that's fucking They're like locked in and they make like a diamond shape.
Speaker: Have you seen that? Triple lamb or no? Not triple lamb. Sorry, Joey. Can't do triple lamb on the copper. ah Eric's a roofer and we've been driving around and he's like check out that triple lamp roof and me and Joey like what?
Speaker: Learned learned a little bit about roofs. Staring at the roofs out here in Cali But yeah, like high impact looks wise glass You have a nice view out and then I think the interchangeable piece is the heating unit Do you think we can source the heating units in Japan or is that probably a international? i think you're just better off just ordering it from Scandinavia country Yeah, they're all like hot every time I go to a sauna in Japan. It's all like the Harvia or the Hume I see the same brands that I see in Canada.
Speaker: Might be. and i mean, if you get it really deep into it, it might be worth contacting a metal company in Japan. I know a guy that makes kegs. Like fabricators? I'd hit up Fuji Hadasan.
Speaker: you mean To make one, you think? or Yeah, to make a stove. Oh. I like a... Yeah, I don't Maybe that's unreasonable, but a lot of them are stainless steel. so you just I've never thought about that how to create. I've always would just be like, let's just buy that unit. But that's that's interesting if you think that's an option. i mean, you're getting a knife, custom knife made. Same sort of thing. I'm getting a custom Yakiniku table. Oh, okay. You know, they have to put that burner unit, vent it all, and everything. so Would sauna go outside? Would you do barrel? Would you do square? what are your What's your vision? my
Speaker: My vision is is square, but imagine a roof, only one slope. Yep. and He always starts with the roofs. And you got top down, top down, right? Imagine the corner of the roof. If it's a square one slope roof, the corner is at the highest peak, not an edge.
Speaker: Corner. And it slopes back to the ah another corner that's at the lowest peak ah Like a diamond. Okay. That's pointed up. every Did you see my sauna in Santa Cruz? I just had a roof going just like sideways. You know what? I didn't pay attention to the roof on your sauna. I'll get your... Actually, if we go to Santa Cruz and get you that sweatshirt again, we should have. If it's a roof... thought i was just a roof sloping like one way. Yeah, sloping like that. but And I think the eave was on one edge, right? Yeah, yeah. So you would... Imagine ah the it would just come down to the corner.
Speaker: Oh, okay. And so the corner of the building like sticks up. It has like this... Okay, we could get it. Let's get it crazy. let's get if that Hopefully that I described it well enough for your listeners. think so.
Speaker: I didn't really get it, but I believe you. I'd draw it, but it wouldn't do us any good. How fast would it take you to make an eight-person sauna, you think? We were like, Eric, here's a pile of money.
Speaker: I think you're waiting place waiting for the glass and waiting for the heating unit. I think framing up and and building it shouldn't be too long, maybe like a week. Okay. all right, guys, I got a different topic of conversation. let's Let's move on for Saunas real quick. All right, fair. um So I think one thing that interesting that happened recently, I'd love to hear your guys' opinion on it, is the so the Nagasaki house that we found a buyer for recently. So I think the last time we did the podcast, we were still in the process of crowd of marketing this property.
Speaker: But just to... be he im I'm leading to the question, but we got about 130 applicants for the property. And then of that, we asked them to send us a one minute video after that to you know really get by and see if they're serious. And then that number dropped down to 30. So 130. Thank you for everyone that submitted a video. We did watch literally every single one and and hats off to you guys.
Speaker: Thanks, everybody. yep And then from that 30, we did, or sorry, no. And then from the 130, we offered everybody that didn't get get the property. In the end, we offered them a free webinar. And Eric was the one that ran the webinar.
Speaker: So out of 130 that we sent the free webinar to, only three people showed up. yeah which But I think this is really interesting. Maybe they felt like they were ready. Well, so here's my hypothesis, and I'm curious to hear what you guys think. I think that we marketed this property as like a seal of approval. Like we actually did think it was a good property. Taken and I went down there. It's a great property. I thought it an property. We Mika's family. The location was great, very close Nagasaki, right on the coastline.
Speaker: I think us saying like, hey, this is a really good property – helped people get excited about it. Like I think a lot of people maybe are, they see the cheap properties in Japan, but they're a little bit nervous to pull the trigger because they don't want to make a mistake. Like I remember when we bought our first Bepu property, I first night I thought we made a mistake, but with us being like, this is a good property. Someone should buy this house. Like you can't go wrong buying this house almost. I think that's why we saw so much interest in this specific property.
Speaker: But then when we were like with the webinar, Hey, we can help you buy any other property in Japan. The interest fell off. Damn. Sorry, I pushed the button. and The number one thing that comes to mind is buyer validation you're in when you're in sales. right like People want to be told that they're making the right decision.
Speaker: They probably know it. but they love to hear that sounding board of somebody like approving of their purchase. We took a lot of the unknowns out, I believe. like Who am I buying from? where is like We did a really good job of removing question marks as much as possible.
Speaker: There's still going to be question marks, but there's probably 80% less than if you were to just buy. They don't feel like they're on an island. They don't feel like they're buying and they don't have any resources. They feel like they they bought a house and ah the network to Yeah, well start we we are setting them up with like pretty much contacts already so they could land day one and feasibly.
Speaker: Mika's parents are right down if the road. the person that they were connected with couldn't do it, they would be inclined to be like, oh, here's where you'd want to go or this is what you'd want to do. know They're not on an island, but they're on an island.
Speaker: ah Yeah, Kyushu Island. So you think it's the removing of the unknowns? Yes. People want to pay for less pain or like, I think there's a, it's kind of, kind of messed up, but like if I could remove pain, I would pay my way through it. And I think there's pain in trying to figure this out, especially, you know, the family that we're selling it to has kids and,
Speaker: That's just a whole bunch of wild cards that I don't think if you had a newborn kid or something like now is not the right time to buy Nokia in a different country and move there. I think it's an interesting demographic that you managed to sell lot of families. do Yeah. we And I think that's probably like the 30.
Speaker: What would you say were families? A lot of couples. Maybe at least like 30% were couples. Age demographic? for Maybe like five had kids. Five out of 30? Five had kids. Age of demographic was probably in the... We got 18-year-olds to 55, 60-year-olds, I think. But I think the average would be probably like people, in older millennials.
Speaker: Did they share their plan? yeahp Some of them did. Some of them gave us like a kind of like, what did you say? didn't even understand you. But yeah, there was a lot of good plans, a lot of good people. I think we're going to do this again. So we will hit up that list again. But Joey, back to your point. I think, yeah, we just removed the question marks. I would pay that money if I knew that was like... i think so too. The car? The car's crazy. Is there any advantage to that area?
Speaker: It's beautiful. Nagasaki? Yeah, beautiful coastline. but And you're close to a big city. Nagasaki's a big city. I mean like I could drop you almost – I feel like I could drop you almost anywhere in Japan and you'd be relatively close to a big city and a coastline.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, that's why I'm like, so why were people so interested in this property? But then when we said, hey, for free, you know we can help you ah figure out your path to buy any other property in Japan.
Speaker: But the interest dropped off. They want to be spoon-fed. Yeah, maybe it is. that for For me, I thought it was like the like you know what I remember from the first time we bought a house it was like the fear of that we're making a big mistake.
Speaker: I mean, also, we didn't have jobs at the time either, so maybe the the stakes were higher if we made a mistake. Let's use all our severance and save that money. and I think, yeah, like in the spirit of removing the question marks, we also sort of made it like like we're saying like this property is not a mistake. like No one told us that when we bought the Beppu house, but we probably would have felt better had someone if had someone said that. Nobody gave you any...
Speaker: and we We had my friend Talassi go. She's like an older Japanese lady. And she was like, it looks pretty abandoned. And the road is very, very small. Like she said this like after we purchased. And we're like, she's like, there's tape across the windows. And like, okay. Oh, yeah. I remember that. I said that after you bought it. Yeah. mean like...
Speaker: We were both thinking it. We're like, mm. Very close to the neighbors. They're like, stuff she's, yeah. But I think risk avert, like, we, in that zone, and I guess all of us sitting here, we have a little bit more risk appetite than the average person. Like, if we have kids, I totally understand that, like, that changes the calculation. frank When Yoshi went to my place, like, afterwards, he immediately was like, I think you found ah really, really good purchase, Eric.
Speaker: Oh, really? Yeah. Yoshi said that about Tama, so that's why I also have, like, you're, Tama is a good house. Tama's a great house. Yeah. And so, yeah. I didn't, so I didn't have that like worry, you know? Yeah.
Speaker: yeah So that helps. So clearly it helps. Yeah. I can't remember what Ziv told us when we bought the Bedboo house, but we were a cheaper client for Ziv. Like we were buying ah a cheap house. So I think he just kind of like leveled with us and gave us the truth. Like you're buying a cheap house. Like you get what you get kind of thing. So it's not even that cheap though. It's cool. He went to go see it though. I remember.
Speaker: Yeah. like I was looking at our Splitwise. i so I have a Splitwise the for Kamigawa Lux. Remember, we were trying to buy that other spot in Beppu with like the big rock or something. Splitwise? Where were splitting? I don't know. have a Splitwise. I just came back from another bachelor party. They're using Splitwise. I'm like, oh, Kamigawa Lux.
Speaker: I'm glad Kamigawa for everyone is just like north of Beppu towards the town of Hiji. and It's just a little bit far further. like What I really like about the Beppu property is the walkability and Kamigawa would decrease the walkability at that. Yeah.
Speaker: All right, back to you, Eric here, your special guest. Eric's been doing some consultations for us and Jay as well. Eric's no longer special guest. He's just guest. He's a regular guest. He's a bestie. He's a bestie now.
Speaker: Eric, what have you been kind of noticing over the past months? like Again, we've dropped off significantly on consoles. You've been talking to more folks. What kind of trends or things you are you seeing? I feel like a lot more people have a lot more confidence buying. yeah like In the consoles, maybe in the beginning, there was...
Speaker: a lot more unknowns. I almost feel like you can skip some of the generic questions of like, why why are Why are there so many? It's like, if you're looking to buy one, you probably know why there's so many by now and stuff like that. Maybe the superficial stuff is only really for people that are just getting into it.
Speaker: But once you've booked a consult, you probably have those superficial questions answered. It's interesting. The space has matured a little bit. Like I think it's it's less questions of like, oh, you can get a cheap house. And now it's like, what's your process?
Speaker: Exactly. Which is cool. And yeah, not to toot our own horn, but I'll toot. think we have a really great process. Okay. so thanks Thanks, man. i like i I feel like I'm your best critic because I'm like, oh, I want you.
Speaker: Like, I'll tell you, you need to do this or that if I felt like there was something really missing because I'd been through it. yeah And I just feel like it's better than buying in the States.
Speaker: In my experience, my experience was better than buying in the States. so We changing the name AMD to ABC. ABC. Are we taking Akia Buyers Club? Akia Buyers Club. I mean, and for the listeners out there, too, like, you know, so just in the car drive home last night, we were thinking about changing the name AMD Akia Mart Direct to something maybe a little bit more.
Speaker: ah explicitly like Akia buyers club or something a little bit more descriptive. And, but I think that raises the question, like, do we want to continue down the Akia branding, which has, you know, I know the business, the website's called Akia Mart, but we have every property in Japan on that website as well. You know, it's not restricted by price. We just source every property that we find. So do we want to move away from Akia branding? The literal kanji for Akia is was empty home. like So it's it's definitely, we can take a broader term. you know Honestly, it is an empty home. this is We're sitting in an Akia right now kind of thing. it So i we could take that approach because it's not like dilapidated Akia. It is still an empty home. might just be in Tokyo.
Speaker: Yeah. I think Akia is fine. Okay. Aki Mart Buyers Club or Aki Mart Buy. Those are the two.
Speaker: Oh, you want the M in there. You want the Aki Mart. You don't just want Aki Buyers Club. Oh, that's true. I think we need to have the Mart in there somewhere. Empty Home Buyers Club. Aki Mart Buyers Club. Empty Home Mart Buyers Club.
Speaker: I'm just used to the AMD, Aki Mart Direct. That A-M-B is like a very easy transition for me personally. A-M-B. Amp. Anyways, up for discussion. trying to rebrand Trying to rebrand maybe a way to something a little bit more descriptive. I'm team ABC. Okay.
Speaker: Poll out to the podcast listeners. We actually value your guys' input probably the most out of everyone. Oh, yeah, for sure. Option one, Aki Amart Buyers Club, ABC, for a purchasing process. Option two, Aki Amart Buy, A-M-B.
Speaker: Those there are our two. Again, we're trying to have a name that just like we don't need to explain. Wait, what was the first one? Aki Amart Buyers. Or you want Aki Amart Buyers Club? Yeah. I mean, if you're going to throw them out there, you've got to give me... Okay, option three, Aki Amart Buyers Club. ABC. ABC.
Speaker: My... broader feeling is that, okay, well, one, Akiya Buyers Club rolls off the tongue better than Akiya Mart Buyers Club. But again, i feel like Akiya is such a loaded term. I don't want people to think like, oh, we only can help you buy a dilapidated structure. i don't think anybody feels that way. No.
Speaker: All right, podcast listener, let us know how you feel. but But yeah, we'll let them decide. But I think all of them are better than Akiya Mart Direct. I feel like we were making the process and i was just like, I know a lot of animes, they always have like, direct, don't shoot for like soccer or sports animes that I threw in direct. It means like a powerful waza, power move. Yeah. It's kind of like, ah it's usually accompanied with like a power move.
Speaker: Yeah. hyper special beam canon kind of thing. It was lost on me from the beginning because i don't watch anime, but I trusted Taka. Trust the process. All the listeners will get it. Yeah, I mean, for sure. 100%. I don't need S whatever that
Speaker: All right, man. Eric, you've just made a company in Japan. Congratulations on the GK route. whats Japan unlocked GK. Tell us your plans again. what are you When are you moving? You know, fun fun fact, right? When I went through the process, you have to list all the possibilities that your business might do.
Speaker: Yeah. Better to list more than less, I've heard. Yes. And they gave me a list of like, hey, here's a hypothetical. It was like 17. I was like, I'm going to do 20. Yeah. So I listed, yeah, like 20 different possibilities of business.
Speaker: I think it can shoot you in the foot if, I have no idea how actually, but I feel like there's some thing you might want to change about your business in the future and you're going to have to do some government paperwork for it. And if you're doing something that you didn't say initially that you're going to do, it can cause some headache. I would say the biggest catch would be if you want to do something that would require a license in the future.
Speaker: So one of my big things, my my main... business path is car buying, selling, and i need a secondhand dealer's license. So if I didn't have that listed and I went for a dealer license later on, that would be a nightmare. They'd be like, wait a second. you Did you just change your business?
Speaker: You have to go file more government paperwork to add car buying onto your business. And it would just be more money. We don't do that here. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: But in the States, I feel like you have to classify your LLC as like one thing. Yeah. I remember we talked to you after you purchased house and you were like starting that process and you're like, you had mentioned like, oh yeah, on my business thing, I wrote like work with Acumart. Me and Joe were like, what? but That's cool. Like it was totally cool with us. very like ah like Partner with Acumart for it. It was like, oh, totally cool. I was like, I'm just throwing things out there. Hey, look at us. Fake it till you make it. Yeah. I'm just going to manifest it into existence. Yeah.
Speaker: And when are you moving? You're selling your house in Minnesota? Yeah, I'll probably sell the house maybe a year after we're there. So like if we've made a successful year there, business-wise, okay then... Who's going to live in your Minnesota house?
Speaker: don't know. Me and Joey? Hacker House? but yeah What's been the most complicated part applying for this business manager visa? I think the biggest thing is just getting started. Yeah, like just being connected to the right people and getting started.
Speaker: So I would really love in the future for you guys to do like a ah home, a seal of approval, maybe with a business transaction on top of it, right? So they're like, hey, I want a home, but I want to be able to live in Japan full time.
Speaker: Hey, we've we've solved the problem. You're going to buy this... Oh, that's interesting. like so yeah we could and we I don't know if we talked about this on the pod, but we're very interested in buying old businesses. Japan has a big problem there. I don't know what it's called.
Speaker: like a Aki business. Oh, just like... good yeah Oh, yeah. Aki business. Aki business. i but ah I think Rio... I was talking to Rio. wrote that Rio said... There is a word. Yeah. Okay. But anyways, we are... and Totally hear you. we're We're looking at a coin laundry, potentially. Sneak Pete, but... laundry would be cool. Buying...
Speaker: If we owned both or if we bought the property that the coin laundry was on and you could live upstairs and you have a business down. Yeah. Or maybe you're within five minutes. The property is within five, 10 minutes commute.
Speaker: It's interesting. You could buy a property under a business and sell that business with the property easier than it is to buy the property itself. sorry that was confusing yeah you buy the business so if the business owns the property you can sell your business easier than it is to just go through a straight real estate transaction it's like a transfer real estate transaction is already easy how much easier could it be it's even easier it's even easier apparently that's what we've been making the company is current the current friction point where we're working through so that might be you could acquire the business the next hurdle then
Speaker: would just be like, hey, I own this business. You got to work with, you know, a visa company. And they would go, okay, cool. It's an existing business. Now we're going to apply for your business manager visa.
Speaker: Yeah. you have this I think the bank, do you inherit the bank account? We should look into that more. That's actually a really cool idea where that's zero to hero. What's the easiest one to try? Coin laundry is sexy, right? businesses. But like, what would be the the lowest bar of entry to try this out?
Speaker: I see a lot. So there's ah a website out there for buying and selling small businesses in Japan. I see a lot of like nail salons. Nail salons? I see a lot nail salons. That's a low bar of entry. I'm in, dude. yeah go My fiance loves nail salons. And I feel like it's also very... My neighbor is an esthetician, so... I see a lot of nail salons.
Speaker: I'll convince them to Akiamara Linael Salon? that coming up? You can even market this as like, hey, if you want to disappear from the U.S. or whatever, right? We'll set you up with a business, a house like in Japan, like ready to go. Business manager visa. You want a new life? Your life sucks? Here's a new life for you guys. What's the term? I'm to look it up while you're in.
Speaker: ah But yeah, nail salons. What else have I seen? Restaurants. Lots of restaurants. Restaurants are hard though. So usually I have seen at least once before where the business came with the real estate that like you bought the real estate and the business on it. But most of them, you're just buying the rights to the business and whatever equipment comes with it. And then you're still renting the space from whoever the landlord is. So then it's more like a leasehold instead of a freehold.
Speaker: Exactly. You're buying the business, not the real estate for most of these. that's a good That's a good idea, Eric. I think you're full of good ideas. The Mass Head banner we did on Akimari, people might have seen.
Speaker: That's an Eric idea. I just keep getting my ego boosted. He's killing it. Eric-san. Yeah, so Nail Salon might not appeal to... a certain demographic of client right so what other low bar i mean like coin laundry is pretty low bar sauna business sauna business sauna business oh like can can you acquire an onsen pretty yeah i haven't looked but i've never seen one there's a lot of locants that have onsens in it so actually that's buying an existing hotel is one But I mean, ne now we're moving into like buying a hotel in Japan, you're still going to have to pay half a million dollars US. s Oh, it's still up there then.
Speaker: Absolutely. I mean, there's abandoned hotels too. Beppu has like 10 abandoned hotels that I know Huge abandoned hotels, yeah. Yeah, so I'm sure they're out there. Like i I have not really looked at everything available on this small business mergers and acquisition website, but... I saw a parts, like automotive parts coating business near me.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, that's so cool. Oh, powder coating? It was like, yeah, powder coating, anodizing. I think they did little everything. They already did like 50 million yen in um business a year. Or is that like 300K, 350K US? I think what they were grossing or something.
Speaker: And then they, whatchamacallit, they just needed a successor. That's the other interesting thing I see. Business is down. Successor plus a little bit of cash injection. yeah Marketing.
Speaker: Add some clients. That's like everything. I think that's like, yeah. Marketing, modern marketing, digital marketing. So like 7 out of 10 listings. ah like Yeah, that's what I was exactly going to say. like That's the reason why small but buying a small business in Japan I think is really exciting. It's the same reason why there's so many Akias in the country. Every single like listing I've looked at for these small businesses, the reason why they're selling is no successor.
Speaker: I think what's attractive to a lot of Western people that just want to like settle down a little bit more is a cafe. Yeah, the cafe is like a... Where did that come from? It's like a glorified dream for most. for like Let's just move to the countryside. I want to taqueria so bad. You have no idea, but I have no business like grinding it out day in and day out in a kitchen. You see us grinding our espresso here. We're working our way towards the Aki Mart Cafe. I see cafes on on that website too.
Speaker: Usually it's like cafe parfait, like you know that japanese Japan style cafe. Yeah. All right. I think, yeah, that's definitely a big business opportunity. we Joey and I have thought about Akiyamart for businesses and it could be a cool area, fun area.
Speaker: We got some good questions yesterday. We did a webinar for Japan Society of Northern California. We had maybe like 200 to 300 attendees, probably our biggest webinar to date. So if you're listening, went to that, thank you.
Speaker: One of the questions they asked, they were like, why the hell are you guys so random and you guys just do a whole bunch of like random stuff? what How do we answer that, Joey and Eric? I provided an answer in the webinar yesterday, but I do agree. I think like yeah i you know i see this again on like you know Y Combinator posting something on LinkedIn. I do think for business owners, it is very easy to get distracted by new and brand new sort of projects and stuff. and i do I do think it requires you know you do have to focus and so I do think we are a little bit all over the place. So I think that criticism was not, I mean, was, was, was a good criticism. of i you It's only random if you're on the outside, if you're on the inside, you see how the puzzles connect, you know, the puzzle, you're like, the puzzle's not complete. You're looking at like 10 pieces on the table. yeah
Speaker: And it's a hundred piece puzzle. So maybe it looks random. And they just see 10 pieces, but we're like, okay, this is the focus section in this little corner of the puzzle. Our puzzle is crazy, bro. They don't have the whole picture. They don't have the box next to the puzzle.
Speaker: I think also just moving fast, there's like a benefit in just moving fast and trying stuff. Like you the li I never read that book, Lean Startup, but I think they emphasize like try something and try a lot of small experiments like quickly and learn, you know, let them fail quickly if they're going to fail and just, you know, figure out what works quickly.
Speaker: yeah Speaking of next potential failure, Japan Surf House. Have we talked about that potential failure. Next potential failure. Joey and I coming back from this surf trip, man, I'm so... Personally, I'm very unhealthy in Japan. and i like I don't exercise. I eat great food. Because we haven't really had a kitchen. you haven't had a kitchen. We haven't had a shower. So, like, i i need a You don't go grocery shopping when you're in Japan?
Speaker: ah so and We move around so much. we're We're only in one place for like three days. These are like rapid fire trips. My fridge and stove have been used already. And ah it's awesome. I made like one dinner in Tama, I think at this point. Beth's making egg sandoz. You'll make some more if you spend time them. yeah, but...
Speaker: Either way, we need to have exercise. Eric, you mentioned you already snowboarded. Joey and I, we are just fat asses just hanging out, yeah drinking a lot of coffee and beer and eating out. Fried foods. So next project, we have a couple points looked but scoped out. Maybe one in Tokushima, maybe one in Miyazaki.
Speaker: Looking for one investor for maybe a surf house camp kind of the situation. Yeah. How you feel about that, For that special listener. um i'm very excited about surf house i agree i think having a house focused on some sort of activity uh athletic activity would be a lot of fun because yeah you hit the nail on the head we're kind of it's like we're not healthy not the healthiest traveling around like that what i think would be really cool about it is if you could find a place that is year-round
Speaker: healthy activity serving but I imagine you have like a winter sport and a summer sport, though. like So like you could go surfing, but it's close enough to the ski resorts. that This next year, I'm jumping into snowboarding here. there a coastline that's close to the Japanese Alps, right?
Speaker: Yeah. That is good surfing. That's what I'm really curious about. hoping that you guys can find that for me. bullet i think i don't believe so. and bullet train all that coastline and there's nothing by the house it depends what you like to surf though too like i like surfing reef breaks which are i think to my understanding more common closer to kyushu and just less because of all the kyushu but i'm okay like i'm okay with that and so back figure out so back to the surf house so the surf house idea two two interesting ideas there
Speaker: And two different locations that we've been kind of kicking around recently. So one in Tokushima, close to where our friend and real estate agent that we work with, Rio, lives. So that would be a good opportunity there. The second one is in Hyuga. And this is like a very large house that someone approached us to help them sell.
Speaker: It used to be a restaurant. It used to be like an English language school. I don't know how many bedrooms, like Six. It's a large. huge. It's a huge house. Big parking lot. Big parking lot. You know, it used to be a commercial business, but it's right on the, it's on this cliff overlooking, you know, tsunami proof. It's on this high up cliff overlooking this beautiful, uh, surf beach as well.
Speaker: I think he's asking for $300,000 for it, but what's the access yeah Access to Hyuga? You'd probably fly into Miyazaki. And then drive up to... Oh, I mean to population. What's the access to population?
Speaker: If you ran a business out of there, like what do you have for potential clientele? Good question. Miyazaki is famous for mangoes. Miyazaki mangoes, baby. Great coffee in Hyuga. We found one random coffee spot. It's very famous, I think, for like the tropical getaway. like the ah so Golf courses, surfing, I think are probably the big things there.
Speaker: but Like your local population. Local population is low. But if you're a surfer that's coming from abroad, Miyazaki should be on the radar if you're if you like surfing, I'd say.
Speaker: um So I think that would be a demographic. Golfers, warm weather folks. It doesn't make sense, but we we want to do it because our personal health is how i'm going to.
Speaker: That's where we want you to bring the sauna. to To Miyazaki? Yes, sir. First project. Oh, it was it like eight-hour drive? Hmm. Maybe longer. Might be a little warm for you down there,
Speaker: Steamy. Yeah. But yeah. that's where we Okay, so yeah, building the sauna is one thing, and then getting it there is the next. Can you build it down there? Yeah, you could.
Speaker: is it where is it How would you think about that from a builder's perspective? Okay, got it, got it. understood because then you got to live while you build right i mean the house is the miyazaki house is is ready bro you're gonna be on the beach where's the complaint gonna working the whole time you know but with the ocean view bro you get too sweaty you go for a swim okay we try i think we do the try the sauna first in niigata Let's see how that... I want to see if we can just build them there and then ship it.
Speaker: yeah Because ah you can't always build on site. Okay. Understood. Yeah. ah this So we're one Miyazaki. The other one is again Tokushima. The reason for Tokushima, we went on the surf camp and one of the ladies, Nat, who's one of the owners...
Speaker: of a surf camp is from Japan and she's like try out Tokushima and we're there's one kid Riku Matsumoto who's a pro surfer that was our surf guide and dude shreds and we gotta to sponsor him someday Joey you gotta pro surfer he shreds he shreds he's the nicest kid but he was like pointing out on the map like okay here here and i like On a map of Japan, he was telling you the hot spots? Yeah, and he would... was sharing? He would never let me down in the water in Indo. he He pointed his hand, and he's like, go, Taki. I'm like, okay, and I'd i'd catch a great wave.
Speaker: Oh, man. I trust i trust this 18-year-old with my surf life right now. That's a, yeah, surf prodigy you got there. He is. He's an animal. Take a look at his Instagram. Surf ah Riku Matsumoto.
Speaker: Matsumoto. Bye. All right, man. Eric, anything you want to say here? I know we've we've spent a lot of quality time together in California. Thank you for flying out. but like what Anything you want to say here?
Speaker: I'm just excited. Yeah. I'm excited for the future. Next purchases. What's coming up? Yeah. What's coming up for you? I'm just kind of looking for another spot that's low cost and still has that traditional charm.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. I think it would be nice to be able to allow people to stay in my area for like a month or two months at a time. You're looking to buy more in the same spot that you've been buying already? Yeah. Eric Domotti. I'm a glutton for... You're going to rename the town. Yeah, that... Mayor Eric.
Speaker: You know, if I do consults with people and they're like unsure of where they want to be, I'm like, oh, you want to be here? This is exactly where you want to be. This is the best place. Tell us about your astral chart telling you where should in Nikaeta. Come on. Like...
Speaker: I did the date and time and place when I was born and my wife. And it basically said, our energies are really good from like a productivity and relationship standpoint to live in all of places.
Speaker: After ah I did this, after I purchased, in Niigata, Japan. And I was just like, how how is that? That's weird that I'm drawn there or I ended up there. What was this website?
Speaker: Yeah, how do we find You know what? I actually did it through ChatGPT. ChatGPT can give you this without you having to pay some secondary service. Dude, it might have you might have been asking about Niigata already and it just like put two and two together.
Speaker: No, because it gives you all these different areas in the world but based on your star chart. Eric's going to like this response. let's to Let's toss him a little knee got the bone here. It can't lie about your star chart. If I did it somewhere else. I think it can. I think it definitely can. No, dude. Give me that bad news, man. Cool.
Speaker: Cool, man. Well, thanks for being here. we're gonna We have a full day. We're doing a happy hour in downtown Palo Alto at the Japan Innovation Campus. 75 people RSVP'd. How many think you are going to show up, guys?
Speaker: 50 percent 48 people okay i'm gonna bring 50 course lights then here we go thanks
