Transcript
Speaker: Oh, I can make a long story short, but basically we sat for four hours having butterfly pee. I put that in air quotes for everybody because that's what they told me it was. it's I was like, Hey, this is butterfly tea. And they're like, no, it's butterfly pee.
Speaker: Welcome to the buying a house in Japan podcast. My name's Take joined by my co -host Joey. We have a return guest today by popular demand. I think that was one of the best podcasts we've done. Actually, uh, we have Eric.
Speaker: Burrow coming back this time, returning from Japan. Eric, how are you doing? Woo hoo. Thanks, man. i'm I'm glad that I'm popularly requested. I'm doing great. And I'm excited to share how the trip went and just everything we uncovered with the house. And it was all, I think positive. I'm sure there's some things that are like, could be looked at as a hurdles, but they're just fun obstacles along the the journey of Japan.
Speaker: If you're listening to this for the first time, I think we recorded a podcast with you maybe two, three months ago. I think it's episode 53, 54. I was trying to look, I was like, is was it 47, 52, something like that. We're getting lost. You guys have so many episodes. or We're trying to pump it out here. And I think as a recap, this was before you had gone to Japan, right? You had clothes on the house. Give us a quick context. When did we record that last episode? What what was the situation? I think we,
Speaker: was on the house and we were just talking about setting everything up as far as A, was there any surprises in the buying process? And was there any hurdles of transferring money and things like that?
Speaker: And I do have a little bit of follow up on the transfer money thing oh because buying the house, I did not have any issues with transfer wise. However, I've been needing to send more money after the fact and okay for other things, placing the stove and stuff like that. And my bank now is being an issue. I switched what account I take the money from and I use my Amex. So I have an American express like savings account.
Speaker: And I had that link to wise has worked flawlessly. So that is my new recommendation. Is to use a. American express and link that to wise and use that account.
Speaker: just So you had a different bank hooked up to WISE and it was the bank that was giving you problems? So it was my it so is my credit union locally here and it wasn't an issue originally and they'd gotten bought out and moved over. I don't know what their system is, but I can definitely tell it's my bank here because when I try to connect it via Plaid to wise. I do everything correctly and then it's cannot do it. And I'm like, a but you can send like Apple money or small amounts. Everything works just fine. And then I just, like I said, I just switched the connection account to American express and no limits, no issues. Everything worked great.
Speaker: Oh, the issues of Japanese banking. It's either one side or the other. We'll do another full on episode. I think we, yeah, we've already done a full episode. We'll do a couple more, but I think we're slowly making progress, but eric let's talk about the house. So you buy and you got to tell it, remind us, you know, what was the first impressions of your house? you all of listeners I'm smiling right now because this is so exciting. I want to hear if you spent the your very first night in their tour. Did you get a hotel for the first night?
Speaker: So we'll, okay, yeah, I'll start from train entry. I'll paint a picture with my words here. You, we stayed a couple nights in Tokyo when we got there, Ebisu area, it's near Yoshi. He handed off the keys, did great. He helped me my with my Suica card for the train station. It's probably something I probably should manage on my own, but he's such a nice guy that he used his cell phone number so that I could get a Suica card.
Speaker: And then we were off bullet train to Niigata station. And we stayed, I think the first one or two nights, as soon as the electricity was on at our place, it was time to get on a few days after we landed. And so basically, as soon as the electricity went was on, we stayed in our house. Yeah. And cause we were like, whoa, this is actually better than the hotels. Really? ah you could have stayed Had electricity been set up, you could have stayed in the house right away.
Speaker: Yes, indeed. and And I would say, yeah, because we went and saw it, but then we went back for one more night at the hotel. And then the next day the electricity was going to be on. And the, we say an APA hotel is pretty national chain, Japan, everybody knows about it, but it's a cube with maybe AC and there's no real like move around space when you have your suitcases in there, but it works. But the house is open, big, nice. The temperatures are great in that time of year, fall spring, right? Where you don't have to worry about if like your air conditioner works or if your heater works. So.
Speaker: for listeners the advice is if you don't want to have to worry about those things and time it around the climate that works for you. over, I think I had the windows open in October when I was there. I think October, maybe March. or Yeah. Perfect months. We don't need AC or heater. Right. Yeah. Like we are nice for a little chilly, but we had two blankets and we're good. And as soon as the sun comes up, we were game on. So we took the train. So we took it to Niata, but we really only have to take the bullet train to Sanjo. So like next time I'm, I'm going January 10th or ninth and, um, for just a week stay by myself.
Speaker: but I'll only have to take the bullet train from Tokyo station to Sanjo. And then when you get off sean Sanjo at the Shinkansen, it's a 20 minute taxi ride or drive to the house from the bullet train. And then the bullet train ride is only an hour and a half. So you, yeah, less than two hours you're at the house from Tokyo.
Speaker: I want to hear ah about like your first few nights in there. Were you like a piece of beer from combini sitting on the floor, like eating convenience store snacks, no, no furniture or what what was that? first you with the We went and got new futon blankets, sheets, pillows, and not.
Speaker: I can't remember the name of the store. It's like gray and green, real popular, like Nitori. Nitori. Yeah, that's it. A little vetting store in Japan. And so we got our Nitori on and we brought a bunch of convene stuff that we had from So we'd be good for the morning, a little Georgia coffee or boss coffee and snacks, onigiri, stuff like that. It gets dark and there's nobody around when you're in the country. So you turn off the lights, we don't have a TV. So just go to bed and, and wake up with the sun. It's a very, but they were like.
Speaker: they're ugly so we ordered new curtains we do have new currents government but it was we chose a room that was next to a living room to be our master bedroom and then we like as soon as we woke up we started like cleaning and getting rid of stuff and just filling up the garage and just getting down to business. But there was a lot of stuff. So it was, and we wanted to just enjoy ourselves and relax on our new place. So we only got the garage really full of stuff. And then we were we like, all right, we'll like figure out if we can get somebody to pick that stuff up or if we have to fill up the garage again, or if somebody can come pick up everything.
Speaker: Remind me, did you get Yoshi to get this place clean before? or What was like the prep? I know that you got like a priest to come. You got all these, all these things prepped, right? Zero prep really for cleaning or like stuff. Oh man. Yeah. And i so I mentioned the shrine to him and everything and he said, yeah, I'll set it up for you. But once I got there, I felt, you know what? I would rather set it up myself. I'll tell you what. All right.
Speaker: little side break. My neighbors came to see us the first day we were there the night we couldn't stay in there. He pulls up, Okoshi -san, and the nameplate on my house is Okoshi. But I didn't know that. He explained that to me like later on. He pulls up, says hello, do a little introduction. He's, hey, can you come back to my house for a little bit? I'd like to introduce you to my family. And he lives like a little bit down the street, but he lives in the big house.
Speaker: Yep. And, uh, neighborhood. Yeah. the neighbor That's how that, yeah. I accused him of that, but he would not admit to it. So I think he was just being modest, especially when he told me his family lineage and how a lot of the houses in that area all have his last name. And he's, he goes, he was explaining it to me. Long story. ah I can't make a long story short, but basically we sat for four hours having butterfly P. That's what they told me it was. It's, I was like, Hey, this is butterfly T. And they're like, no, it's butterfly P. All right. Fair. What is it? haes in yeah
Speaker: and it's like a blue liquid with flowers that they boil like tea and then they add lemon juice to it and it turns it purple and it looks really cool from an aesthetic point of view tastes a mildly flavored water and it was just really nice of them to invite us over to their place and sit at their coffee table for four hours while we basically google translated and forth And then I met their, their children or one of their, their son, who's the same age as me. And then their daughter is the same age as my wife. So just like ironic 39, 37, and their kids live with them and they're the same age as us. And then his, he's a retired Toyota dealership manager.
Speaker: And so I was like, Oh, this is awesome. And then his son actually does a side business of like titanium Damascus steel and like epoxy woodworking and stuff like that. It's like just fun jewelry side business cutting board. So shout out to shout out to my neighbor.
Speaker: Okoshi's son. Yeah. And so it got really comfortable with them. They were super nice. They came back to our house. I was like, Hey, you want anything from here since it might have been all yours. heres Yeah. And he took an old yearbook that was in our place. And there was a couple old pictures in our house when we bought it up.
Speaker: a above the doorway, like in the living room area. Yeah. And I didn't like dojo style. Yeah. Yeah. They might've been fellow owners, ghosts, whatever you want to call them. So I asked them, I was like, Hey, do you know these old folks in these very nice garb? And they like, Oh, that's the emperor and empress. And I'm like, Oh, oh so it's not.
Speaker: and you know It's just like honoring the past or current emperor. And they took them out for me. They were like, oh, we'll take those for you. And I was like, all right, cool. It was a fun experience meeting the neighbor. We've got a similar family in the neighborhood in Bepputu, the Itai -san dynasty. Every house in the neighborhood, I don't know, three out of five homes. It's like Itai -san kind of thing. Yeah. What's the walkability in your neighborhood like?
Speaker: Down the street, it's like a ah local type convenience store, not like a a Lawson or anything. And a local type convenience store. like And you can walk to it? That's really good. Oh yeah. We walked and it's, has vending machines out front. So we walked to it a couple of times and just get a couple of drinks. And it has a post office box, I think for like maybe package pickup or delivery, like an outdoor, because we have post office, but they have a bigger red box. I don't know the significance.
Speaker: And there's a zoo down the street from us. All right. yeah it doesnt go ah We did not, because we checked it out and it, I think it will go eventually, but it wasn't high on our list. It's mainly a zoo that displays the unique bird.
Speaker: for the island off of Japan. Sado island. ah ye Because there's like a white ibis looking bird that it's no more. And so they have those at the zoo. And I'm like, yeah it's a bird zoo. I'm good. ah The mayor stopped by twice. Whoa.
Speaker: He's really, he's really weird. Nice guy. But like, he'll ask me a bunch of questions and then I'll answer him. I'm going to be polite and give him this like name and where we're from and age and stuff like that. And then I go, Hey.
Speaker: Oh, what do you need it for? Or is there anything else I can help with? Yeah, we're good. All right. Bye. See you later. and i'm like Okay. take a census Yeah. And my wife saw him, I guess on the tractor too, like just doing tractor work. So he's, it's a small mayor, even on his business card.
Speaker: I got it right here. you Viewers can't see it, but oh, wow. You see the little bird. as part Yeah. Oh, bird for the bird. Yeah. A red face white bird. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Maybe it's Japanese of me to keep all the business cards. Carbon or nation is my neighbors. What should we call it? Oh, oh, the jewelry. Yeah. The jewelry.
Speaker: I don't know. Okay. Plug for carbon onatio. A couple orders, foreign orders coming in. All right. Going back to the house, actually. So your house is pretty big. I remember looking at the photos, like roughly give us like square foot. Is it i mean what's the law plot look like? I would say it's roughly about.
Speaker: 3000 square feet, maybe a little bit less, but it it definitely feels big. Like I have a garage with two bedrooms above it and a sink. And I don't need those bed. Like if those were not there, I would not lose any sleep at night. I would still have two bedrooms, lower level main house, two bedrooms, upper level main house. And so that basically the two above the garage, give me six bedrooms with one toilet. So you do the.
Speaker: Yep. You bought this also of Site Unseen like us. I'm curious what, you know, how did it translate? It was a good surprise, bad surprises. A lot of cleaning and the unknown was probably like just, I would say the unknown was the condition of the appliances, but I went in assuming that I would have to replace the appliances. And if I look at it as, okay, I so bought a Site Unseen, which means I didn't make a trip.
Speaker: I saved that money on that trip yeah and as to automatically assume that all that will go towards the appliances. there It's a trade off, right? If you do make the trip and you like the place,
Speaker: and still have to replace the appliances. Now you don't have those funds to allocate towards appliance change. And we have it set right now to replace the washer, the laundry, and it's a combo unit, washer, dryer, and the refrigerator, Rizzoco.
Speaker: and the stove. And I will tell you the most, I think my favorite is person that I met on the trip is my gas company representative, Akahashi -san. So shout out to Takahashi -san, amazing individual, super, he's 50, 52.
Speaker: I hope that's okay to tell everybody. The nicest guy in the world. He is setting up my propane tanks and everything for my stove. He realizes, hey, my stove, the two of the burners don't work. Hey, so he's going to bring two reps to my house from the stove company that makes it and help me pick out stove I want. He'll get it swapped out changed out for me taking care of he then shows me how to use my hot water heater because it's like a panel in my kitchen and a panel in my bathroom yeah and and he but he shows me how to use it all super nice then he shows me my fuel tank and how to use that and then he shows me my space heaters and shows me how to refill the kerosene in my space heaters things probably could have figured out but
Speaker: Makes it a million times easier when you have the gas company guy basically showing you exactly how to do it. And, and he didn't need to, he's got his guys installing the propane tank. He could have just chilled out in the truck. and Instead he's wasting his time hanging out with me. And now he calls me rich Eric's son. You got to figure it out. You don't really have kids and you have a house, but you live in America. So he just assumed he's like, all right, you just Eric's on. So we're going to take care of you.
Speaker: Rich Eric Son, all right. He know he senses you're a rich guy. Oh, thanks Takahashi. But he didn't, everything he's quoted me is very, it's been lower on the quote scale compared to other companies that I've had quote things. It's not like he's trying to gouge me because he thinks I have money or anything. He's super, super fair and honest.
Speaker: That is something that I mean, tage just like on our last trip, when we were driving around and you know, you just see the number of abandoned homes and then, you know, across Japan, when we did the road trip. And that's something we discussed, I think on a podcast that's coming out soon is that the average American, you know, working, getting an average salary in America. You are a little bit rich when you're in Japan, like compared to your neighbors, for example, especially if you're buying in a rural area. Did you get feel obviously your gas company guy thinks that, but did you feel that as well? Yeah, they let you like know because when they buy a sports car.
Speaker: It is very extravagant for them because of space and limitations. And we have a lot of space and garage space and stuff to buy sports cars. And cars can be cheap if you work on it yourself and buy a old clunker here in America.
Speaker: But in Japan to keep something old on the road and keep paying that road tax JCI, all those different things and use a parking space. It it ends up being something that is a very, I guess an obvious indicator of wealth to them because of, because they don't accumulate six cars or anything crazy like that. So we'll talk about cars soon. But before we do, ki are you the only foreigner in like the neighborhood? Is there another.
Speaker: foreign token har down the street or I adamantly searched to find out if there was any like semblance of foreigners in my area. So I had my air conditioner come out and get installed. I talked to Takahashi -san. I talked to people at Musashi Tori everywhere. I went and talked to people. I would definitely ask them, am I the first person that you have to deal with with language issues. and Am I the first foreigner?" And they're like, adamantly, yes. Across the board, everybody said, we're the first white person slash foreigner that we've ever had to meet or deal with. So I was like, yes and they were because i think i don't know if it's because of that that everybody was super accommodating because everybody's already always super helpful and accommodating but then i i feel like there were some times where people looked at us as extreme outsiders we're at a train station to go back to tokyo
Speaker: And we were just waiting for our bullet train. And this nice younger gal walks up to Beth and I with two hot bottles of tea from the vending machine that's right there and just goes, oh, it's Samui. Here you go. Hot tea. And I'm like, I'm good. I'm from Minnesota. I'm not cold. But that is the nicest thing ever. Like, you don't get people to bring you random hot bottles of tea. She's waiting for the train just like us. who Who walks up and just gives you free tea? Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome, man. And most of this time, were you just using Google Translate or chat GPT or like, how are you communicating with these folks? I use Google Translate for things that I can't work out on my own or things that I almost don't feel comfortable saying and having the translation come out correctly. I'll just punch it in or say it to them and then show them. And people are pretty cool about that because I start off with a little bit of Japanese. Strong.
Speaker: Yeah. And then I moved to that. And then on menus and everything like that, I love Google Lens. Google Lens is probably, yeah, it's phenomenal. so Right on. And I think it's really interesting and and and awesome on you. Like you before you came, you had made all these cutting boards or chopped cutting boards for your neighbors. How did that go? And tell us about what you did actually, just for the listeners.
Speaker: yeah I dabble with woodworking just like for fun hobby, so I made some cutting boards and had them like laser engraved by my father -in -law so they have a little symbol of Minnesota and then Beth and I's name we figured we would just.
Speaker: if something that represents us and or where we're from and so that it's something they can use some utility but then something that kind of says hey we're friendly neighbors please don't throw apricots at us or persimmons whatever you guys have and it yeah it went chill i would say i didn't bring enough because i left because they were so heavy that i left a couple but the the other neighbor i brought snacks to the other ones and it turns out we only really have like immediate neighbors. We only really have maybe one. would We for sure have one. The other house next to us is, ah is definitely abandoned. Like vines growing near its kerosene tank and stuff like that. So I asked Yoshi to try and hopefully maybe look into it or figure out if we can locate it because I would, I would be happy to
Speaker: maintain it and get it back into good working order because it is a nice house and it actually owns part of my backyard. It has an L -shaped lot. So my backyard only goes so far and then the rest of the backyard belongs to the house next to me. and so i'm like Were people curious about your plans? Were they like, what's your plan in Japan? Are you permanent here? Are you just happy? Were people asking that?
Speaker: yeah they they were curious like our neighbors when we chat with them they're like why did you pick this area and i explained it to them and they were like oh yes that's awesome that's exactly what we are like cool because that's where that's what i was trying to to go for and so i i i told them i love snow but i like to be close to tokyo what we like to be close to the coast and We want to be in the area of Japan where there's very few foreigners and things like that. And they were like, well, you nailed it. So we're happy to have you. Oh, side note, when I got to our house, somebody, I'm assuming the mayor or somebody in the community had taken care of our entire backyard and cleared all of our weeds knocked them out. And filled our.
Speaker: pond with crawfish and a little river fish. The koi pond was already functioning. The koi pond was stocked and rolling. I was like, because, well, Yoshi told them that we were going to show up. So I think somebody in the community was like maintaining our garden for us a little bit. So another win.
Speaker: So any difficulties, sounds like they're super positive so far, but I'm surprised because there were definitely hiccups for our bamboo property. I'd love to hear about any hiccups you encountered. Let's say the biggest, two biggest hurdles for me are the timeline of things. Number one, I will, we'll put the car back. Number two is car. And I'll put that one to the side, right? For house, I want to get the kitchen and or bathroom and bath.
Speaker: area with laundry room all remodeled and you can you're I'm there I go to the home center I set up a time for the guy to come out to you know look at the bathroom measure it do everything and then he's hey I'll have a quote for you in another week and I'm like I'm gonna be gone in America okay I'll email it to you and I'm like all right cool can I sign off on it i'm like why are you the money do whatever you want he's You got to come back. And I was like, all right, but when I come back, how long will it take from the time I sign it to, to start work? And he's about a month. And I'm like, that's going to be rough. Cause now when I get back to the next time, I'm going to still have to have another month before I'd actually enjoy my new renovation. So the biggest struggle is timeline procedure in Japan and how that the cadence of things. Having to be there in person for certain steps of the process, frustrating. Yeah.
Speaker: Hence why i'm going back now in January for just a week going to hammer out all the details on all these things try and get a kitchen remodeler in and trying to just basically going there signing off on things and doing like the clerical stuff is the biggest. I guess. Technically, if I was patient it'd be fine, I can just go in February enjoy my time my bathroom works I don't need it renovated right away but.
Speaker: I'm not the most patient human, so I'm going another trip just to accelerate the timeline on renovations. How's the shower room, by the way? Like me and Takei, we kept daring each other to shower in the bathroom, but it was too creepy. How did you do that? Well, I grew up in one, um so I love it. I think it's the best thing in the world.
Speaker: wife and I mainly my wife cleaned it real quick because you know what this seems because it seems because the panels go together. They were getting slightly corroded or gross. so We replaced the was it the tower wallet.
Speaker: Is it wasn't it is panel. Yeah. It's a shower system. Yeah. But even those get grody the tile one. Yeah. You'd have to do a deep clean, clean all the grout before I'd feel comfortable. And yes, different people have different tolerances with the the cleanliness of a bathroom.
Speaker: But we replaced the shower wand, great water pressure. The water heater worked phenomenally, put it at 40 C and yeah, had a great time. And I'm very excited for the the renovation. I think it's going to look really nice. I'm even more excited for the new bathroom. All right. So what did Beth think about everything? Your wife, what get what was, give her, I want to hear her highs and lows for everyone. Every dude who's trying to bring their partner over to Japan, like what was her experience?
Speaker: I think that she would agree that every person, every Japanese person that we encountered, every interaction that we had was very positive and great and and cool. Even with the police officer that gave me a ticket. You got a ticket. it Okay. We're talking about that soon. All right. everybody was, it was great positive vibes from that aspect. We went to a local Yakiniku place. The owner brought out an extra plate of pork because we're foreigners and why not give us extra meat. So everybody's super nice. I think she would say that the house, she doesn't like clutter and garbage and other people's stuff. And she wants it to be renovated just as fast as I do so that it feels more like it's our place. So I think when you take somebody that's not from there, doesn't have the same excitement or same vibes, they want it to feel like their home.
Speaker: And the best way to do that is those simple things like it being cleaned, it being painted and it being furnished. Those things make it more like home because you could feel when we got our bedding, we cleaned out the living rooms. All those things got us closer to a feeling like home. And she knows that this next trip that I'm going on is also to accelerate that again. So when we're there in February, the goal is that it really starts to feel like it's we belong in that house rather than staying in a stranger's house. So yeah. My fiance definitely feels the same. We brought her to Betbo a couple of times. We're like, check out this old abandoned house, not interested. If we get a new build, maybe we're, she's interested. But yeah, it's like a different vibe for them. I don't feel it. I understand it.
Speaker: Because I'm like, Oh yeah, it's not ours, but you, ah we look to the future or the potential a lot of times. And we see 10 chest steps ahead in the house and everything. Like I'm already imagining different curtains, redo, renewed to Tommy's and repaper. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, we can envision all that and go that's why it feels like home because I'm already envisioning what it's gonna be like totally and last thing on the Remaining stuff like how much shit was left over because it's just like everything. Yeah Yeah, yeah it's a lot of house. So because there's so much house there's these there's cabinets in the floor in the kitchen like they're your like pantry type cabinets and they're just stocked with stuff. I don't really want to get down there. The shed was stocked with stuff. There was like an encyclopedia set. There's a bunch of old kind of busted tonsus dressers upstairs. Don't want to deal with old lady clothing. We found some pearls, found a couple strands of really nice pearls and who really old money. I showed the money to my Takahashi's on the gas company.
Speaker: And he said, some of the money that we found, he hasn't even seen. It's that old. So I was like, Oh, cool. So so okay it was like fractions of yen. It was like, it was, yeah, but on paper. So yeah. Anyways. I remember we were in the Myoko house going through the tour and Joey's looking at like the clothes, like, ooh, vintage clothing. Like, damn it, Joey.
Speaker: Are you keeping any of this stuff, Eric? What are you keeping of all that? The pearls, the the money, a couple of coffee tables. We you kept a tonsu in the kitchen that has a bunch of dishes and they're all clean and put away. That was pretty nice of them. I kept a wheelie cart in the garage.
Speaker: stuff like that. But I think some of the stuff feels cool when you're first looking through it and it's almost like, uh, yeah, like going through goodwill almost and oh, this is cool. That's cool. But it collects. And then, then you just end up having a bunch of junk that you're going to do with it. I feel like.
Speaker: They're easier just to get your Yamada son to get rid of it. Exactly. It was like two huge dolls, like in glass cases. no There's so many of those. They're so big. They were so nice. I felt obligated to keep them. So they're staying.
Speaker: Oh, you're keeping the heat he made or whatever. My mom collected them. Like she collected less those and more of the wood ones. I forget the name of them, but she has like hundreds, if not thousands. And so I was like, I'll keep it just for the moms.
Speaker: My mom has two in our house in California. I'm like trying to get rid of them every day. So if anyone in California wants some of those, let me know. But good on you, Eric. If your mom's listening to this, you're a good son. Yeah. 3 ,000 square feet. So we'll just keep two. There we go. Last question before we jump onto the car topic here for listeners. What are you planning to do with this property? Are you going to vacation rental it out? Are you figuring it out as you go?
Speaker: Yeah, it is. That's a good question, because I've been changing. That's like an evolutionary thing like as I feel it out. I really love the area live really love the people's I want it to be my primary like place, but I would like and I've been offering it up to friends and family and or like a queen like people that are, I don't know, wanting to try out the area like long term stay so I want them to come visit stay with me and or if I'm not there I've set up a lockbox so that people can like try it out and so like I think I'll just let what happened happens and if people want to visit the area and just try it out we are
Speaker: Within, I think about an hour and a half, of I don't know, 30, 40, 50 ski resorts and then 20 minutes from the bullet train. So I just feel like it's pretty nice area and spot and everybody's super welcoming that.
Speaker: I told my neighbor that, Hey, people might stay at our place randomly or whatever. And they're like, Oh, that's cool. That'll be great. Bring more. I do it. I do an indigo workshop. I dye things with the indigo plants. and she bird Yeah. So like she's, and she messaged me the other day. She's like, can I steal some berries from your garden? Like go for it. So.
Speaker: There we go. All right. This is the hot topic cars. We know we talked a lot about Eric's garage here and buying a car. Give us the update. What, where are you in the car buying process? Do you have a car registered yet? ah It's supposed to get delivered to me on January 10th, the morning. now yeah So I don't know if I have plates on it. I don't know if I have insurance. I definitely don't have insurance because I've been paying for it.
Speaker: But I don't know if I need to get it or if my assistant is doing that. But I think it's something that I need to work on probably in the next week or so. And then, so yeah, I don't have a car technically delivered yet, January 10th. I'm supposed to get there on the ninth and it's supposed to get delivered to me the morning I wake up or whatever. And then, and then naturally all this stuff is supposed to get taken out of the garage, the trash, so that the car can get delivered. Hence your modest honest trying to make that happen. Okay. So you got and a couple of chain events that need to happen here. You need to get the the garage cleared car needs to successfully be delivered.
Speaker: And then you got to get, figure out the insurance and all that registration stuff. Right. Exactly. And then I got to go get winter tires and a snowboard rack and get that handled. But then also my internet gets installed on the 13th. And then I've got to meet Musashi home center on the 11th to get the renovations for the bathroom scheduled and picked out. So we're shoving everything in there all in one, one go. Yeah. I'll be a busy guy. Mizukashi or something like that. I i forget. Isogashi. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: So you bought the car from a dealership, is that correct? And then Nippon Bridge is helping you with all the registration? Yes, I found it on Goonet. I just found a Subaru Legacy that I liked. It was a decent price. It was like $5 ,000. And I was like, if I can get this one, great. All -wheel drive. And the purchase process, Nippon Bridge handled that? Or did you were talking direct to the seller? how did that I did not talk to the seller at all. Nippon Bridge did that. They've had their own struggles with the seller that I picked. So I do feel bad for Nippon Bridge because
Speaker: Apparently, the seller is very, I don't know, probably archaic is the best way to describe it. They wanted me to fax things to them. And then when I fax things to them, they didn't go through. So then I just mailed them. And we're talking about pretty simple purchase agreement that most people would probably be like, hey, you can scan and email that, you know. Yeah, Kiyokasan from the Palm Bridge did tell me that they were tough to communicate with and even their dialect sounded. Or yeah.
Speaker: And there were some steps you had to do in Japan, right? You couldn't do all of this from Minnesota, right? Correct. Yeah. So buying the house, right? All remote. Everything's good. Get to the car. And when I got there, I thought, all right, I'm going to go there. They're going to make this appointment. I'll do this appointment at the notary public in Nagaoka City, which is like the city that my house technically belongs to. It's Nagaoka City. And so they found a notary for me to go to.
Speaker: get some paperwork signed that I can't read, say my name, say I'm American, say all that stuff. It was very official, very lawyer -esque at the notary, which is weird because I have an aunt that's a notary here in the U .S. and she's like, hops in my truck, stamps the paperwork, has me sign it and I'm good to go, you know? Notary public in America is so great. It's like the chillest system ever. And up here in Canada, it's the same as Japan, unfortunately. Is it really? Yeah, yeah. It's very serious process and it's expensive too.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, at least for me, it was only like 50 bucks. So I don't think it was expensive. It was just felt very, you know, how Japan is too. There's nobody in the office. I show up like 20 minutes early as you should. And they look at the time. We acknowledge the time. They remind me that I'm early. And I'm like, yes, I will sit here and nobody's doing anything. And I'm just waiting. And then they can, and then they take it 10 minutes early. And they're like, all right, let's go do this. And you sit at the desk and you sweat.
Speaker: Because you're trying to do everything in Japanese because you can, you can tell by his demeanor that he does not want to entertain Google translate. And so I'm not talking into that thing. Nope. Nope. And just like my mayor has no intention to use that device. And so I put my Japanese thinking brain on and I try to figure out everything.
Speaker: in, in my head, what he's asking me. And the only thing that I really struggled with is the date. So he's signed and date and their date is different. He used the old year system. Yeah. Yeah. ra robot sticks hate that So I had to ask him like, Hey man, like what what year do you want me to put did that? So that's the biggest thing is that Nipon bridge, set it all up and I got all that. And then I still had to take those paperworks and mail them.
Speaker: And put that in an envelope. Yoshi helped me with that. Thankfully, I went back to Tokyo and i then we mailed it to this other place. I don't even know who I mailed it to because it wasn't to the home bridge, but then they handled all the car registration. I think I believe.
Speaker: Yosei Shoshii. Yeah, I had to. Yeah, I think a Yosei Shoshii. Administrative Scrivener. Right. Which is weird to me because I already arguably have one in my town where we we bought the house. And so I think Yoshi wanted to help me with like, why don't we just use the Scrivener that we already have been using for the house purchase and everything.
Speaker: Did you need a utility bill at any point? I did. You nailed it, Joey. Did you have one? I, woof. The only, because the phone bridge told me ahead of time that, Hey, I need a utility bill. And it's a struggle because Yoshi handles all my utility bills. So normally he sets everything up to go to him, but it needs to be in my name, which means it needs to get mailed to the house. And you have to be at the house to receive mail.
Speaker: And to set up the address. They have a thing where you can go online send in a postcard register your address so you live there. But in my area. They were like, we don't want to do with that. That's, that's fancy new stuff. So we will do it the old way, we will come greet you at your house and deliver you a letter.
Speaker: that says you're living in this home. So I had to be at home for that to get that water bill. And then I can't pay the water bill because they need the water bill for the thing. So now I just have a lake bill. But anyways, it was like 300 yen just for like a for placement bill, if you will. So all those things had to happen so that I could go to that notary and then get that paperwork and mail that off. And then I was like, hey, so all the paperwork's done. Kyokusan, can I go pick up the car? but Now we still have to do a bunch of paperwork. Eric, you're going to have to wait and then you can come back. Not so fast, buddy. Yeah. I went through the same process with Nippon bridge as well. And I got the car registered in my name at the end of the day, which is like almost unbelievable as a foreigner because certain things like getting a SIM card, opening a business in Japan, very difficult to do as a tourist in Japan, tourist foreigner in Japan. It is a complicated process, but they magically got the job done though. Yeah.
Speaker: like kioga sense is georgia enough document you just get the Yeah, you just get the document. Yeah. How much of this, like, our is it the seller that's being weird with all this? Had we been selling you a car? I i imagine it'd be pretty easy, but yeah, I don't even know how much of it was a seller. How much was it the process you think?
Speaker: I don't, I couldn't tell you only because of the fact that Kyokusan already told me from the beginning that the seller was weird. The fact that I basically bought the car side on seat. They didn't send me a video of it running. Then it's in pictures. They didn't. So I'm like, I lean towards the seller is probably very archaic. And then I thought about, Hey, most dealerships, if I asked them to put winter tires on and just add it to the bill and stuff like that, totally cool. Accommodate it. And I was like, on this one, I'm like, I'm not even going to ask because I'm just trying to get the process done. so man All right. ah You need to get ahead of this, but you need to get an ETC card. and You need to figure out how to get that because that's the next hurdle. You absolutely need an ETC card. I will definitely be working on an ETC card. um definitely um I think I'm going to get a cell phone when I get back. And I think with a cell phone, I think I can get a bank pretty easy. And I think if you have a bank and a cell phone... I don't know. You need the immigration status to get a bank account.
Speaker: Unfortunately, don't, don't worry about that. job ah What about paying air? Can you get business banking only, and you need an American business. So maybe you can use your American business, open a pay near account. You need like an EIN number, American EIN number, oh but then you get MUFG bank account in Japan. And, but you can only operate it through the pay in your website.
Speaker: And I bet you, you have to have a bank account to have an ETC. because only one yeah So issue, okay. Here's why you need ETC ETC. if you want know why you need i mean yeah The tolls are very expensive without ETC. And not only that, they're just a pain, right? Who wants to dig out money every time? Yeah. You need cash. Otherwise ETC is a credit card. So you need to go through a bank to get the ETC card. That's the difficulty.
Speaker: Ah, so you do need a bank. All right. Don't worry. You can use our ET. So what we learned is you can use other people's ETC cards. So if you're coming in January, Joey, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think anyone's using our car. You should just grab our ETC card. ETC rental. How do I grab it though? it's You go, you go come to our house. to better to we lot hi and tokyo we yeah I mean, if I have one in Tokyo, so come we'll we'll well we coordinate with you. If you want to, it will save you like so much time and money. um Just go to our Tama house, grab our ETC card.
Speaker: Use it until you use it for your week and then drop it back off. The cool part, I won't need it on this trip okay because number one, when I get to Tokyo, I'm going right to the bullet train and I'm headed right to Sanjo station and to my house. And then secondly, I'm only going back and forth between Sanjo and my house okay and it's just local roads. Great. And yeah, the only time I really use the toll is if I'm going to like national parks or snowboarding or the big city. So.
Speaker: Damn, it's going to be so rewarding feeling when you get your car with the winter tires with the snow racks on it and then hit the slopes for the first time. Is that going to happen this January? Is it all going to perfect storm? Is it going to?
Speaker: I don't know if I'm going to want to bring the snowboard, this trip, yeah because I know I'm going to bring two suitcases as my lonesome self, because I'm bringing my wifi set up. So I'm bringing like a ah mesh wifi system. yeah And then we do the same. yeah Yeah. And then I'm bringing the security camera system.
Speaker: Mainly, and not for security, for any of those listeners out there, I leave my stuff unlocked. Generally, like growing up in Japan, when I leave everything unlocked, it was so weird to me to lock any surveillance though. as put So that I can look at my place from when I'm in the U S you can see the weather and you can see your koi pond and be like, pretend you're there just a little bit. So that's why I figured security cameras.
Speaker: Man, good luck with the internet setup. When is that happening? The internet setup is 13th. They're coming out, plugging in the fiber optic. They're going to provide the modem. I'm going to provide the router. we on Don't let them leave until your internet is up and working. like i yeah Oh, that was a Taki performed a miracle. Like nothing was working. Nothing was working. He literally just tried the same thing 20 times on a row and on the 20th time it magically worked. So just i go they don't provide if you end up. So they make you like do some like really old school online portal. They give you this big booklet that goes you step by step and it's just, you follow it exactly. And it still doesn't work. So I would say get your, be ready for the guy to come and be like, Hey, I need you to get this until I can do an internet speed test.
Speaker: Yoshi had just dropped us the router and we figured it, we were like, ha how hard like setting up the US, he's drop it in there, plug it in, but good luck. Keep us update updated, updated. Oh, Joey had to leave, but Eric, very last question for you. What advice do you have to your previous self or other people who want to buy Akiyas now that you've done it yourself and and you've seen the place?
Speaker: low location is real estate rule in general right location location less um a little bit about house but think about where you want to be to enjoy japan because i feel like my house turned out great but my location even better And that is what I'm really happy about because I turned around and went and saw a house two minutes up the street while I was there and told Yoshi, let's make an offer on another one because this area is so awesome. like Yeah. Cool, man, dude. We're we're so glad it's it's worked out. We hope to partner with you. We hope to buy, are you buying that other place? You're going for it? Yeah, it's already, we're already signed seal delivered. Yeah. So really.
Speaker: i mean i like it's It's in the works, like it the purchase agreement, all that stuff. We've got real a handshake for right now. So until they're doing some paperwork on their end, because it was listed while we were there. And so this wasn't one that was sitting for a long time. So I was like, let's do it.
Speaker: Get ready, man. We just, we're closing on our six one pretty soon. So it's only going faster here. I will tell you, there's two more that I really like, but I'm just trying to slow myself down so that I don't get five places with nothing done on them. That's exactly where we are at right now. So, but you're on the right path. You're going to have a lot of fun. Cool being man. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. All right. Take care. Later.
