Transcript
Speaker: Lucas, I know you are saving money, maybe for an Akiya sometime in the near future. Like, let's just say you had that money right now. Where would you kind that? Check under your seat, Lucas. Oh my god, no way. OK. You know, i'm a big proponent of Hokkaido. Very beautiful part of the country. I love it up there. But at the same time, I really fell in love with Kanagawa prefecture. It's like very close to Tokyo. But at the same time, you get that very traditional Japanese feel there. It was like I was in the streets of Kyoto again.
Speaker: Welcome back to the buying a house in Japan podcast. How you doing, Joey? Doing good. Day three of our trip here. It's been an eventful day and we've been hanging out with our good buddy, Lucas, who we have on the show today. Lucas, welcome to the show. Thank you. It's been, you know, I've watched a lot of podcast episodes, so it's cool to be on. Appreciate that. We challenge you. we We're like, Lucas, watch every single one of these episodes. I'm close to catching up. I'm pretty close.
Speaker: So before we started, let's go ahead and crack the beers. let's Honorary live podcast. we go.
Speaker: think I got that. ASMR. There we go. Kampai, kampai, kampai. All right. Me and Joey rocking the non-Ls because we're healthy boys now. That's a shot. That's a low-key shot.
Speaker: No, you keep doing what you want to do. um Lucas is one of our Akiya Mart consultants. So high likelihood or 30% likelihood of when you book on our site and book a consultation, it will go to Lucas. So we're excited to have you on the show today, Lucas. We want to dive into your background, talk about your experience here in Japan. You've done probably like 100 consultations with people who want to buy homes in Japan. So we'd love to pick your brain a little bit on that. yeah But to get us started off, just give us a quick intro of yourself. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm 24. I'm originally from Alberta, Canada. So shout out to the western part of Canada. um I've been living in Japan now with my girlfriend for almost nine months. We moved here to July 1.
Speaker: um We live in Hokkaido. So, you know, the Canada of Japan, I couldn't couldn't escape the cold this time. But um Yeah, I don't know. i You know, I got started with you guys doing content and then kind of moved into the more like consultation role.
Speaker: um But japan's Japan's pretty sick. If you haven't been to Japan, it's ah about time you come for sure. Why Hokkaido? And you're not just in like you're not in Sapporo, right? You're in a smaller town in Hokkaido. How did you guys end up there? We visited Japan in like 2023. We fell in love with the country. So the biggest thing was we tried to find a more semi-permanent way to get out here.
Speaker: um So we were looking online at jobs and and trying to figure out what to go for. And then it just so happened that um My girlfriend's like hometown. um They have like a sister city in Hokkaido.
Speaker: So then she ended up we both applied for the position. She ended up getting it. um And then i ended up just getting a work holiday visa. That's kind of why we are where we are.
Speaker: What's her, her hometown's not Edmonton? well No, it's it's a little bit outside of Edmonton. It's called Wetasquin. So yeah. Shout out Wetasquin. Yeah. If anybody knows where that is, you know, we're talking about in the car. Like, so I don't know Canada very well, but you live like up there where it's like freezing, freezing, right? I mean, Edmonton's not like super far North. i was born in like Fort McMurray, which is like, you know, it's not in the territories, but it's, it's pretty cold up there. You were talking about like polar bears and grizzly bears and stuff. yeah like Lucas said Hokkaido was a warm winter for him. Yeah.
Speaker: Hokkaido, a warm winter, everybody. So Tokyo is like chill for you, like oh warm. Yeah, super easy. um Yeah, I think the coldest it got for us in Hokkaido this year was like maybe like minus 20 something Celsius. So I was like looking on my weather app and just laughing at the people in minus 40. Right on. Let's hear about the town mascot where you're living. Yeah. So our town mascot is a foot. His name is Ayumi-chan. Ayumi-chan the foot. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you you'll see him everywhere.
Speaker: Sometimes he's frowning in the pictures. That's like my biggest gripe. Like, why is he frowning? He should be smiling. It's a pretty nice little town. I didn't get to see it in the car. Could you describe the character for me? Like, how does a foot become like a character?
Speaker: Well, he's got legs. The foot has legs. Yeah, the foot has legs and and arms. And usually he's like walking around carrying this like big leaf. I looked looked at it on the car ride over here i just like, what? that can't That can't be for real. Yeah. Oh, better believe it. Yeah. um Okay. So you're from, are you currently living in Obihiro or like? No, it's it's a smaller town called like Oshoro. Oshoro, that's right. Okay. Yeah. The closest like notable city is Obihiro or even Otofuke.
Speaker: When you found out the news you were going to Japan, were you stoked or like? Oh yeah. Like we were super stoked. um I mean, we applied for the job in like September, I want to say, maybe August.
Speaker: um And then we didn't hear about whether or not we were actually like either of us kind of got the job until like December. um So then, yeah, we got the news in December and then we were like, all right, like, let's do this. Then we kind of got our stuff in order. So what kind of visa are you on? If I'm not mistaken, the working holiday visa, is that correct? yeah working holiday visa. So What came first, the job or the visa or how does that work? She's on a work visa. So when, when she got the job, then this was our plan was like, whoever ended up getting the position would take obviously the work visa. And then the other person would just go for the working holiday visa.
Speaker: Um, which really lucked out for us because right when we got the news, they actually changed the laws on how that visa works. So it went from being one year only to now you can do either two, one year stays or one, two year stay. Oh, they changed it for the better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They added an extra year onto it, which like that was literally perfect timing. It couldn't have been a better sign, I think.
Speaker: So you've been here for a little under a year at this point, right? Yeah. Has Japan kind of matched what you thought it was going to be like or was it is it way different? I guess Hokkaido is like just a different beast in itself, too. you know, I did the the regular trip, like the Tokyo, yeah Kyoto, Osaka, Nada. um So I knew moving to a rural town was going to be like very different. um But I kind of was excited for that experience as well. Cause like Tokyo is cool. I love Tokyo, but it's a lot like anybody who's been there can probably agree. It's, it's a lot.
Speaker: um So I would say Japan has like met, if not like exceeded my expectations. I had high expectations coming here for sure. Um, I mean, the people are great. The foods may be even better. I don't know. But, uh, you know, yeah, Japan's great overall. As a kid, did you like grow up with Japanese culture or like how, what, what started it for you? I mean, yeah, I think a lot of people's first introduction is obviously like anime and like growing up, I watched, you know, Goku fighting Frieza and I was always like, oh man, Japan's so cool. Like, you know, Vegeta, right? Vegeta. No, no, you're, you're rage baiting, bro. joe Joey. Okay. Yeah. cook For context, Joey does not watch anime and manga.
Speaker: and it doesn't play video games and it'll constantly like try to like throw things out and be like come on to reaction come on but yeah so like growing up you know you watch anime and then um in school you know we learned pretty in depth about uh i forget grade it was but we went over like japanese culture mayan culture e etct etc etc um so i did a few big projects on japan um i did a few years in college so i did like a couple film classes uh any chance that i had i would try to like tie that back to uh, know, I did a project on animation and of course a big part of that was like anime coming over to the West and stuff like that. So, I've always been interested in in Japan for sure. Right on. Okay.
Speaker: Top three favorite anime of all time. One one Piece. Let's go. Number one? Easy. Easy number one. easy Genius. Oda Sanse is a genius. or I'd go One Piece, One Piece, One Piece. My man. My man. Okay. I'd Attack on Titan is pretty close. Okay. All right. That's pretty good.
Speaker: So One Piece, Attack on Titan. What's what's the third third pick? Third. What's the plot of Attack on Titan? You have to watch it. Yeah. You kind of have to watch it. Is it Hard Aliens something? No, but like I couldn't explain it in a 10-hour podcast. All right. What's number three? It's called Parasite.
Speaker: Parasite the Maximum. Parasite, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I watched Parasite. Parasite the Maximum? Maxim, i think. Maxim. Yeah. don't know. It's been a while. There's a couple of twists in Parasite. I was just like, who okay, holy shit. It was really good. Yeah.
Speaker: Watched that when I was younger. Probably like scarred me. I don't know. It seems like anime and manga is like, honestly, a pretty big gateway to Japan. Like, obviously, once you get here, that first time you're like in your head on your flight over, you already kind of know like, okay, there's going to be anime references. But when you got here, how... You get off the plane in Narita Airport and there's like Pokemon murals all over. know what I mean? So it very much is like...
Speaker: They love anime here. It's a huge part of the culture. So it's very inviting to people that come here with that, like, I guess, like, want to see more of it. What do you mean you're on the plane and you're like, right, Taki, like, prepare yourself. There's going to be anime references. So for me, when I was a kid, like, every time I came back, there was a lot Pokemon references. But, like, going into the Konbinis and seeing the Shonen Jump of, like, the manga, you're like,
Speaker: You're like waiting and frothing every day to get the translation online, but then you're there and you see the real like manga paper out everywhere and everyone's reading. I'm like, holy shit, I'm not a weirdo anymore. When we first came here, I spent some time in Tokyo by myself while my girlfriend was getting situated with her job. I'll just go to book off and just like check out all the manga everywhere. They had like all the all the manga books for sale and like they the group set for really cheap. I'm like, oh shit do i try to buy this and learn japanese they like put the tape on so you can't touch you exactly if but you're always kind like sneaking trying to and look into it um cool man kind of just giving little context of how we met you i think we had originally seen your stuff on instagram you had been posting and like i think we had really liked
Speaker: I think you were pretty early on then. And we just seen a lot of stuff you're posting. We're like, okay, we need this guy to do some work, some content. So for the audience, ah Lucas is the reason a lot of our Instagram has been popping off lately with a lot of reels. So thank you, Lucas. like But how did you kind of get into that? You just decided one day, hey, I'm in Hokkaido. Let's... I mean, I'm 24. I think anybody that's like around my age grew up with YouTube. Uh, and that's like huge inspiration. Like just growing up, watching people my age make videos, make a living out of making content, and like doing what they love to do. Um, was always just like super cool to see. And I mean like back home, you know, I did like construction, I did sales, like I did a lot of jobs and always my main thing was like, I always wanted to pursue content, but I always had that like excuse of like, I'm too busy with work to like fully pursue it. So when we like made the jump, like my girlfriend is awesome. She's great. She like fully supported me. Cause like she knew i had the skills that I could kind of figure, figure my way out doing it. Um, so that was kind of the goal for me, like, cause I didn't have like work lined up or anything. Right. So I was like, I might as well put my time into something I want to do and, you know, hopefully it can evolve into something that I can eventually make a career out of. And now I've kind of, you know, I'm, I'm not, you know, making ah a ton of money, but like I can, you know, I can kind of hold my own in the content world now. So.
Speaker: it's ah It's a rabbit hole, right? but You can just keep going down and further and it's like it get the numbers, the gamification, the, you know, like what have you like broad strokes, what have you kind of taken away or what have you learned about the content game since kind of doing, working with us? I think the main thing is there's always room to improve obviously, but the main takeaway is consistency is key. um So, I mean, like if you can't post consistently,
Speaker: probably not going to be able to do it. um And like the more you post, the more you're going to learn. And then eventually, once you get your your stuff figured out, then you can kind of dial it back and just up up your quality. But yeah, I think content is very much a quantity game, especially to start out.
Speaker: It's interesting the Japanese Instagram algorithm. Like once you watch one Akiya reel or like Japanese lifestyle reel, like they really like, I don't know if the sector has just blown up or maybe our algorithm is more like, Hey, these guys like Japanese. i feel like it's the algorithm. There's like a few other things like from, yeah, I guess on my algorithm. Yeah. It's like Japanese real estate content. And then there's like maybe some other things like gym stuff. And it's like, you're certain things that you watch, like the album just takes it and runs with it. I feel like. Yeah, it was really weird because when we visited um in 2023 for like the first time, it seemed like literally right when we were visiting, like a month after, all of my friends were going to Japan. Everybody I knew was going to Japan and it just like blew up in the media and became probably like, I don't know if I'm wrong about this, but I feel like Japan in the last like three years has been like a number one, number two tourist destination in the world. Since COVID for sure. hundred hundred Like I feel like they... It was probably gaining in popularity, then COVID, and they closed the border. And then like as soon as it opened again, combined with the weekend.
Speaker: There's, I feel like people are coming to Japan to make content. Like content creators are just like, I'm going to go take a trip to Japan and make these cinematic reels. And like, i feel like it's just crazy now.
Speaker: We've seen it with content creators that we've been talking to too. Like a lot of people, they want to tour the Akias. It seems to be like the big kind of things. Like people want to come here and they want to tour the Akias and that there's some difficulties in actually scheduling that. But yeah, people want to come here make content. I was with one of my friends. was his first time here and every back alley he wanted to stop and take a photo shoot. And I like, was like, man, like, let's, let's keep going. We're going to go to like the main spot and take photos. But then I realized like I did the same thing on my first trip because everything is so aesthetically pleasing that like, you know, do it for the gram baby. Do you think, do you take more photos or does your girlfriend take more photos?
Speaker: I take videos guy all the time. Like my, I'm always like fixing my camera roll. Cause it's just so full of like B roll. So I don't really take photos. I take, I take like B roll videos and things like that. So you're here for at least another year or what's, what's kind of the plan for you in the next foreseeable future? Yeah. So I have to renew my visa probably next month. Um, and then, ah my girlfriend's on contract for another year at least. Um,
Speaker: And then, yeah, we're just kind of playing it by what happens, you know, like if we can land longer visas, whatever. um i think like one of the goals is eventually like if I can pursue like a work visa or something, then she'll just go on her work holiday visa and do her two years or whatever. Do you want to go back to Canada or is do you think Japan's kind of the the move at this point? I love Japan. i definitely want to spend a good portion of my life and and lay down some roots here. But, you know, I'm very young, so I still want to see the rest of the world. I still want to explore. um That said, like, you know, I'll miss my family a lot. Like, I definitely want to go back to to Canada, but I don't mind Japan being like base one or base two for me. um and And always having that option to come here and just spend a good amount of time in the country.
Speaker: Okay, time to buy an Akiya, bro. Yeah. That's how you do it. That's how you keep coming back every year. Then you're like, you're almost contracted by the country to come back. Yeah. So again, Lucas is one of our consultants for Akiya Mart. We have a program program called Akiya Mart Direct in which we help people purchase. So if you're interested in buying an Akiya or any house in Japan, let us know. You will talk directly, hopefully, to Lucas or one of our other consultants. But Lucas has been doing consults for us for the past three months or some maybe something like that felt longer but um what's your been your experience so far talking to hundreds of people that's been a very nice change there's a lot of people that are interested in homes in Japan are obviously like very excited about the prospect of coming here and um owning property here so a lot of the people you talk to are very good people um but at the same time like
Speaker: I feel like some people are a little bit like not jaded, but they don't fully understand what they'd be getting into like buying a home here. Um, and that's definitely like part of what I do. Like when I do consultants or consultations, um, is just like, you know, grounding people a little bit and like, you're not, that home looks like it's $2,000, but there's taxes, know, it's like anything you buy a car, it's not just a $20,000 car. You're gonna, you're gonna pay a little bit after that you buy a home in Canada. It's not just $150,000 home. Not that exist, uh, yeah. What's the like number one question that people seem to like ask you over and over again? One of the bigger questions is definitely like, how do I get a visa here? And like with Acumart, like we talk to people from all over the world. So like I can never really fully give somebody any kind of advice on that. Depends on their country, their circumstances. Yeah, exactly. Even with my content, like for example, had a dude from like Nigeria asking me how he could move here. I'm like, have no clue in the world how you could do that, man. Like I hate to be the guy to tell you I have no clue, but I don't know.
Speaker: Speak to an immigration attorney. yeah That's like the best advice we can give you because everybody's situation is going different. Yeah. I think another thing too is like how fast, how fast can I, can I buy this house? How long will it take? How long will that home be on the market? um That's a big thing too. And you know, that's very much like, I don't really have an answer for you. You know what i mean? Like closing in Japan takes a while.
Speaker: Homes like could be up there for 800 days and then boom, it's gone. And like, I can't really tell you why that happened. It just does. Think of like the best ah consultations you've done and like what traits do the best people come into the consultations have, do you think? One of them is definitely going to be like a respect and actual tie to the country. You talk to a lot of people who um maybe have only visited like Tokyo or maybe haven't even been here before, where they see like these really cheap homes and they want to buy them because they don't have property back home or something like that. And it's like,
Speaker: right, man, like you should you should probably come here and actually know where you're going to be walking before you buy a house here. Yeah. um So that's definitely a big thing that I think everybody, everybody at Acumart like really looks for is like trying to make sure that the people we do help buy, they they have a good enough, not not like good enough reason, but like they have a good reason to do so. um The next thing would also be like being understanding of budget and knowing that like these homes sometimes have been abandoned for, you know, a year, even two years. So, you know, the pictures could be a little bit outdated or maybe not up to snuff. And when you actually go in the home, you know, your floors are very, you know, squishy or there's termite damage, things like that. So um those are two big qualifiers for me, for sure.
Speaker: Right on, yeah, I totally agree with you. I think having a preexisting tie or like some longer term relationship with Japan really helps solidify that. If you've never been to Japan before and you just wanna buy, we have to probably push you away and say, hey, go check it out, know the areas, because it's it's tiring working with people who really have not had that ramp up to knowing what Japan is and why they wanna be there. Especially a lot of the homes that people are interested in, especially the cheaper ones, they're not in a city.
Speaker: They're hours outside of a city sometimes, and you know, you're going to need a lot more than just the home. You don't even know how to get there. Right before this, we toured Anakia in Hachioji. um About $50,000 built in 1971. It was pretty dope. what What were your thoughts, Lucas, after checking it out? I'd buy it. yeah i would definitely Yeah, I'd pursue that house. other than The road up to it was a little crazy. yeah um But i mean other than that, it's pretty close, I think, to a train station, if I'm not mistaken. So I mean i wouldn't buy a car if I was if i was there. But the overall shape of the house was stellar. It was crazy that we were showing a a client of ours the the house and well, the photos just had the interior, but they completely missed looking at the fricking view of Mount Fuji they had. It was like, what are you guys doing? We got out of the car today and like we all mentioned the view like immediately. We're like, holy moly, this is an incredible view. You see the the Tokyo, Western Tokyo city skyline. You see these mountains with snow snow peaked mountains. And then you see Mount Fuji behind it. Like it was an incredible view. yeah And the real estate agent just did not include that in the description and not even photos of it. So, you know.
Speaker: We'll put that in the listing if you are interested. Actually, it's real sleeper buy. I think that. Place was renovated, yeah. Place was renovated. I gave it an A minus. Yeah, I gave it, I don't know, forgot. it B plus, I think. Yeah, the floors were clean. It was really nice house. Okay, let's go on the flip side of Japan here. You've been here for, again, close to a year. It's been a lot of fun. What are some things that kind of frustrate you or surprised you in this past year? The bureaucracy of Japan is a beast. I know, like,
Speaker: ah It took, you know, my girlfriend needed to get her her phone set up for work and things like that. And just getting a phone plan, you have to go and actually sit in the the office for like almost two hours, it seemed like, and just get that sorted out. So that is...
Speaker: Huge pain, I think, especially if you don't have a translator and you don't speak Japanese. Even if you do speak a little bit, like you're not going to know the specific terms and it'll take a whole different level of fluency to like understand those kind of conversations. I think that's probably one of the the more frustrating parts about Japan. What was renting your apartment like?
Speaker: oh it was really easy um just because it's like subsidized by her her company. Oh, through the company? Yeah. Because that's also like getting a phone plan. I'm like two weeks in, no phone plans still, you know working on it. um Writing an apartment was a difficult bureaucratic process. was just wondering if you had similar issues there. I didn't even realize like the tax representation stuff and like getting bills. I didn't know that that was a problem for foreigners because we came on visas. And then once I started you know doing consultation, I learned about um tax representation, like that would also be a pretty big hassle. Like if you're buying in Japan and you don't understand things like that, like,
Speaker: um Just knowing that you need to have a representative who is Japanese or has a ah visa or some sort of residency to actually get that on your behalf. Another plug for the AkiMart Direct program. We help you pass through a lot of that bureaucracy and paperwork. and And again, we specialize with working with foreigners. So I think that was something Joey and I felt in our first couple of transactions that were like, OK, there's got to be a better way. And so I think that's what we found with our program. I think the Japanese bureaucracy frustrates everybody, like a very common thread that runs through a lot of stuff. think it frustrates Japanese people even, like to a degree.
Speaker: But they they grew up kind of used to it, yeah I think. So it's good for them, but it's shocking to us shock and like the kind of like I do feel like in the West, we come from like a a can-do attitude. Like if someone wants something to happen and the other person is selling that service, like even if it doesn't like meet eye to eye initially, like you find a way to make it work. Whereas I feel like Japan, like kind of shuts down. Like if you're not following exactly within these, you know, guardrails, like,
Speaker: No. Yeah. there' they they't They don't really try to find another way to the outcome. It's just like, we've we've done this road a million times. We're going to do this road again. Yeah. Okay. Rural Hokkaido. Can't imagine there's too many foreigners.
Speaker: Like how has it been like culturally kind of fitting in or immersing yourself? I mean, I think where we are is very unique solely because it is a sister city to somewhere in Canada. um And obviously, like, you know, we're not the first foreigners to come there on the similar program. um So they're very, very welcoming to us. You know, I've met some people there that I'm very close with now. um They're also like the town that we're from is trying to grow into like a more English Japanese society. So they're very welcoming to it.
Speaker: Um, it's a very old population though. That was like a very big thing. You know, like the younger people are like in their mid thirties I'm like, damn, like you're, you're unk bro. You're unk bro. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker: Uh, so you ain't young. Yeah. How many foreigners are in, in the neighborhood or like in the city itself? Me, my girlfriend, and then her coworker. Um, and then like sometimes at the gym, like I'll, I'll meet, uh, another guy from like a close town and he's also like a, an English teacher. Okay. Um,
Speaker: But yeah, I think in the nine months I've been there, I could probably count on one hand the amount of like white people I've seen. Any other kind of things that shocked you or confused you when you first got to your town and as you've been here for a little bit?
Speaker: um Like what advice would you give someone like following in your footsteps? I would say you have to come with a very open mind, which is like pretty obvious to say, but like different than you would think. You know what I mean? Like even just in how like people hang out is totally different. um Like back home, like I was so used to seeing my friends on a regular basis and things like that. So even, you know, when I hang out with my friends there, i remember we were meant to have dinner and then we were meant to like go out on the weekend with one of our friends and they were like, are you sure? Like, I don't want to bother you. And it's like,
Speaker: ah That doesn't bother me. Like I like hanging out with people. I like being around my friends. um So that's that's a very big thing. You have to be able to kind of be on your own a bit, which is something I kind of struggled with, especially when we got here, just because like I'm very extroverted. I like being around people.
Speaker: So um learning how to be in your own world and and kind of be OK with like hanging out at home a bit more or you know not going out as much um as well, too. When you move to Japan, it's totally different than being on vacation. um yeah It's very affordable, I think, to live here, especially if you're used to the Western world. um But that said, like you know you can't be going out and doing tourist things every single day because very quickly your budget will disappear. Absolutely. How much would you say like cost-wise is is a way cheaper than Canada living where you are right now or I think so. um I think...
Speaker: So like Japanese wages are, you know, they fit the Japanese culture. So I think what the average like Japanese citizen makes, you know, they're they're going to think like, all right, I can live like whatever. um I mean, if you're coming over here and, you know, if you work remote or or something like that, like, yes, it's like I think you're you're you're chilling. um But in terms of you know Canada, our prices, any Canadian watching this definitely knows. Like our prices have been going crazy over the last few years. yeah um Even food, like all that kind of stuff is just getting a little bit ridiculous. Have you used a healthcare system here or like any yeah any any thoughts there?
Speaker: Yeah, I ended up having to go see a urologist. And the one best thing about Japan, obviously, like, so I pay um health insurance every month. And for me, it's really cheap. um I pay like, i don't know,
Speaker: 50 bucks a month or something like that i remember i don't really like pay attention because it's a negligible bill um but uh yeah so i went to the the hospital uh in our town cost me like 10 bucks to see a doctor 10 canadian don't know whatever that is in freedom dollars but um uh and then they referred me to a urologist and was like oh like shit like i don't want to go and pay a bunch of money to do this um but we had to go and do it and then we went got some tests done, sat with the doctor, whatever, and they're like, right, your bill is 1,500 yen. I'm like, what?
Speaker: what like let's go That's crazy. Like, all right. and um So yeah, I think it's very affordable. I even talked to an older guy in Ueno when I was in Tokyo, and he had to go for an MRI, and it was like a couple hundred bucks.
Speaker: did the Did you find the doctor spoke English? um The one in our town was not very fluent. So that was kind of awkward. Like I'm using like Google translate, like, Hey man, like, please don't let me die. Like, um but then when we went to like the close city, like Obahiro, yeah, the doctor was pretty fluent. Compared to Canada. I know Joe, you're telling me like, it's tough to see a doctor in Canada.
Speaker: or like systems. Yeah, every province is different, but Nova Scotia was quite difficult. There's there's like a wait list out and I was on the wait list for three years to get a family doctor. years? Yeah. And I- Three years? Just before I came to Japan, I got an email like, hey, are you still looking for a doctor? Like, we don't have one, but we'll just start worry we just wanna double check you're on the list. Three years? What if you need to see a doctor? Like- Too bad. Too bad. Either emergency room or like a walk-in clinic, but even the walk-in clinics are not walk-in clinics. emergency room is like, go and sit for four hours. 17 sometimes unless you're like coming in like on death's bed you're probably not seeing a doctor for a couple hours how i compared to japan i didn't again did you just kind of walk in you make appointments a lot simpler didn't even make i yeah i don't even think i made an appointment oh i might have i might have i don't remember it was a a few months ago but if i did it was the day before yeah so alberta sounds bad too i heard like toronto like my brother doesn't seem to have problems like with doctors or anything like that but maybe alberta's Alberta is pretty bad. I mean like Edmonton, um i had to go, ah had like a really bad ear infection um and like felt like my ear was about to explode. So I just had to go in and and get something to fix that. Um, and the waiting room was like packed. There was too many people for seats in the waiting room. Um, and I sat there for like three hours in like the middle of the night. Like, I think we went there at like two in the morning. This is ER. r yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We left at two in the morning to go to the doctor and it was packed that full.
Speaker: Oh yeah. Yeah, kind of bad. Although i do feel like ah somehow my parents were able to jump this queue. I don't know. Maybe they moved there a few years before me. So maybe like eventually you to see a doctor or you do get a doctor, family doctor. years is But yeah. Could you like brute force it with money? If I had to guess, I feel like- You can't even like, hey, I'll pay you more. Maybe if you went to the States. Yeah. That's big thing people do. Like if they have money. and they need immediate care, they'll go to the States and just foot the bill. Okay. Okay. So Japan's healthcare system is pretty good. Yeah. It's pretty efficient. I would say, I think it's cool that, um, like even just me seeing a urologist, I can just go to the urologist office. I don't have to like go through the system and like have them, you know, whatever. I didn't know. You don't have to get referred to a specialist. I just called up and said like, Hey, I need to see you, man. Like, Yeah. And it's like a 30% copay in Japan. I think maybe like system seems to be working and they even have a lot of old people here too, which is like the common reason I hear that, oh, healthcare systems are overburdened because You know, the baby boomer generation is clogging up the works. But like, don't know, maybe Japan's working better here with the copay. You kind of mentioned that your town is quite old. And most people, when you think of Japan, they think of Tokyo. We obviously have to do like, hey, when you're buying Nakia, a lot of times they're in very rural towns that are going to look very different over time. Like, how do you think your town will look like 10 years from now? We went to a summer festival. Yeah. And they shoot a firework off for every baby that was born that year within the prefecture or whatever it's called.
Speaker: There was two fireworks that went off for the whole year. And I was like, this is crazy. Like by two like just is like lonely fireworks? Yeah, boom, My girlfriend, like she goes to all the schools in the in the area. There's a school there with like less than 10 kids.
Speaker: Wow. Yeah, yeah. So rural Japan is, you know, there's not a lot of people out there. Okay. Okay. Not a lot of young people specifically too. I remember like when we were in we were in this town in Tokushima, Kaifu, somewhere, and i remember we were walking through the town, i was like really deserted, and I was trying to imagine like what was this town like in its heyday? like When do you think your town was like at? Like how many years ago do you feel like it was probably peaking?
Speaker: Probably not long after Hokkaido like became a part of Japan, I would say. Like 1890? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely a long time ago. Okay, a long time ago. Yeah, longer than I've been around for sure. Lucas, you're one of our Gen Z kind of peers that we work with here. And I'm curious from like a Gen Z perspective, like, you know, we we talked about ah this a little bit in the car of like buying a home. Like didn't from your perspective, was buying a home in Canada ever really even a a thought or...
Speaker: Yeah, like i'm I'm optimistic about my future. I think eventually, you know, I'll be successful. But sure. um That said, I think, yeah, the average like selling price for a home was like six hundred and fifty thousand Canadian, which is like double what my parents home costs. And like, I don't even think I could buy a home like that right now or like in the next like few years. um So I know like a lot of my friends and and myself included, it's very much like a dream, you know, like it's not like.
Speaker: you can definitely work towards, i have people that I know that are my age that that was their goal. And now they have a house, which is awesome. Like, I'm really happy for them, proud of them. But, um you know, if you want to travel, or if you go to school right out of high school, and things like that, it just, it it just keeps building on like, how much harder it's going to be, unless you like lock in as soon as you get out of school, and maybe join the trades and and just kind of sit back and make your money. But Most of the people I know that have bought homes, they also like, you know, we're, we're living with their parents and working or, or some, some kind of scenario like that. So they weren't paying the same rent. Yeah. i mean, and Jerry, as millennials kind of think saying the same thing that we were like really.
Speaker: told that if you you know you went to good school, you graduated, you worked, you could afford a home. But like we get back in 2023 when we started this business, we were just like, there's like no way. So I was i was originally in in school. I was going to be a high school teacher. um I got about halfway through and I just realized like I don't enjoy what this career would look like enough for me to like warrant making that wage. Yeah. Your girlfriend's a teacher here in Japan. Would you recommend that for someone else knowing you know what you know now? I think it depends on the program and and who you're with. Our program is very unique. um But definitely, yeah, I think it takes a certain type of person to be able to make it work. Like, I think if I was to do it alone, it definitely would have been a much harder choice. And and same with her. Because it very much is like, you're going in blind, you know, you don't know, you kind of get stationed at a community you probably have never been to, or in our case, we didn't even hear about it. Um, so going there and and not knowing anybody, not knowing, you know, the day to day where the grocery store is, that kind of stuff, not knowing fluent English or I mean fluent Japanese, uh, is a very scary thought. So like we were very lucky and in the fact that like we could go together and kind of, you know, trudge through it and, you know, we can come home and speak English and feel like it's home still. Um, but I think a lot of people,
Speaker: Um, you know, if you're on online, a lot of people make those posts and it's like what working in Japan really is like, and and they very much like talk down on it. and And I've seen a lot of people say like not to do it. Um, I don't agree with that. Like, I think like, you know, life experiences is the best experience. Um, and you know, even if it is hard and maybe you don't fully enjoy it, there's gotta be some parts of it that like are definitely worth doing. Totally agree with you on like coming to Japan with someone else. Joey and I could not have done this. Buddy system. Yeah, there's no way we could have done this whole Akia journey individually. And like is this it itit it changes like the the shitty situations become like more comedic. like, in this together. Yeah, yeah. And we're like, fuck, this is bad. This is a bad, this is gnarly. like and But yeah, it makes it fun. Every crappy situation, like, you you know that it's going to end up, like, ah something you can laugh at later. like if I miss the train, at least, like, we miss the train. Like, oh, shit, we'll catch the next one together, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, I think that's a big, big advice. Maybe the biggest advice I give, would want to give to someone who's looking at at buying a house in Japan is, like, Doing it yourself is tough if you are going to have to put in a lot of work for like a cheaper property. Like if you are just looking to invest something hundred k plus US, like I think you can buy and not worry too much. But if you're looking at something like a little more dilapidated,
Speaker: Unless you like really just individually love to like lock in and and do DIY. I think it's always good to do it with someone else, a partner, you know, a girlfriend, a boyfriend or whatever. Cause it, it makes it an adventure. It saves it from becoming a chore. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker: Lucas, I know you are saving money, uh, maybe for an Akia sometime in the near future. Like, let's just say you had that money right now. Where would you check under your seat? Lucas. No way. Okay. Um, you know I'm a big proponent of Hokkaido. I've spent a good time out there. um Anybody that goes to Hokkaido, highly recommend checking out Otaru. I know it's like very popular, but I feel like not a lot of people know where that is. um Either way, um Otaru has some very affordable homes from what I've seen online. Very beautiful part of the country. I love it up there, but at the same time,
Speaker: you know, one day I would like to escape the snow and the cold. Uh, so I'm kind of in between like the Osaka area or even I went and visited Kanagawa prefecture, uh, for, for a good amount of time very recently. And, um, yeah, it's like, bro, keep going to South. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. gotta go further South. I gotta go further South to, uh, fully make sure that, uh, know, I could make the right decision, but, okay um, yeah, i really fell in love with Kanagawa prefecture. It's like very close to Tokyo, But at the same time, you get that very traditional Japanese feel there. It was like I was in the streets of Kyoto again. And, and you know, but at the same time, I could see like I could see Mount Fuji. But, you know, it was there. I could feel the presence. Okay. Kanagawa was great. And then continuing down to like Shizuoka and the Izu Peninsula.
Speaker: I think if you like Kanagawa, also like that peninsula there, too. so you're looking at buying in kanagawa let's yeah let's say you had the had the cash on hand you're ready to yeah fire yeah i don't know i mean i'd have to confide in in my uh you know my girlfriend but i think she'd back it yeah cool um yeah my like best friend up up uh in hokkaido there he's from kanagawa so he's always like oh go check it out go check it out yeah um yeah you he was right on the money check out uh kamakura for sure kamakura is awesome yeah a little expensive though little bit very touristy when i was there very very touristy but um I think if you go to like the little bit outside of Kamakura, maybe the surrounding towns. Odawara.
Speaker: Yeah. We went to the worst McDonald's in the world. In fact, we bailed halfway. We're like, we can't do this. Can't can't do this. um All right, Lucas, final question for you here. um Favorite One Piece character?
Speaker: Marshall D. Teach. Yeah, Blackbeard. Blackbeard. And sorry for spoilers, cover your ears or stop listening if you are watching One Piece right now. Blackbeard's like the main antagonist, I'd say, for most of the- Between him and Emu, I think, right now. But it shifts. It's going to be Blackbeard. They make him better character.
Speaker: Blackbeard's your top pick in One Piece? Blackbeard, Doflamingo. Doflamingo? Trafalgar Law. Those are my top three. Oh my gosh. Wow. I'm a villain guy, bro. They're very well written. These are all the top villains. The first two are top villains in the One Piece. Trafalgar Law is just cool as hell. Joey doesn't believe in One Piece, but someday, Joey, we're going to look back on this episode and you'll be like, dang, I really missed out on reading or watching One Piece. Can I go to YouTube and be like, all One Piece story, like 10 minutes tops? I watched One Piece. One Piece will skip a lot of the bad times. What's One Piece? They cut out all of the timing problems and the pacing problems. So like, Oh, just get the main plot. Yeah. Yeah. Instead of like watching Luffy walk up to the villain for like five minutes straight. Okay. Yeah. So like if anybody wants to speed run it, mean, I don't recommend it because by the end of it, you're going to feel like shit. Like I wish had 120 more episodes to watch, but yep. The best piece of fiction. I think in the world. Yeah. It's an epic. Yeah, I mean, better than best, you know, Steinbeck, Shakespeare, all them boys. Yeah, for sure. So if you are One Piece fan, coming to Japan actually will fulfill a lot of your... 100%. went to the Mugiwara store in, I think, Shinjuku. Yeah. Yeah, I took the picture with Shanks putting the hat on my head, of course. Okay, okay. Here we go. Here we go.
Speaker: um Any last thoughts or questions from you, Joey, before we let our our guy Lucas go? On One Piece? anything No further questions. No, do another hour-long podcast on One Piece. All right, we'll have another anime fan ah podcast soon. But Lucas, thanks for coming out, man. Really, really excited to have you. We're going to be hanging out a little bit more next couple days. For anyone, again, who books a consultation, Lucas could be your guy. um We'll send you this podcast so you can kind of prep for the conversation. Actually, very last question. you know If someone's booked a consultation with you, Lucas, like what do you want them to prep before the call? Yeah, one of the biggest things is like actually knowing where you're looking. I've talked to a lot of people that are like, I'm open to anywhere in Japan. And like, Japan is a small country compared to a lot. um But like, you go one prefecture over and it's like a whole different, you know, area. You know what i mean? Like everywhere is very, very different in Japan. Some areas have you know different things that you have to deal with. Tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, Suzumabachi, massive wasps. Yeah, so just different stuff like that is is a big thing. So knowing the area of where you actually want to go is is a very big help.
Speaker: Right on. Totally agree. Lucas, thanks for being on the podcast, and we hope to have you back soon. Yeah.
Speaker: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Buying a House in Japan. If you find the show helpful or at least entertaining, give us a five-star rating. Takes five seconds and really goes a long way. If you or someone you know is looking for a Japanese home, check out Akiyamart.com, our English-friendly site that lets you browse over half a million listings. That's A-K-I-Y-A-M-A-R-T.com to find your dream home in Japan.
Speaker: If you've got questions or feedback, drop us a line, email contact at akiamart.com. You can also find us on Instagram as well as TikTok, where we post properties, tips on the home buying process, and updates on our own purchases and renovations. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.
