Transcript
Speaker: There's a lot of undiscovered coolness that Japan knows. I actually just recently had a fun meeting with my mechanic. He was working on one of my cars. He's out in the cut down in Oji area, Takamachi area. Right. And he was like, why did you pick this area? And I was like, oh, I love the food here. You know, we were just having a real basic conversation. And he's like, yeah, nobody knows how good the food is here. And him being Japanese. Don't tell him. Yeah. that Everybody, nobody knows just how good the ramen scene is even over there. All right, Joey. I think we have to go to Niigata this week.
Speaker: Welcome to the number one Akiya podcast in the world, buying a house in Japan. Way better. That was ah right that a trading child trackctor great guy in intro. ah We have a our usual guest, our third bestie, Eric-san. He's also known as the unofficial mayor of Teradomari, his city in Niigata.
Speaker: Eric, for the listeners who have never heard of you, who the heck are you? I'm Eric. I work with you guys over at Akiumart. help make sure people are taken care of during their journey and their fun adventure of buying a home in Japan. So I work with an agent, of course, one of our many agents, licensed agents. And I am not a licensed agent.
Speaker: I'm just the guy that... Dumps in random bits of information along the way. If you've got a problem, though, Eric's there to solve your problem. Anything that comes up during the process. Send all complaints to eric at akia-mark.com. Thank you for putting me out there. yes so you're out there yeah or just book a chat.
Speaker: Eric, ah veteran in the space here, purchased four homes. I'm up to number four. Since the last podcast, you're at three, right? I was at three last podcast, but I was in the process of closing. I was just weird. Number four? That last podcast wasn't even that long ago. It was like four months ago. Yeah, yeah. So you bought it very recent. Yeah. It's almost been pretty steady, I'd say. So this last house, though, you're just saying it's right across the street. Right across the street. can cross the street. It shares the same garbage house. You know the community garbage bin? Okay. We share the same garbage bin. It's that. Was this market is this an off market deal? It was off market.
Speaker: Because I'm in that small village community, I asked a Japanese ah friend of mine to find the owner, and and he did. And he was my neighbor, of course, in the village, Uchiyama-san. Oh, so you had this in your sights. You're saying like you were like- It was it was empty across the street. And I was just like- It it feels bad for it just be left abandoned, falling apart. And then you can see everything in the windows.
Speaker: And how like the papers torn on the shoji and stuff. Right. And I'm just like, oh, does somebody want to get rid of this? And the owner was like, oh, yeah, I live in a different house. Literally like two down. And that was his childhood home and had no intention of doing anything with it.
Speaker: And this benefited him to get rid of it off of his tax records. Oh, okay. Property tax, yeah. Yeah, he was paying property tax on it. And he's like, oh, somebody else will take care of it and kind of rejuvenate it. He was pumped to know that my background is in construction and we would be taking a little bit of care into it.
Speaker: Okay. Today, we've recruited Eric to be our burger flipper. It is July 4th, the 250th birthday of the United States of America.
Speaker: We're recording today in Tama Base Camp. We're throwing a little Akiya Mart Moco Moco July 4th party. Eric, what's what's on the grill today, actually, before we we go into some time? Grill Meister. Classic Americana. Okay. Hot dogs. Ooh. Hamburgers. Okay.
Speaker: Corn on the cob. All right. I love a good hot dog. And of course, it's very American, right? It's Nasu eggplant. Oh, yeah the Nasu eggplant. Yeah. Where is the Nasu? Do you have the Nasu eggplant here?
Speaker: Yeah. Oh. It's in the kitchen. It's in the kitchen. All right. All right. Eric grew it himself, actually. Yeah. I grew some white eggplant myself. So that that's that's that. And then we bought some purple eggplant as well. Okay.
Speaker: We're excited. We have about 20 folks coming in. This is our first official party in Tama Base Camp. One bathroom. 20 people. We might throw down some beer pong. We might throw down some water balloon tossed. I heard there's a pinata that has been created. yeah Linda has made a pinata. I'm excited to see it. I hear it's ah quite an impressive pinata. Damn.
Speaker: We should make... Okay. Pinot is going to be the podcast cover for this one, for sure. Sweet. Oh, or should it not? Okay. We don't know what the pinot Yeah, know what is. Yes. Make it the podcast cover. Also have a little surprise costume that Joey does not know about for our party, too. Let's go. Because we have props. I would call it a costume. Props. American props. But...
Speaker: Okay, Eric, today let us chat about your properties. Specifically, want to know, you sounds like you did some construction. You have a background in construction. Actually, what's your background in construction? You're a roofer? I run a remodel company in Minnesota. And yeah, i just wanted to learn a lot more things about remodeling on on homes in a different part of the world when this adventure first started. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: um And I have learned a lot. I've done Kawada roof renovation with some Japanese friends in the community. So we did we took our Snoopy home. What is a Kawada roof for the audience? This is like a traditional Japanese tile, like the wavy black. Like the blue blue one to what color? like Yeah, you can have any different color. Traditionally.
Speaker: Kawada. Yeah. And in our area, I think you can have Yasuda Kawada. I think it's Yasuda. and it's it's clay yeah It's a type of kawada that is meant for snow zone.
Speaker: Because as you go north, oh you got northern Japan, like Aomori where I grew up, and in Hokkaido, they all have slanted metal roofs. Because it does not benefit to have tile.
Speaker: What I love about Niigata and architecture in general, which is what drew me there, is you have the snow, the beauty of getting to go snowboarding all the time in the wintertime. Joey, I know you love that.
Speaker: Joey loves snow. I like snowboarding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. just don't want live in a snowy place very much. But you get the aesthetic beauty of the classic Japanese home with a clay tile roof. so And you have those white plaster walls with the you know on the exterior. So you have that...
Speaker: quintessential Japan home, but in an area where you have tons of snow. It doesn't normally occur anywhere else. So you have, sorry to rewind and give context for the listener here. You have four homes all in Terra Domari. Yes. Do you mind giving us just a quick rundown of those?
Speaker: my My main home from Meiji era, 1886, built in Natsudocho, and then house right across the street. And then I have a Ichimoyen home or $69 home. That's how you got famous.
Speaker: I don't know about famous. um Young Leo. That one is by the beach or by the fish market. Okay. And that one is being renovated to look like a Snoopy's doghouse. It's been painted red. It has the new roof. Okay. Hey, Frida.
Speaker: By the way, we're special guest. Yeah, got distracted. Sorry. And then the the last one i bought because it had two additional garages for more car space. But then also so my sister would have a place.
Speaker: um Her and her husband. Her husband's half Japanese. Want to spend more time in Japan like most people that buy homes here. And it was just that I had a...
Speaker: opportunity to buy a home near my current one that allowed my sister and brother-in-law to spend more time in Japan, not in my house. Cause I only have one toilet too. So, okay. So back to the roofing really quick, Eric knows a little something about roofing. Um, you were telling me the other day about some tool they use with a thatched roof. Do you think you would, you'd be able to take on a project, a house with a thatched roof? I think those are so cool. There is ah a leg is what it's called. It's a whacker,
Speaker: ah When you're stacking flat yeah, you when you pack the the thatch and You're whacking it to make it even because I do see thatch roof homes on Akiya Mart like kind of in the northern Kyoto area That'd be really cool, but i I don't know what's really interesting one of my neighbors has one But they have the flat metal like you ever see the really tall red Yeah, I'm a commuter looks sick. Yeah I noticed theirs had the thatch roof like from old. yeah yeah And they put the red metal on top of it. So they kept the thatch oh as the insulator.
Speaker: And then they, instead of re-thatching it and spending that huge amount of money to do something that's pretty much going away, um they put the metal on top of it. But you can see it along the eaves. In the soffit area, you can see the thatch still. Do those thatch roofs just like light on fire instantly? Yeah, a lot of the old cities that have them, like there's like historic towns in Japan that have them, they have sprinkler systems all over the place and they test them out every year. you know like They're like, basically imagine fire hydrants everywhere that can throw water in the air. so Okay. So the the listeners being like, hey, this guy owns four homes in Japan. Why do you need four homes in Japan? I don't.
Speaker: It's just fun. they They were empty, and I looked at it as an opportunity to to make them nice. And the people that own them and neighbors all seem to appreciate that somebody's taking care of it, and it's not. Because there's plenty of homes that are still empty in my area. There's one right next door that we don't know the owner. And the vines and the weeds and the trash just overflow, and it looks...
Speaker: Terrible. It looks bad. you know and It's not a good look. And so at the very least, when I buy a place, I'm maintaining the garden and removing the trash.
Speaker: so I also think buying like in a like all of yours are in the same area versus buying several across the country. like That's kind of the issue that Taki and I have is that we spread ourselves a little too thin. And now we're looking to sell a few of them. But if you are going to buy multiple properties, I do think you did it right in the sense that, you know, you're in the area for a lot of the year and you can at least, you know, give the homes the attention that they need. Yeah. I think everybody in that area too, like, gosh.
Speaker: the they're just all very welcoming. So when I'm buying another one, um I'm talking to them, like the the community, the village. So they're not like unaware.
Speaker: It's not like I'm... pushing anybody out and forcing somebody else to buy somewhere else, you know? so I do think it's a good strategy to like your off market deals. Like first you move, first you bought one house and then you spent a lot of time in that area. And then you started noticing other abandoned homes around you. And then you approach the sellers, like very difficult to do for your first house a impossible to approach a random Akia somewhere that you don't live, don't have a history and and get it. you If you want to get these off market deals, you got to be there, spend time there. yeah And what do they say in real estate? Like location, location, location. So pick the location you want to be. Maybe it's not the perfect house. Maybe you have to renovate something or make it little better. First house is going be Yeah. But if you pick that first one and you did, if you are one of those people that have intentions to have a second property, but you still want it to be in that same area as well. Now it allows you to like...
Speaker: Be a part of that community, you know, maybe help with farming every season when they do the planting. Come back to the farming. Yeah. Yeah. You get that first house, like ta I said, is going to be the B. It's not going be an A. It's going to be a B house, but it gets you that foothold, that that home base in the country, you know, so you can spend more time here now as a tourist.
Speaker: So it was that problem. Going back to, you know, I asked asked why four homes? And I think, I totally agree. Like a lot of these homes are actually dilapidated and the vines are growing up and the neighbors are very happy that someone is coming in and at least cleaning it up. And I think yeah that's a response a lot of times. We get a lot of questions like,
Speaker: There's so much anti-foreigner sentiment in Japan right now that like people perceive that a lot of these local neighborhoods don't want foreigners there. But I think overwhelmingly every Inaka spot we've bought a house that people have been very happy that like they're cleaning it up at least. And I think there's just like a disconnect between social media and the media know when in actuality in some of these areas. know this isn't...
Speaker: I call it cultural exchange home in my area. smart. Because if somebody comes to stay at one of my homes. Feed them a stick. When are renovated in a million years. There's one of my community members runs a indigo.
Speaker: Shibori kind of. ah Dying. Yeah. And like arts and craft facility. So like when I told them about my plans, they were super excited because they're like, oh, I can't wait for foreigners to come because then they can do classes at my.
Speaker: traditional Japanese facility. Right. And then there's blacksmithing and there's so many other things outside of gotcha gotchas in Tokyo. Right. Wait, sorry. You're trying to have, when guests come and visit you, you're going to start introducing them to local. Yeah. Yeah. Our plan is to have a book of like QR codes.
Speaker: of events and things they can do and see or eat in the area so it's kind of like a guided ah stay you want you you want to figure out what you want to do you don't have to figure it out you can just flip the book and go oh i want to go to the koi fish think that's museum you scan the qr code it'll show you the google maps location and give you the phone number i did an airbnb experience recently in tokyo here when my brother and his wife were here was lot of fun like kind of doing these local experiences and like even in tokyo you do it and we We consider ourselves certainly experts of the area, especially in the food scene. Okay. So part of our thing is like mapping out.
Speaker: Yeah. What's your number one food scene pick? Number one, Rorno. Rorno? It's a pizza place. Oh, okay. but My man. But they're on the Michelin Guide. my man. um Rorno, yeah, long story, but the the owner studied in Napoli um for over a year to learn his craft of pizza. Nice. Brought it back to Subamere. Break oven. Yeah. And Rorno actually is... So, Forno...
Speaker: is brick oven in italian and rondine is a swallow bird in italian right and swallow is the bird for tsubame the city where weed so he took rondine and forno he smashed them together and came up with brorno so the backstory on the the name of brorno is not as dirty as you might think yeah Okay. So I take it the community in Ted Auto Money is like very welcoming of you and people that come in anticipation that you can hopefully bring a cultural exchange, bring people to Rorno, Indigo Dying. It helps that it's definitely... They're not fatigued by tourism. Oh, yeah. They're definitely not fatigued. Definitely not fatigued. but You might go to Kyoto. It might be a little rough if you're running...
Speaker: you know People are salty in some of the... over Definitely, I'd be salty if in the over-touristed areas. Over-touristed areas. Yeah. So find ah find an area where they kind of need a little bit of economic stimulus. A little bit. That being... like Yeah, there's definitely over-touristed areas, and I believe like you know that's contributing to anti-foreigner sentiment in Japan. But I feel like the over-touristed places, it's probably like 2% of Japan. like the The majority of Japan is not over-touristed. Yeah.
Speaker: All right, give us a quick plug of Niigata. Why should me and Joey visit Niigata? It's the Ebisu of Japan outside of Tokyo. Ebisu is just like a fun neighborhood in Tokyo. for It's like a whole super expensive food culture. Yeah, but... Think about the food scene and the availability of just different crafts and things. It's like where fermentation started. So there's like Miso Museum. There's Koi Fish Birthplace in Ogiea, which is right there by us. And then it's big into blacksmithing.
Speaker: If you come in the wintertime, you're obviously not far from skiing, snowboarding. Japan, baby. And then there's ton of surf spots along the beach. Yeah. Itoi Gala. Yeah. And there's Jade Beach where you can walk and pick up Jade.
Speaker: Cool. Yeah. just i don't I don't know. I feel like... There's a lot of undiscovered coolness that Japan knows. I actually just recently had a fun meeting with my mechanic. He was working on one of my cars. And he's out in the cut down in Ojiya area, Takamachi area, right? And he was like, why did you pick this area? And I was like, oh, I love the food here. We were just having a real basic conversation. And he's like, yeah, nobody knows how good the food is here. And him being Japanese. Don't tell yeah everybody. Nobody knows just how good the ramen scene is even over there. All right, Joey. I think we have to go to Niigata this fall.
Speaker: Let's do it. Momiji. Yeah, I'll show you guys around. Okay, okay. Nigata sake, nigata rice. We were at an izakaya yesterday. We tried a whole bunch of different sakes from all over, all different pre prefectures. Nigata is pretty good.
Speaker: when i think I thought the Nagasaki one was a little bit better. but they had I know how to put this. They don't... These guys, these guys don't...
Speaker: Partake in sake tasting prolifically, heavily. I'm a certified, I'm a sake some. And at the end the you can have a different taste palate. You can have a different palate and prefer something different. Yeah, I'm consumer. If you want clean, delicious, drop off, out of bite, a little bit of sweetness, Niigata has it.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. It's a perfect blend. I think, right? I think Joey liked the Niigata sake the most. Yeah. I can't remember. Nagasaki was good. Niigata was good. the other ones were not as good as those. There was Yamagata I thought was number two. And and that that kind of goes in line with what I...
Speaker: All right. I want to hear about your farming experience up in Niigata. So you've been doing some gardening yourself, semi-farming, but you've also helped out on the rice farms there. What, um, talking, and I have not done any farming near any of our properties, but I do sort of see the like home buying in Japan, slow life Japan. Like there is an overlap where I see a lot of people getting into farming.
Speaker: You know, what, what made you want to, you know, learn how your neighbors are doing rice farming? There's a couple things there for you guys to take in as well because you guys are big health nuts. yeah Want to be non-alcoholic. Water, baby. Eat healthy. wait We drank a lot sake yesterday. Gardening has been linked to longer lifespans because it's a low-impact exercise that you do daily and it's good for you. right so they They kind of assimilate. It's hard work. They associate.
Speaker: gardening with long life, long living. What are you growing? So what we grow at our garden, we've got potatoes, strawberries, peppers. We got a lot of herbs because herbs are expensive in Japan and not easy to find all the time. So we have a lot of basil. We've got like 20 basil plants to make pesto and stuff.
Speaker: um Rosemary, cilantro. That's a tough one to get in Japan. Have your neighbors been stoked? Like I do feel like I see a lot of like community engagement through gardening or through farming. That's the one. That's what motivated me to start it in the beginning. Everybody has a garden in my village. And when produce comes, you just like, you have excess, you know, cause it all comes usually at the same time. So you're like, oh, hey, here, here you go. Take some, right? And I only grew these red berries that are used in the New Year's wreath.
Speaker: Previously, that's all my house grew. Hyper specific. Yeah, because that's what came with my house. And I was like, oh, that's pretty lame. I can only donate red berries come New Year's, right? And so I wanted to use that piece of land and just basically give everything away that made. Did you see your neighbors like coming to you and and donating like what they had grown, like giving you some of what they had grown? We weren't here in the in the season...
Speaker: ah During that time, but they've given us stuff that they've that they make or have in the in the past you wanted to do that as well Yeah, it's just it's just natural right and then for the farming aspect One of my good friends eatos on we do a lot of renovation together and his family has five hectares or about ten acres of rice paddies and in Tsubame or Bunsui area, which is not too far from us. And he calls it Tawe Jingoku, which is planting hell every year.
Speaker: yeah, it might look like everybody's like enjoying their life planting. But it is not therapeutic, I would say. you in the mud? You do it as a group, right? Were you in the mud, reaching down, putting the plant the rice plant? No, no. They have the tractor that runs in this plot. But we load the tractor with the trays. Yeah. And then we smooth out the mud where it turns. Um, and, and was surrounded by rice fields, obviously being in Niigata and I wanted to learn what goes into it. What, why are all these canal systems? Why do they flood it? What, what, everything they use and do. And it's just my weird personality where I just have to know everything.
Speaker: So, Is this like a top Eric pick for activities to get to know your community? Or like in terms of like getting to know your neighbors or getting to like, you know, feel a little bit more part of your community instead of just like, hey, bought this house. but like i If you're here for an extended amount of time, yes. Because you have to be in here in that small window where they plant. When it whens that window? for That area is Golden Week. golden The first Golden Week. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Interesting. Okay. So this is kind of like, I think, ah an Akia journey. Or if you you buy a property here, you get settled. Eric's kind of got his own where he's got the car. He's renovated. Next up is the hobbies, right? i think so I think another key one is that, you know, cleanup day. Communities usually have like the the weed cleanup day type of deal or the trash cleanup day. Explain the weed cleanup We don't have it in our village because it's really clean. So like, and all everybody maintains their own. The community activities to to clean. yeah because i've I've asked like our...
Speaker: Quote-unquote like mayor like hey, do you happy to hell knows his mayor? Yeah he would eat me seven am sometimes a second older his He's upcoming mayor. Yeah, the actual mayor versus but like the weed cleanup stuff So maybe your neighborhood doesn't have it but I've definitely seen it in other places It's like community gets together and they like pick an area and then they just they go through they got bigger bags and and they go through and clean up that beautification neighborhood beautification yeah I saw an Instagram story where you're like, $700 and all I got were these two little strawberries or something like that. like what What's the been the yield so far on your first farming adventure? ah we've We've gotten a good amount of basil. like like A ton of basil. We made a bunch of frozen pesto okay and gave it out to all of our friends. Wow, i can't imagine they have pesto. Was that like a new thing? or like No, they were... they Like you can get Genovese is how they call it. Genovese. Yeah. Like when i refer to it as because they call it Basil.
Speaker: And if you say Basil, they might not catch what it is. But if you say Genovese, then they're like, I know what that is. All right. like, all Bajidu. Bajidu. Yeah. They'll look at you blank like you're trying to say something that they've never heard. Even though that might be out of context or something. But yeah, if you say Genovese, they get it. Do you have farming experience? Zero. Okay. Zero. How did you go? ChatGPT has taught me how to be a farmer. I send pictures of my plants and I'm like, okay, what do I need to do? What should I prep? What fertilizers should I do? What should I be looking for? grew...
Speaker: some blueberries too just because i was like i wanted to plant a ton of things figure out what does good and then double down on on the next season so that way that's what i can provide okay so how did you know you like your soil was good or like how did you got a ph tester okay and you're like you know i probed it yeah i put nutrients yeah i put down some basic compost and tilled it in but okay actually let me let me picture this like how big of a plot do you have right now Half a football field. It's probably, a no, it's probably about maybe 1,200 square 1,200 square feet. Basketball court?
Speaker: Yeah, maybe half of basketball court. Yeah. Half a basketball court. And you just had this plot. It was like already empty. It was all weeds. Red berries. They'd been overgrown and untamed. Okay. So went there. You just like ripped out all the weeds. My buddy Ito-san, his brother, and we call him Ototo. Okay. Little brother. Little brother. Yeah.
Speaker: Because he plants the tombo, the rice fields. Mm-hmm. He drove his tractor like an hour over to my area from where he lives, right? And he he did a real deep ah tilling of my backyard. cool I have a small tiller. It's not and not good for the first time, right? He wanted to get real deep and real churn up all the nutrients, right? and he came over, did that, left, and now I've been like,
Speaker: creating rows and whatnot. So, okay. So you have the half, half basketball court. Someone came in, we whacked everything, tilled it. Did you put, you put more compost in there? put More compost. And then I told it was my small tiller. Okay. Yeah. I did a fertilizer, um, like a chicken manure type fertilizer. Okay. What about like... Okay, so then you put... Then you do a rice husk as well. So you know how like they farm all this rice? Oh, that's why you got the rice. Okay, hey yeah. Well, you have like rice bran, which is like the ground powder, but you have the husk as well after they farm it. And you'll see like these big bags, and it's just like fluffy husk. But it allows your soil to drain better because you're adding like this...
Speaker: fluff to the dirt. So you're learning all these things of how Japanese do it. And you'll look at their gardens and you're like, oh, I see their tomato plant. Like, how are they how are they maintaining their tomato plant? Oh, they put a bag around it and while it grows. So it blocks the wind.
Speaker: But I'll even ask ChatGPT, like, what's the bag for? like and yeah So, like, all these techniques that they do, they all do them because it works, right? like do you Do you have, like, a sensei that's, like, giving you guidance besides ChatGPT, or is it really just ChatGPT? No, Ito and his brother have helped because I'll ask them, like, hey, what should I use for, you know, a bug? You know because I don't want to use, see like, pesticides. yeah But I still don't want to deal with...
Speaker: you know obviously infestation so i'm like what's been popping off in your garden what do you think you'll reinvest in for next year potatoes seem to be good i'm gonna be harvesting probably in a week okay our guy potato farmer yeah i'm really hoping that i'll have like 150 kilos 150 kilos yeah cheese oh freedom fries and the herbs the herbs did really well so and because they're rare and expensive i think that that is a double down how do you water We don't really need to. Niigata is one of the rainiest areas in Japan. Oh, really? So you actually, we actually have to trench the plant, the, the rows heavy. So that way the roots stay out of the water. If we get a lot of water, that's why you see those mounded rows. Okay. Learn that as well. Are you considering growing some rice?
Speaker: No. It's just too hard? for You want a separate rice paddy for it. It's almost like a clay. ah And they flood it. they They control the water and drainage and through a canal system. And there's just so much that goes into it that if you wanted to do rice, yeah you You could probably ask like lease a Tombo. You could lease an actual patty, and they would be happy, probably. because most I was told this by Ito. If you have a rice patty that you need to get rid of in your family, people will be like, oh, no thank you. yeah i don't want the burden. I literally don't want the burden of owning the rice patty. Yeah. so
Speaker: There's also like, i feel like Japan's unique, like probably there's no like mega farms up by you like we have in America. So I was reading there's like ah some, there's been laws in Japan that restrict the size of farms. So they can't kind of consolidate and go to these mega farms like we have in America. So it's probably like all kind of like small scale, a bunch of patchwork, small scale farms up there. It's funny that you say that. So Ito, his his dad, you know, obviously is the main farmer of the, of their area. And out of their five hectares, they have a bunch of different plots all over the place. Right. but one of their plots is like a massive plot for Japan.
Speaker: And when I was helping them plant, he was like, what do you think about this really big plot? It was even it was even filmed on a ah downtown rocket, which is like a J drama.
Speaker: Like this, they have a plaque. It was filmed with Mount Yajiko in the background. a famous area for ah a drama that was on TV, right? He's like, what do you think about these big plots? and And I was like, this is a hobby farm in America. Like, this is like a small hobby farm in America. And he's like, and then I was explaining to them like the size of tractor and field. And they were just like, oh my goodness. you know like it's It's interesting because it was actually at um when the Americans, after the war, when they were governing the country, they put the law in place that restricted the size that farms could get. And then in America, they obviously didn't do that. And they grew massive. lot of what we put outside of our country is better. yeah Okay. So you don't want to grow rice though.
Speaker: No, I want to help them every every harvest, you know planting and harvesting. Yeah, that's way better. Rice is just not a casual. like can Can I be a casual rice grower? No, I don't think so. damn we because yeah i mean, are you going to plant it by hand? don't know. Is it one harvest a year with rice?
Speaker: theyll They might stagger it. so they can they can There's two different strains. Koshihikari takes a longer time. What is Koshihikari? I see that on the bags. The best rice of Japan, right? That's the type of rice. Okay, like the species of grain or something? Yeah. okay And I forget the name of the other one, but the other one is kind of like what you'd find at a Yoshinoya or Matsuya. Like there's two main strains of rice? Yeah.
Speaker: The one out there, that those are the two that we encounter all the time. So ones that go to like fast food places and ones that get used at higher end dining situations. And Koshi Hikari is always known as like... I remember i was at like a Japanese grocery store in New York and I was trying to buy some rice and i guess I... was buying a cheaper one and the lady was like no no no that's student rice like you don't want to student rice oh interesting she's like you don't want that like you want that that was in new york maybe i got upset sold yeah was like a japanese grocer with a japanese lady running it no they they knew anyone was a student rice okay so eric's a farmer now uh not not very but he's a farmer so you feel like that has helped you integrate with the community better overall Yeah, I think it, um yeah, overall, definitely.
Speaker: But it also gives you something to do on days that you might not like, you know, if you're here for a longer amount of time, you can't go to a museum every single day. Right. So it's like, yeah. Would you recommend this for a customer who's bought a house, has a little plot of land, like, go for it.
Speaker: ah or what what tips would you have for someone who's again they've been here for six months their place is renovated i want to start farming tips yeah i mean like me and joey let's say me and joey like we're here in tamo we got a half basketball court gotta start farming let's say oh i would do it on a smaller scale with like just actual garden plots like the boxed Yeah. Wooden plots. That's how I would do it. um Versus just straight in the ground. Yeah. Yeah. Mine was more like I had this wasted ground with a bunch of weeds and I wanted the weeds gone.
Speaker: That's why I went my route. But if you didn't have to deal with like a whole field of weeds, then I would do more structured of garden plots. Hard to do too. Like it depends on how much time you're planning to spend in the country each year, right? Like I feel like a garden is kind of like, you need to be there doing something few months in a row. home centers, they sell different things at different times, depending on when it needs to go in the ground too.
Speaker: So like potatoes are first, garlic and onions get sold in the fall. So you can plant those in October. So you harvest them in the spring. So this is like timing, right? And so you're not here the whole time, then you'd probably want to focus on what... Helping someone else's stuff, like be here during May during the planting season, potentially, if you want to be involved. And I would say, yeah, if you make a friend and you just... Somebody owns a rice paddy. If you live in the Inaka country of Japan, somebody you know or somebody in your community will own a rice paddy or know somebody. And you just go, hey, I'm interested.
Speaker: in learning yeah about... right That's how I would approach it. And they'll be like, oh still okay. i will help i' ah When we have a planting day, I'll let you know. We usually plant on this day. They know the day, ah like the the block of time where they always plant. 6th. Yeah, yeah. They'll be like, boom. And you just go out there and help them. And honestly, you'll probably just be...
Speaker: Standing there chit chatting and drinking drinks. I mean, how do you do it? Right? Yeah. I mean, you're Japanese, not fantastic. Sorry, Eric. Like, how do you like navigate these conversations? Like they all speak English or what?
Speaker: No, I think we just. Eric's strength is, I think, getting through charisma. Yeah, don't know how I do it, honestly. Charisma is not a language. I guess that's what I'm leaning towards. A good attitude can really help out here. Good attitude and figure out the word. Just say something. I want to learn.
Speaker: you know show Not being shy. Yeah, don't be shy and say you want to help. you know I think it was a tough part for customers who end up buying a homes with us. and like Nobody's going to come to them, I think. Japanese are shy. You really got to put yourself out there with the community to to make friends. yeah We could do better job with our neighbors, too. We should.
Speaker: We should invite them to the party. Yeah, from what I've learned, city areas like this can be a little bit more challenging standoffish for sure yeah yeah um my my japanese friends he doesn't have their own opinions about country life versus city life yeah And he always tells me, he's like, people that live too close together are angry. i agree with that. I agree with that. Because we have land and area and space. We are so friendly and chill. And I'm like, I agree. Because everybody in my village, chill. Where my Snoopy house is, they're nice. oh But they're a little bit more like.
Speaker: Closer. yeah Yeah. And they're in the city. All right. Cool, man. so Final thing. I want to see. Where's the eggplant? Show me the eggplant. Go grab the eggplant.
Speaker: pride of niigata the pride niigata are eggplants supposed to be white no i'm smaller than the darker variety well i believe eggplants start out as white when they're small that is going to be the first thing we throw on the grill today right yeah how going to cook it a little olive oil salt pepper spiky on the stem oh you you put it you brought a salt rub for this I brought a seasoned salt for the hamburger. Oh, that's for the hamburgers. Yeah, yeah. But that guy, we're just going to slice it, olive oil, salt, pepper, and then grill it. Let's go. so Nice. and Yeah, I like to hold it like this so it makes it look bigger. All
Speaker: all right, Eric. We'll end on that note. Thanks again for coming by, man. Thanks for being our chef today. We are excited to celebrate July 4th with you. Thanks for having me. Happy 4th.
Speaker: John Eyre.
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. 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.
