Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to another Buying a House in Japan podcast, which already started. I'm your host, Joey, and this is my co-host, Take.
Speaker: What's up? We just cracked some beers. This is the first official recording in the new Gisogi Luxe Chill Lounge. This was has been in the vision board for about a year and a half at this point.
Speaker: Consistently, one of like my favorite room, I think, in all the... homes we've purchased, which is really only two that we've stayed in ever. But out of those two homes that we stayed in ever, this has been consistently my favorite room.
Speaker: Cheers. Congratulations. Can't reach you here, but we're envisioning a low floor kind of couch with a low hanging moody light. We went low room Like the couch doesn't have legs. the The cushion that you sit on sits right on the floor itself.
Speaker: And we rolled with that. We have this kind of mini fridge, which also seems like a short fridge. We have a nice plush carpet to sit on the floor. We have one of those low coffee tables that you can sit right up next to on the floor. and Most of the furniture here is sponsored by Nitori, Ikea, Amazon.
Speaker: But man, damn, feels good. This room is way better. We have a heater in here now. We have... The floor is redone. We have a special door. We have a, we wow. feels really good. Actually, one of my favorite new additions to the room is the concrete cubes.
Speaker: We found these like perfect, not perfect, like like a little bit rough concrete cubes at the um hardware store. And we've been using those like end tables. We'll do a full Jisoji Lux, aka Bepu short-term hot spring rental recap. Jury's still out. We're going to meet with Fumi, our fixer, tomorrow. and we're going to put her on the spot on the podcast, actually, and talk a little more about...
Speaker: Where's Sato? What's happening? but Get some more context. But sneak peek. House is pretty good-ish. A lot of room. A little bit overwhelming. But Joey, going to do a Dear Diary series today. Let's talk about a couple topics. The first one i want to talk about is inflation in Japan.
Speaker: Second one is going to be modes of transportation in Japan. Joey and i have gone... Up and down Japan using every form of transportation, I feel like, and have some strong opinions.
Speaker: And the last one is, when are we going to make money off one of our properties? How has inflation hit you the hardest, Tage? Damn. Okay. So Mbepu, really love this spot near us called Tonkatsu Yamamoto.
Speaker: Probably my top three favorite restaurants in Japan. Top three. Okay. Top three. I think the Tonkatsu here is like so effing good. Anyways, 10 minute walk from our house.
Speaker: We've been going honestly from like the first week we're here. We got recommend it recommended by one of our friends. Yeah. So they only sell five different, maybe four different cuts of tonkatsu there. It's like lean, medium lean, fatty, and like special fatty. And the one I would always get is called jodosu, which is like that the fatty, not the fattiest. And Joey, would get? high quality...
Speaker: or loin or whatever dosu is. I like the lean one. I don't like so much of the fat on it. So I get the one, the cheaper one than that. But the jorosu and then the tokudosu, special dosu, like those are supposed to be the more special ones. So Take's buying like the pretty, like the one above the cheapest one.
Speaker: This place holds a lot of sentimental value and I'll go into that a little bit. But shortness short story, I would get these jorosu for about 900 I think that's the number and we'll have to go through our WhatsApp chat.
Speaker: these This translates to about $7, $6 or so. And through our journey since we started this, I would always compare, oh man, cost of living Japan so cheap. And we started making some money off Akimart. We have some so subscribers, we're helping some customers buy. and I would always be like, Joey, today we made two Jodosus in subscriptions. Congratulations.
Speaker: Yeah, we'd come by, I think mostly it was around revenue. Sometimes we would compare like the cost of something in jodosu as well. Exactly. well The scale doesn't really make sense. It's really just, hey, this would be like five of my favorite meal.
Speaker: Yeah, our dream was to like move to Japan and like, how can we make money and live here? And we'd like, oh, we could eat jodosu every day is the the running joke. But... Fast forward, we went back to Tonkatsu Yamamoto last week and actually yes yesterday.
Speaker: And boom, the price had moved up to 1,600 yen. yeah and um well um um Taki's getting the sound effect. There we go. Wow, it took me a little while. Roadcast is a little far from me.
Speaker: so How much of an increase was that? know, 900 to 1,600 yen. That's like... at least a 50% increase in in the price. And and we Joey actually had talked to the lady and the lady definitely knows us. We've been there enough times with the Gaijin duo.
Speaker: And she what did she say? Oh, we accept credit card now. was new machine. first Yeah, so they got a new machine. And I said, oh, price went up since I was last here, which was probably November. And she was like, yeah, apologetic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it has. And then she was like, but we accept credit card now. I guess it used to be only cash. I didn't.
Speaker: Thinking back, we always paid cash, yeah. Still crowded, but really a little bit shocking. We've heard a lot about inflation in the States. I think what cumulative inflation in the States is up like 23% over the past five years. I forgot what the stat is, but it's it inflation the States, crazy eggs, especially you hear about the uprising costs, but didn't really expect it to hit Japan, but it is right. I've seen in the news here that things are going up in price.
Speaker: Yeah. I remember hearing around like COVID time, the first talk about inflation in Japan. And when we first came back it in 2023, that was my first time back in Japan in 12 years, maybe.
Speaker: And I remember expecting more inflation just because we're coming off COVID here. We're coming off lot of inflation. in the i I was living in the United States at the time.
Speaker: Now I'm in Canada, but I was expecting more inflation when he first landed two years ago. And it seems like it's recent that I'm seeing maybe in the past six months to a year.
Speaker: see it most in canned coffee. I buy the canned coffee in the mornings. How much is it now? I like remember on the ICU campus, there was one for 90 yen that I would go to. It was like ah sweet one. I was drinking back that cafe au lait, I think.
Speaker: And there was a place on the campus I would get it for 90 yen. it would Like you put in a 100 yen coin, get a 10 yen coin back. I remember that. And now it's like 140. That seems reasonable. I think ah Japanese businesses are very hesitant to increase prices if they don't need to.
Speaker: I know my favorite commercial here in Japan, i don't know if you ever had Joey. It's like a sweet popsicle used to have as a kid, but this is like really good commercial. Look it up on YouTube where Kuna has always been hundred yen and then they raised the price to 120 yen. So they released this YouTube commercial and I think it went viral where they have every single They have a very slow pan of the Gutty-kun head factory with all the staff.
Speaker: And it just like zooms out and they all bow. And it goes 100 yen, crosses out 120 yen. And don't know. and i don't i think it was I thought it was funny. and that like It was a serious thing, but everyone liked the way they were approaching it.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. I think other than that, though, it's it seems like lot of Japanese people are complaining. Other than the tonkatsu, I haven't seen anything as extreme, but it's coming. and Yeah. I don't think wages have...
Speaker: increased cost of labor here is still quite cheap. Yeah, and it's interesting with the exchange rate. For us Americans, it it honestly doesn't make too much a difference. ah That $1,600 is still $10 post-tax and tip and stuff. that's You can't get something like that. Yeah, but when and like in Oita Prefecture, I think minimum wage is 900 yen an hour, which is like, what, six bucks US an hour? So if that's what you're making hourly, and then they double the price of the of your favorite jodosu, right?
Speaker: Okay, one funny story about the Tonkatsu place. I know we've documented this somewhere before, but I think this Tonkatsu place goes deep in our origin story. We had been going so often and in this very minimally decorated place where they have like two things on the wall.
Speaker: One of them is a picture of this general. And the very last time we came one trip, I was like... He's wearing like a... Looks like Meiji era. With a sword. Yeah, like after Westernism came to Japan. general, yeah. And he has like a dog next to him and...
Speaker: We'd been going to this place maybe 10, 20 times. And the last time we went, we were like, what is that picture? And the ladies the old lady, that's Saigo Takamoni. Oh, and I Googled it. And I think he's what? The last samurai or something, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I think he is the character that Tom Cruise plays. And then we started connecting dots and our place here in Beppu, the previous owner used to be named Takamori or his last name, was his or her last name was Takamori. So our plate on the property says Takamori. So we decided, okay, let's keep it.
Speaker: We decided to lean into it even more. And we named our company Takamori KK. A lot of origin stories. and I feel like this inflation at the Tonkasa place shook me a little bit.
Speaker: You keep trying to you're like, oh, you should paint a picture of Saigo Takamori. So you put it up in the house. It's going to happen. And there's an origin story to that. But the yeah old lady is no longer working at the Yamamoto spot.
Speaker: Old lady it seems like it's, yeah, the new crew, the daughter and now the and new crew. So generational thing, too. I think as maybe older generations are handing off the business, the younger generation is OK, we got to modernize this and we got to raise the prices.
Speaker: Like in Nakatsu, we got that Okonomiyaki for 200 yen, 300 yen. 300 yen, yeah. That was a lady that said, oh, no, I don't do the internet. Yeah, so inflation, I feel bad. It's going to hurt a lot of people here who are depending on that stable kind of price, especially the elderly folk.
Speaker: Joey and I have been walking around Beppu and things are changing, but they're not at the same time. Yeah, some new homes in this neighborhood. Like at the same time, we have Akiya, Kobe too, right? yeah As our neighbor, immediate neighbors, and we're we're unsure.
Speaker: But also some new homes being built in the neighborhood too. Interesting mix. And one last economic thing. Japan is supposedly raising their interest rates half a percent. Did we hear that? Yeah, that's what he off the record. One of our agents ah told us last weekend in Tokyo.
Speaker: Don't know how the economic situation will play out here, but I'm not super optimistic on the Japanese economy given the age of folks and the wages. and Maybe half a percentage point was a prediction. Maybe it's already news. I don't know. Maybe maybe it's out there and we just don't follow Japanese news, but half a percentage point could be coming soon.
Speaker: And for context, most people in Japan who have a home loan are on a flexible mortgage or an arm, basically. So this is like a pretty big thing. They don't have um think very many people have 30 or fixed mortgages and stuff like that. no When I was doing some research into the earthquake stuff, I saw a stat about the loans. I think it was like 80 or 90 are on flex loans.
Speaker: Imagine raising 0.5%. That's it. Although from an American perspective, you're like, ah, that's whatever. From a Japanese perspective, that's sizable. They had a 1% loan. Anyway, we'll keep you guys posted. And unfortunately, that the the interest rate really doesn't affect us. The inflation does. But luckily, the exchange rate is so strong.
Speaker: Okay, switching topics, Joey. We have gone, i think together up and down Japan at least six to seven times over the past like 10 years, right?
Speaker: We have explored driving. So we have a car. We have taken Shinkansen and plenty of trains both into Tokyo from Tama and around here. And then lastly, we have taken, um sorry, not lastly, we've taken planes and we have taken ferries.
Speaker: Joey, what is the most underrated transportation form in Japan, in your opinion, at this point? Yeah, it's the ferries in Japan. We've taken a few ferries to at least two, three. Actually, we've taken three different ferries at least.
Speaker: And they're very comfortable. It's not something I would have considered until we bought the car, but it's pleasure. Like I look forward to riding on the sunflower ferry between Osaka and Beppu.
Speaker: Yeah, so our route is we drive from our Tokyo house down to Osaka, and that's about six-hour drive. We allot eight hours. And then from there, there's a night ferry. So we get there at 7 p.m. We drive literally drive our car on board, and it's like the smoothest effing process ever.
Speaker: like They have people guiding you. The ship is immaculate when you park. And then once you park, they like guide you and to your room to your room. And it's once you go in there, it's like literally a modern-day Titanic kind of looking thing.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like a hotel with a hotel restaurant and onsen, santo, like inside the ship. Restaurant's pretty good, buffet style. Michelin guided. Yeah, Michelin guided restaurant. not don't know what that means, but Michelin guided.
Speaker: What else is nice? They've got like a lounge area, like a shop where you can buy so snacks and like souvenirs. Definitely. What I think really interesting is that would normally be from Osaka to Beppu, at least like ah fourteen hour drive maybe something crazier but with the ferry it's like we fall asleep or i sorry we take we get on the ferry at seven we eat dinner we have we jump on the onsen go in the onsen and then we fall asleep and wake up and we're bepu and it's just the day or the and the ship does not rock for people who are
Speaker: sensitive, I think you'd be fine. And it's very luxurious hotel status. two Two major pluses, in my opinion. and The first being you get on the board in the evening and you wake up in Beppu.
Speaker: like It's overnight and it's quite comfortable. That's a big plus. You're traveling while you're sleeping. feels really good. It feels like it's like one a day's trip to Beppu. Second thing is that, as Taki mentioned, it's luxurious. It's actually nice in there. And i've've I've taken several times a ferry between Nova Scotia and Maine. Like I've driven down to New York that way.
Speaker: And it that ferry has almost all the same stuff as this ferry. It's got the restaurants, got the lounge area, et cetera. No onsen, but got the rooms. It's got everything that this ferry has, except that ferry is like way less nice. it's like you're It's like sitting in a Dunkin' Donuts for the six hour trip.
Speaker: This ferry is like a hotel. we almost in the morning when we were leaving, we were like, we wish the ferry was a little bit longer where you could sleep longer and weren't rushed to get breakfast. But at the same time, we had such a productive, feels like a very productive from, we got to Tokyo to Beppu in one comfortable day.
Speaker: I think the food was really good too. Yeah. So if you're considering going around Japan, you've done the Shinkansen, you've done the flying, really consider the ferry. I think I would definitely take the ferry over a plane. I feel like I,
Speaker: Honestly, hate planes now, like going to the airport and and worrying about stuff. and Yeah. Even domestically in Japan, it's cool. It is easier, but still, damn, the ferry is such a comfortable experience.
Speaker: Yeah. If I was going on a trip around Japan, rent a car and take the ferries. It's fun. Yeah. If you're renting a car too, just know the roads are all... I would say I would rank car driving as number two mode of transportation.
Speaker: yeah very comfortable roads. The highways are great. The rest stops are great. Some of the turns are confusing. Osaka specifically, we we missed it a couple of times, but Overall, do not be afraid of driving on the other side of the road. I think most people pick it up very quickly.
Speaker: Pro tip, just get your international driver's license at AAA. That's what I've been using. Joey, I'm not sure what you've been using. CAA. CAA? Canadian. Canadian AA. so Okay.
Speaker: Next, Shinkansen. I like Shinkansen. I feel like they're getting quite expensive is my feeling. And also, damn, the train station train stations are brutal. like I think in Tokyo especially, it's just like,
Speaker: Too many people all the time. I have not been on Shinkansen in a long time, actually. So hard to rank for me, but I have been on them. Very similar to the Keisei Skyliner from Narita to into Tokyo.
Speaker: um They're fine. The Shinkansen Karin Ferry is just, you know, it's in a different league. It's really nice. Shinkansen, you... If you've never taken a Shingansen, I think there's a novelty to it. and It's convenient.
Speaker: But at this point, what can I do to avoid Shinjuku or any of the big transit stations? Because it's just too many people in those train stations sometimes. Yeah, and you still need to get you and your luggage to that train station. So you're going to be navigating local trains at least for a little bit.
Speaker: Yeah. Very last, yeah, we we talked about it already. The planes are they fast, but it does feel like it almost takes more time getting the train there versus, again, we we have a luxury. We have a garage. We just jump in the car, then we jump on the ferry. So we've had it dialed in. We didn't always have it this dialed in. took time. But about two years later, after buying our first Akia, we have...
Speaker: Think figured it out of going car to ferry is our preferred mode. Yeah, I agree. Plain last. It can be quick if you're going quite far, but still.
Speaker: Okay. Very last topic, Joey. I'm gonna switch this on you, actually. We could do a whole episode on us not earning. TLDR, we haven't earned very much money from all our properties. We are in the game of helping people buy, but I think some first impression is, and also, i don't know, general thoughts here is,
Speaker: When you're renovating something in the United States and you're getting a mortgage on it. So I own a couple of properties in Hawaii and I'm renovating them to be do Airbnb. There's a strong pressure of getting that shit done ASAP because you're paying a mortgage on it.
Speaker: I felt a little bit of that stress this week when we saw our Tokyo spot and then our Bapu spot being like, damn, it's like, we've been working on this and it just really isn't done yet.
Speaker: But then I realized, wait a second, we bought this in cash and we're not really losing money. i think that really helped shift the paradigm a little bit for me. if You don't need to rush these renovations or rush getting these ready because you're not really losing money by the second.
Speaker: We're not losing money by the second. Yeah. And that's something that i guess didn't dawn on me as profoundly as you. i like I've never had a mortgage in my life. I guess I didn't have that. hemiion You own five properties in Japan and you never had a mortgage? Debt free for life.
Speaker: But yeah, you're right about that. I think another thing was when we first started this project, i we had both just lost our jobs. You got another job. I was still working on this full time.
Speaker: And so money was much tighter for both of us. And so we were thinking a lot more along those lines, let's get these up on the market quick and have an income source from this. But the website has actually allowed us both to focus on this more in life. Sorry, focus on other things like the money coming through the website has finally given us that freedom to not worry so much about turning these properties into money making machines.
Speaker: Yeah, it's actually interesting. We've helped a couple people buy and and a lot of some people come in with, hey, I'm going to buy and I'm going to turn this around and make this a mean pocket or Airbnb, make these returns and it's going to be dandy. If you're thinking that, no, I cannot dissuade you enough.
Speaker: That's not going to work that way. I don't know anyone that has really, maybe if you're like but throwing enough money at the problem, but if you're buying like a true Akia and you plan on renovating it, you're not going to be able to get it up that fast. And we've been we've had a lot of friends here. It's been a year and a half and we'll talk about this more in another episode, but we have we haven't made any money.
Speaker: So if that's the route you're trying to go, i caution you to rethink. But as Joey mentioned, we are seeing it ourselves and with other people finding other business opportunities, whether be like exporting cars or exporting clothes or or making a ah consulting company. So there are a lot of other benefits, I think, for us specifically with starting this journey. We like we never would have started this company and website had it not been for us wanting to buy a Nokia. So just know there's other peripheral benefits and career monetization paths that just don't show up immediately.
Speaker: Yep, I agree. A lot, not to not a lot, but there are a class of clients that do the consultations with us and they are looking for specifically ah ROI. And just in our experience, not a single one of our properties has become profitable and we're a year and a half into this.
Speaker: I know some people do this. Like a lot i know a lot of Ziv's clients are investor focused on their properties. And also we've met some of these people in person.
Speaker: i know Shu focuses a lot of on investment. So it can happen. Take and my experience, it has been difficult. Yeah. That being said, we've learned an incredible amount. We've had a lot of fun, but again, I have to control my like anxiety of this needs to be done now thing and just relax a little bit because and need to realize there's we own this place in cash. We're not playing a mortgage.
Speaker: It's totally okay for us to take five years to get this going because it's We are seeing improvement. It's just a lot slower than we had hoped. But grand scheme of things, man, we're learning a ton of stuff. We're helping a lot of people.
Speaker: And I think it's all God's plan to some degree. All right. So it's not working or not working, not making money yet. yep Like what are the top reasons you think? we're Like why haven't we made a yen?
Speaker: I think we won. We haven't been on the ground. I think if we are truly on the ground, being like, okay, this is our main goal. We got to get this done. We've been multitasking and hell, we bought five properties. We're spread pretty thin. i have We have some properties in the States and doing other things. So I think that's the biggest reason is that we have not been on the ground, focus firing, let's get this done. If that was the case, I think we'd find other solutions. We'd find other contractors. We'd push harder.
Speaker: And yeah, I would say that's the one big thing. Yep. And like I agree, just thinking through the properties as you were talking about that, J-Lux, the renovation has been going on forever. And had we been on the ground- Beppu Hot Spring Short-Term Rental. Beppu Hot Spring Short-Term Rental, we used to call it J-Lux, has been on the, sorry, i've been under renovation for a year and a half now.
Speaker: And as Taki mentioned, had we been on the ground probably could have guided that more effectively and pushed and and made decisions faster. TBC? Tokyo Suburban Mid-Stay. Come on, Joey. te so Sorry.
Speaker: Tokyo Suburban mean Midterm Stay is our Tokyo property, formerly known as TBC. Minpaku license. So through this Minpaku license. Rio at Nostal Homes is helping us with that.
Speaker: But again, on when we're not on the ground letting people in, things go slower. we A few rooms, we're missing furniture. And there's difficulty getting packages delivered from Nitori and Ikea if there's no one there. So think, again, many reasons why us being there on the ground could have sped that up.
Speaker: Yeah. But also at the same time, we were doing so many other things simultaneously. Luckily, I just got laid off from my W2. So I'm going to work Aki Amart full-time now. But yeah, no, I think both of us, Joey was full-time dev working on Aki Amart. I was part-time. I was working yeah also W2. It worked out, I'd say.
Speaker: Still, we probably made more money doing this route than focusing on getting this up as an Airbnb, in my opinion. So Not stressing, but for anyone who is in a similar zone, who's just bought an Aki, who's trying to push it hard, just cut yourself some slack because it's going to be slower. But it is, i think, more rewarding, honestly, than some of the other properties I've done in Hawaii.
Speaker: yeah i I just want to expand a little bit more on the other properties. Kitakyushu, long-term rental. You remembered Kitakyushu, long-term rental, finally. This property has already been renovated.
Speaker: and trying to get a long-term renter in there. And again, so the specific reason for this is I think that our agent is being, maybe dragging their feet, maybe a little bit lazy. The property is not going to make a whole lot of money.
Speaker: And in Japan, i think the the rental brokerage gets one month rent commission for finding a renter. And I don't think they're expecting to get much money from this property. So they only post, I believe they only posted this property on their specific website for their local company, but they haven't posted it as a rental property on Sumo or at home. And this is just something we realized a day ago or two days ago. So they suck.
Speaker: Yeah, they suck. The company we're working with. Another thing to be aware, if you buy a condo, for example, and you're just going to turn it into an investment property, trying to get rented out, they may not push as hard to try to find a renter for your cheap property than you would.
Speaker: We're finding a lot a a lot of inefficiencies the deeper we get into the Japanese real estate space here. We are going to take this into our own hands. We've hired a photographer to take better photos.
Speaker: We're going to list it on Akiomart. We're going to start hounding these agents and be like, Hey, are we not on all the aggregators for domestic sites? which I don't think we are. i think the short answer, this is our fault. We haven't put any, not our fault, but like we have put zero, not, we have not put a lot of energy into this and we're going to, we're shifting energy and we're going towards it now a little bit. We've got to get this place rented out.
Speaker: KK20, Ketakushu long-term rental. Miyoko Snow Cabin, our latest property, actually no longer our latest property. But the property we purchased earlier this year, sort earlier last year, it needs a renovation. That's the reason why it's not rented out. It's not in a livable state.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm not worried about this one. I think this is, if you're like a venture capitalist and you're investing in a couple different companies, like this is going to be the hottest company for sure. The unicorn. unicorn. We're figuring stuff out here. I know we've talked about it the past, but we're looking at a new build.
Speaker: Because I lost my W-2 job, things might be weird with a loan. I know we had a couple people reach out how you can get a loan. We don't know yet. We're trying a couple things. the The short is you cannot get a loan as a foreigner, especially as a foreigner without a steady W-2 income. But Milka, we are going to figure it out We're to crowdsource with a couple of friends, thankfully.
Speaker: We'll keep you posted here. But yeah, again, we're not making any money, but it's okay. yeah We really didn't spend too much money on Myoko. Yep. But just the fact that we have two properties that are quite livable and debt-free.
Speaker: Two that are livable. Three, all of them are livable. to some How comfortable is another question? Would you enjoy your time there too or you'd enjoy your time? It's all perspective. If we are coming from a third world country and I spent some time in Indonesia, like definitely the Miyoko house is better than a lot of Indonesian houses.
Speaker: and Okay. Nothing against Indonesia, but yeah. Padang, sorry Padang, you just don't, does not have good houses. So all perspective, coming from California, coming from the States is definitely a different zone. But worst case scenario, Joey, shit goes down in the States. We have four homes, five homes now in in Japan that we can come and live in and hide away in if we need to.
Speaker: All in different cool areas, actually. Yeah. To sum it up, across our properties, we haven't made a single dollar. One, renovation going to too long. Two,
Speaker: Me and Paco licensing going on too long. Three, um lazy agents trying to rent out our find a renter for our property. I think the number zero or four or whatever is we just haven't made it a priority.
Speaker: I think if we really, if this was like, all hey, we need to do this, I'd say we we would have got this done. It would have been more painful. And I think we're taking this at a delicate pace and we're learning a lot. We're trying to be respectful for everyone we're working with.
Speaker: But Joey, you put it pretty well. We are. We originally were mining for gold, but now we're selling the picks and shovels to people. And and this has created another business. And not to say anything is wrong with mining the gold. We are still mining it ourselves with our properties, but we found a lot of other areas to help people.
Speaker: And um if you're listening to this and think the same, there's a lot of opportunity in Japan with just how much friction and how backwards things are at this point. Yeah, we were mining it at first as the gold miners and then it feels like now we're mining it to understand the problems that gold miners face.
Speaker: Yeah, and there's a ton of problems mining gold here in Japan, trust us. Speaking of that, again, we've talked about this maybe a few times, but this is now, it is now coming around the corner. Tomorrow, Joey and I are going to be driving down to Nagasaki to pick up the keys to our property.
Speaker: We've spent maybe the last... week or so figuring out what are we doing with this property? How are we doing this? We're going to come out with more details soon. But the short is we are going to be selling this property for Bitcoin. It is a legit property.
Speaker: We've spent the past two years learning about a lot of stuff here. And we want to make this our first AkiMart seal of approval property for sale. Yeah, we've really talked over the the past two years of doing this.
Speaker: How do we make this process more simple? Like, how do we make this process more simple? And I think we've done a great job with our AkiMart direct program, like the easy mode button to purchase property. But we're attempting some experimental things with this Nagasaki property to like,
Speaker: really kick it up to 11 in terms of like how simple we can make this to purchase property in Japan. And we're incorporating pretty much everything we've learned over these past ah two years.
Speaker: We've spoken about Fumi and Linda helping us so much. We're teeing up this property with your very own person on the ground fixer that there's going to be hiccups. you're go to eat We have a bilingual cool person on the ground in Nagasaki that will help you troubleshoot.
Speaker: What else do we got, Joey? Invaluable yeah is but is what we've said about it before. It's coming with a car. The whole property is coming with a car. Which, hey, take our advice, check out the ferries and use this car to explore Japan.
Speaker: It's coming with Starlink Internet. Yep. It's coming with a utility setup. We're partnering with Mailmate, digital te mail Yep. It's coming with a Mimpaku Airbnb contact.
Speaker: Yes. It's coming with reno contact, someone that can help you yeah project manage your renovations. Like... ah every problem, every large problem that we've ran into.
Speaker: and have been working on the AMD program to solve. we In this one-off Nagasaki case, we're really pushing those. We're trying. yeah We're not trying to make too much money off this, honestly. Maybe just a little bit for our travel costs, but context, and we'll do a much deeper dive. One of our agents, Mika, this is her grandma's house. We did a home inspection on it. It's not cursed.
Speaker: It's a very clean property. It's in a good location. It's little remote. but we're going to make sure the price is very good. Joey, this really just came together on this walk over here after dinner. we We're just like, this we're trying to make this property, we're trying to incorporate the past all our experience into this to make this the easiest for someone who can't do what we're doing, who's not available to be on the ground, who doesn't have the Japanese ability.
Speaker: And we hope this is a model that will be repeatable. As Joey mentioned, we feel really confident now with AkiMart Direct that we can help you buy anywhere in Japan, any price point, any property almost.
Speaker: Now we're going on to the flip side. like How do we sell? What are the intricacies and friction points? I don't think foreigners really ever get into the selling the property. And again, as we help people buy, we're helping 60, 70 people in the process right now. like Someday those people are going to sell. like We need to have those questions answered.
Speaker: Yep. I'm curious about learning this about the sales process myself. I think there's opportunity there too. I think that's uncharted water for most foreigners purchasing property in Japan, as you said.
Speaker: And if there's anything we can do to learn about that space and help, I think that'd be really cool. Plus first Bitcoin transaction. This is business is going to be confusing. I know a couple of people have reached us out, reached out to us, trying to give us advice. And it's, I feel like we've just got to do it.
Speaker: i don't know. Like everyone has different opinions on it and and we might get hit with a really fat tax bill, I believe is worst case scenario. Yep. But maybe we'll, we'll bake some of that into the price of the Bitcoin transaction for Nagasaki.
Speaker: I don't think we'll get hit with a fat tax bill, but I think that it'll it will be exciting. I'm excited just to try it. I feel like it's very unusual hyper unusual for Japan to try something like this. Maybe there's been ah Bitcoin transacted for a house, du like basically traded for a house directly somewhere else in the world. I'm sure it's probably happened, but at least for Japan, it's a first.
Speaker: Could be world first. I'm just going to say it's a world first. Whoa, okay. like World first in Nagasaki, honey. And again, the the big pain point, and I guess the ah restriction is like, most and don't we don't know any sellers that want to receive in Bitcoin or technically understanding on how how the transaction could work or how to receive it. We are spinning up our Binance account. it's It's a pain in the butt. But I think we are the right people to do this, Joey.
Speaker: I think so too. And like the only reason we're able to do this is because we own the house. We are the sellers in this case. But yeah as you mentioned, a project for the future, if if ah other sellers can be convinced to.
Speaker: Both of us worked in crypto. Joey at Gemini, I just got laid off from cracking. We're staying in crypto. And it's interesting that we did our first when and we did our first Business Insider article, the guy was like, why you guys? And and we were like, don't know. We're just having a good time.
Speaker: it's it's It's interesting. Like looking back now, the dots are connecting for this hopefully to make it big. Jordan Panty, shout out to Jordan. right, Joey, that was cool. I think we've had a, we made it. This is a milestone. We're literally in the chill lounge. We have all this mic set up. I will put this photo as our cover photo.
Speaker: We envisioned this a couple of years ago and it's here. We did it. Last time we recorded a podcast here, i think that- was echoing in that room. We couldn't in the same room. We were doing it over Wi-Fi. We didn't have the Rodecaster.
Speaker: we're connecting over Wi-Fi, but there was a lag between mine and Taki's computer. and One of us would hear the other like a second before and you'd hear it in your headphones and you'd hear it in real life. You'll hear it. Listen to episode like five or six or something like that and and you'll hear it. but We're stepping up our game here. we want to thank everyone who's been listening to us. We've had a lot of people reach out. Keep on reaching out.
Speaker: Please smash that like button on Spotify. We are gaining traction and yeah, we appreciate everyone taking the time here. Thanks everyone. Okay. Gotta go with the outro again, Joey.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: We did it, Joey.
