Transcript
Speaker: If you ask me, why did you move to Japan? Why did you come here in the beginning? I'd say because I feel like I fit in here in some ways. I'm kind of reserved. I'm happy to be quiet. I'm very, um, I'm very hyper aware of my space. I try to, I try to look around and see what other people are doing. and And I don't want to say blend in, but respect how others are are operating in their behaviors, their attitudes.
Speaker: Welcome to The Buying a House in Japan podcast. We have a super, super special episode today. We are recording live from Lime Hotel in Myoko, Niigata. Joey, who do we got today on the podcast? Today we are joined by Matt Guy, a knower of everything. Japan, he's traveled to every single prefecture. I think you're the first person I've ever met. That's traveled to every single prefecture. um Influencer in Japan has bought his own house. He's a builder and expert of the Miyoko region of Japan. Welcome, Matt. Thanks for having me, guys. Knows everything. That's a big 12. Been everywhere. Do you know anyone else that's been to every prefecture in Japan? I don't know any Japanese people who've done that.
Speaker: I do not. I know there are people that have, and I mean, probably they inspired me at one point in my life, but yeah these days it's not so common to find it. Yeah. Well, Matt, thank you. First off, we've been spending the entire day. We decided to spend another night in Myoko because we had such a good time. um We went to go tour this house we're buying. We'll put up a video. Matt graciously came out and toured it with us and gave us some advice.
Speaker: ah Before we jump into it, Matt, give us first impressions of the house. give Probably like you guys, I've been to a lot of houses in Japan, whether it's in Akia or whether it's just a regular property that could be older, someone's living there. Overall, this property was not something that stands out as like a terrible property or anything. Score. Yeah. It's not a property that's, it's not Incredible. It's not terrible. It's kind of what you'd expect for the regular image of an archaea, but possibly in slightly better condition, you can see it has a lot of potential. There is definitely a lot of work to do on there, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. yeah Okay. Yeah. Biggest concern with the house if you were the person purchasing it? It's no.
Speaker: ah so I've never lived in snow before. Yeah, I've never lived in snow before. So Matt was telling us earlier when we were checking out the house that last year was a bad year for snow in Myoko Kogan and they got 30 feet over the season and that was a bad year. But normally it's more than that. Yeah. On average in this area, you'll get.
Speaker: up to 50 feet of snow. so it's It can be anything from 30 up to 50. A few years back, there was even more than that. um and again and That would depend on the the altitude that you're at, where the town is. um It's funny because i mean we're sitting here at the mountains right now. and We can't see them because there's a bit of a storm that's rolled in, but over down into the south part is Kurohime Mountain.
Speaker: up to the northern part is where you'll find Lotte Arai ski resort. And they're actually, they're only 20, 30 minutes apart from each other, but just that small distance, you'll find a huge difference with the snowfall. And it's the same in the area, even between where that house is. yeah versus my house, which is five minutes away. Interesting. Okay. Is that an elevation thing or what, what is just like, it can be, it's partially like elevation, but it's also to do with what way is the wind blowing? What way is the mountain facing? So you might capture a bit more snow that's coming in from which other way that the winds blow like literally where the wind's blowing, the storms coming in. Matt, you mentioned that, um
Speaker: When you first came to Myoko, I want to know why Myoko, but when you first came here, you didn't like Myoko or the first week you were here. What changed your mind? Because now you live here, obviously. It's funny because I've reflected on this a few times myself, but I never really sat down and spoke through a podcast as to why that is. um When I, I left Japan in 2018 was the last time I was living here.
Speaker: And I went on an adventure. I went on a world trip. I was traveling for maybe a year and a bit through South America, Europe. I do this every now and then in my life. I just travel a lot. I ended up winding up in the US s living in Fremont, California. And I really got used to this honestly, like kind of bougie lifestyle.
Speaker: Yeah. And I didn't realize this, you know, this just happened. I started working for a couple of different tech companies and I got paid really well. yep I went there with no money at all. I did my best to save up with my dream. the The reason that I could live in that van for six months and get through all that was because I wanted to buy a house in Japan. I really i worked really hard and sacrificed a lot to get to the point where I could afford a $6 ,000 house in Japan. this was 2018 or this is 2019 when I got there so I did the year travel and then I moved to to Fremont um That's a trip going world travel than going to Fremont for anyone who hasn't been to Fremont It's I'm born and raised kind of in there. It's a very very Chinese Area, I would say a lot of traffic. How else would you just got rolling hills pretty high? It's pretty like I said the whole
Speaker: SF, Bay Area, it's bougie. You want to go rock climbing, you want to go bouldering, it's 50 bucks. It's a cool thing to do. Yeah, it's cool. Planet granite, baby. Yeah, it's cool. Planet granite. That's the best the rock climbing gym everyone goes to. Yeah, but it's expensive. yeah And the, I guess, like quality of finishes for certain things is high. If you want to go to a cafe, yeah, like it can be pretty nice. You have 20 something year olds earning a lot of money who want to, who want to spend it. Yeah. Um, that was me, baby. yeah that was about me when i lived in new york too New York sounds like, you know, very similar companies, tech company life. Right. And that, that changed me in some ways. um I went from a backpacker. I mean, I still lived in a van, but my expectations were a little bit different. So when I came back to Japan, I had the idea of I'm going to buy a place in Hakuba. That's what I wanted for a long time. I liked the Hakuba vibe and I still do, but.
Speaker: When I yeah when it came back, it didn't feel, Hakubo wasn't the place that was on my radar anymore. It just changed. And I don't want to say, there was no like negative comment connotation to it. it just didn't like Something didn't line up with me there. yeah um I came up to Miyoko to help a friend with some of the building work he had going on. And the first few, maybe the first month, it wasn't somewhere that stood out to me. I just thought, like yeah, I'll be happy to get away from here. I don't want to be here anymore.
Speaker: um I spent a little bit more time here and a house came up for sale during that roughly one month that I was here. And I went to look at it and I thought, I don't really want to buy a house in Myoko. Like it's not the place I want to be, but.
Speaker: I went ahead and I just kept going forward with it. And the more, um, the more I thought about it and reflected on it, the more I realized this is where I wanted to be years back. Like when I was looking at Hakubu before, and this is like the older version of an older ski resort in Japan. And that's kind of how.
Speaker: It kind of moved towards, I can, I can be a Myoko. It's interesting. Like, you know, I did a lot of backpacking as well. And it's like some of the best spots are just going with the flow and kind of going with where life takes you. And it seems like life took you to Myoko and, uh, you know, brought you to what you want, basically. Right. Yeah. And I think.
Speaker: I didn't give Myoko a chance. And like I said, I think I was looking for these bougie experiences that I kind of got used to. I wanted to settle into somewhere that had - Damn it, Bay Area. Yeah. It ruined us. Bay Area. And I was living in um Bellevue and near Seattle in Washington. It really hit in all the tech hubs. That was terrible.
Speaker: So it was, it was a good lifestyle. There was like high expectations. Things had changed yeah and I came here and it was farming and it felt like there was nothing here, but the things that I love to do in my free time is to be outdoors in nature, in the wild. So even though I was in the Bay area, even though I was up in Seattle, every day when I finished work at three, four PM, I would just be in the mountains. I'd be skiing up in Seattle. It was opening up.
Speaker: until 10 PM, just skiing up there, just go hiking anywhere, go up to Tahoe. So I was trying to escape actually that bougie lifestyle. So coming back to Myoko, this is the place that has all of that stuff that I try to escape from. So then I kind of came to that realization. It's interesting. yeah ah First you had your sights on Hakuba and something was off and then you realized Miyoko was what you were looking for. I had a similar experience with Tokyo. I went to university in Tokyo. That's where I met Take. And coming back to Tokyo, it's just so much more crowded. But when after we bought our property in Beppu and I spent a lot more time in Fukuoka. I was like, wow, Fukuoka is how I remember Tokyo. like This is you know felt much more at home there. um I wanted to switch topics a little bit and talk about the house that you purchased. That's what many of our listeners are interested in. Could you tell us what you purchased it for and what type of renovations you've been putting into it?
Speaker: Yeah, I promoted this in some way as my $6 ,000 house in Japan. So I bought this house for $5 ,000 in Japan. And ever since I've told this story, I've just rounded it up to $6 ,000 because there's an extra year about $500 of doing that transfer, and the deed title transfer. That's all it costs. That's a good price, actually. Yeah, shiboshoshi price. Oh, yeah. yeah that And the um included in that was my real estate agent fee. What? About $500.
Speaker: So it's just a little bit more, so you could say 5 ,700 was the total price of my house and the transfer. that's Because it used to be 3 .3%. Yeah, it's changed the rule, or I guess changed the base commission. um So $5 ,500. Between that and like less than 6 ,000 bucks, but that's my congratulations. When did you first post that video? When? When, yeah.
Speaker: About a year and a bit ago. So I just got the house. So when I first posted that video, I was doing a lot of travel um content in Japan. yeah And I posted that video and it went viral pretty quickly. Crazy. Like I have had maybe five, six people send it to me and they're like, Hey, this guy's doing this. And we're like, Hey, we're doing it also. So it was cool. we I saw that video very ah early on. So great to meet you in person. Yeah, very cool. Yeah.
Speaker: Um, where are we going with that? I'm actually a long time follower too, but back when before Acumite was a real thing, you were one of the first people I started following. Yeah, cool. I'm a long time fan. and Um, yeah, sorry, renovations. What, what type of renovations have you done to you? You mentioned that you have a experience in construction building. Um, did your house need a lot of work? Yeah, my background, I have a degree in construction and property development, construction management, property development. Um, my dad is also.
Speaker: builder for more than 50 years. And I grew up like kind of old school way where he would take me to work with him from when I was like 10 to 14 years old, somewhere around there. And then during my school holidays, I'd go to work with him. So I kind of already had that intro to like a construction, a trade lifestyle. And that's probably where I was going to end up if it wasn't for then going to university later on down the track. I didn't enter that until I was like 25. So I have quite a bit of experience in construction and have worked In on both tools and in the management side in more professional consulting setting.
Speaker: um When it came to the house and what i did there. I didn't go into the house with a plan because i thought.
Speaker: Firstly, like I didn't want to spend money. I didn't have, I don't have a lot of money. I didn't plan to buy this place to knock it down and build something new. I bought it to approach it for two reasons, not just because of my finances, but also like the environment is quite important to me as well. Um, and on top of that, culturally, I don't want to change too many things at the house. I'm buying it in Japan, a Japanese house because it's a Japanese house.
Speaker: Um, I wanted to experience what it could do in winter. For example, how cold does it get? What do I need? Yeah. I, it will be nice to have underfloor heating, but does it need that? So I wanted to spend the winter there and really feel it out. So what did I do to the house? I got there in summer. It was hot. So the first thing I did was I painted the roof white. Smart. I was talking to Joey about that. And I think we should do that also, but yeah. Yeah. And it's funny because later on down the track, and I'm talking about like two, three months back, my next door neighbor called me over to her house. We were having um tea over there. And she's like, Hey, Matt, like look out the window here. I just want to show you something. And she pointed at my house and she's like, you see your house there? Like, yeah. And she's like, your roof is white. She's like, yep. And she said, look around the village here, the town. How many white roofs do you see? I'm like, no, just mine. And she said,
Speaker: It's so dumb, but it's the smartest idea. She's like, why do people not paint their house roof white in Japan? like We should do that. So it was a new idea that was brought from me, um at least into this like area, and Yeah, they accepted it and thought it was a great idea. So it's, it's, it was nice. That's one of my changes. Did other people paint their roofs white around you? no They'll probably never paint them white, but yeah, they they recognize what I'm doing and they understand like there's logic behind it. Exactly. Wait a second. Yeah. We should definitely do that for our Thomas spot. We should do that for all our spots, honestly.
Speaker: Yeah, well, we got to insulate Tama. Yeah. Uh, speaking of insulation, I've watched some of your videos, uh, was your house originally, what was the insulation? What was the condition of the insulation? How cold was it? It sounds like you were like raw dogging the the first season of winter, right? Yeah. And to take a step back, because I'm not sure how many people who are listening to this have actually seen any of my content. Um, I bought this house and my house, I should say, cause this is Akiya Mart. My house was not an Akiya. Um, it could be somewhat comparable to an Akiya in some ways, but the price, I mean, the price is comparable to what you'd pay for an Akiya, but $6 ,000 or less. Um, the people that were living there lived there up until the day that I moved in the day before they moved out.
Speaker: They had still, even though this was not an Akia, they had decided to leave things behind. So a lot of people wonder, you know, why do people leave it behind? Someone, a common comment that I would get would be like, oh, there must've been a bad omen, ghosts, death. But that's just not the case. After you're selling your house for $6 ,000, you probably don't want to spend any more money, whether it's expensive or not, to remove what's inside the property that you just don't want anymore.
Speaker: Um, money and time. Did you keep the creepy dolls? Yeah, good question. I didn't keep the dolls. I kept some of this stuff. I didn't keep the dolls. I didn't keep the photos around the house. I actually contacted the agent and just said, Hey, there's some personal stuff here left behind. Are you sure these people don't want it? And then they actually came back to get something.
Speaker: They didn't say what that was and I wonder whether it's like treasure under the house or something, but they came back. like They wouldn't didn't want me to be in the house for them to go and find this thing. Really? Yeah. so oh I don't know what it was. Definitely treasure. yeah Interesting. Yeah. So they came in. I couldn't be inside. Really? Yeah. I never told anyone this actually, but yeah. I wonder what it was. Yeah.
Speaker: um Back to insulation. When I spent this winter there, I knew it was going to be cold. You can tell it's single pane window glazing. um The walls most likely in most of these houses and in Japan pre -1995 and down, I think it was pretty recent, but pre the 90s and down, you probably don't have any insulation at all.
Speaker: I didn't really do a thorough inspection of the insulation upfront when I first moved in. I just kind of wanted to make it livable and just put heating on to get through the winter. I had a time constraint where I was racing to get ready for winter, but it's funny. I kind of prioritized comfort in a different way. I prioritized comfort for cleanliness and hygiene rather than heat.
Speaker: yeah um So I painted the walls, I cleaned everything up, I made everything looking like it's sounded sanitary. It wasn't until after winter that I actually started doing insulation stuff, which is really funny, yeah. um The first thing that I checked, which I really should have checked in the beginning was, does the roof have insulation? And it did not.
Speaker: Yeah, so I lost all of my heat and it would have cost me money, but I went into that winter knowing that I'll be making mistakes and I prioritized other things in my life at that time instead of the installation. That's how you learn though, right? I think Joey spent a hot ass summer in our Tama house and found out very quickly we do not have any installation either on the second floor nor the walls. Yeah, opposite problem, but still, installation is a solution. Matt, I wanted to ask about um like,
Speaker: getting along with your neighbors, you know, moving into a town like this, obviously it's different from Tokyo. Like who, what what type of people are your friends out here? You hang around with lots of foreign people. Obviously there's lots of, uh,
Speaker: Maybe not ski bombs, but there's foreigners here, attracted to the mountains. like What kind of people do you hang around with and any thoughts on getting along with your neighbors out here? For neighbors, ever since I moved in, I've only been accepted. and I don't want to say accepted. That's not the right word. It's been welcomed by the neighborhood.
Speaker: and um Yeah. My, my next door neighbors. So my street does have people on it. You know, there are streets that do not have people that are living there. There are Akio everywhere. And surprisingly, even for myoko, which is this kind of new hotspot for Japan, maybe for the ski areas. Um, yeah, my neighbors welcomed me. i I went to them and I gave them something to say like, Hey, I'm moving in just letting you know that I'm here. Nice move. Yeah. I'm super excited to be here. Um, and they're just like, yeah, if you ever need anything.
Speaker: feel free to like come and ask us anything. And i I have a British culture as well. I was born in Australia, but grew up between Sydney and London. I was trying to figure that out. I was like, is he aus Australian? I was like, he's South African. I moved around. i I lived in the US. I've lived in like Fiji. I've been in Brazil. So um yeah my accent's a bit strange.
Speaker: anyway the um Yeah, the neighbors were just, from the very beginning, very welcoming. Do you need anything? Do you need some help? And I just kind of took it in a British way because we we would just say that. We won't don't really mean it. And Japanese and British culture kind of aligns in a lot of ways. For example, even in you can even see any architecture in buildings where The windows of the house are kind of smaller or there's less of them. And part of it is for insulating your house, but ah part part of it is for privacy. So we just kind of have this way that we behave more private and yeah if you say, oh, we can help you. there's mean it It's not necessarily empty, but it's unexpected if you ask for it. Yeah. Yeah. So my neighbors were, there were times that.
Speaker: I asked for, like can I have the track, the calendar for the trash? Like how do I know when to put the trash out? And they would run me through that and in a really positive way, like, Oh, this is how you do it. We're running through that. And by the way, like now that we hear, there are certain community, um,
Speaker: I don't want to say expectations, but to some extent expectations or events where we will clean the trash area once every three to six months and we all get together and we do it because we are trying, firstly it it creates community within like the 10 houses that they put trash there. But also it saves a little bit of money. You can choose to to take that on, that responsibility.
Speaker: And it reduces the cost for your your trash disposal when they come pick it up because you're taking care of that. You would have to pay a little bit extra to get um to get the government to clean that. and It's pretty common in Japan. And this is one of the things that it's important to know like when you move into these communities. If you're only there for two weeks, a month, a year, you kind of have to be aware of these events that are going on because I have had some of my neighbors ask, hey, do you know who owns that place over there? I know that they're they're an international person. they're They don't live here full time. It'd be great to like get in touch with them for different reasons, not necessarily because they're doing anything wrong, but a big part of it is like we want to involve them in what we're doing in the community. We have a Matsuri, we have something going on. We want them to be there, plus we do the trash thing. and like There's all these things that we want them to be part of. um
Speaker: And that's that's what I was saying to you guys earlier that when you are buying into these, when I bought into this place, meeting my neighbors was really important to create community. And that purchase of the house is purchase like I'm buying in to these this neighborhood.
Speaker: How's your Japanese? Are you doing this in English? Are you doing this in in Japanese, I guess? With my neighbors? Yeah, with your neighbors. That's 100 % Japanese. okay yeah My Japanese is okay. I'm probably around an N2 level, something like that. That's awesome. yeah how did you How long have you been studying Japanese for?
Speaker: Way too long. Really? Yeah. 2014, I went to Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. Oh, in Kyoto, not the Beppu. Not the Beppu, too. Yeah, there's a few of them around. That's really nice university. um That was my, I did this intensive Japanese language course for a year and it involved the language, but I also got to learn about, living in Kyoto, especially at that time, was really special.
Speaker: my classes consisted of going to make wagashi, the Japanese sweets, or I get to go and do kyudo, the Japanese archery. It was just like a lot of activities, Japanese film, and learning Japanese this way rather than doing the cram school, which I've also done. But it's my language learning started in 2014. It's a roller coaster ride of going up and down in skill level and just remembering Japanese. Japanese is hard. I've been like since a kid I was a kid, I was taking Japanese school, but I didn't speak English at home. And you know you remember Kanji for like 10 seconds and you lose it. and you know It's such a hard language, but that's awesome. You're at the N2 level. Yeah. And it's probably dipped since then. because i you know when you Like I said, when you study it, you um you do need to use that pretty freak frequently.
Speaker: when i started to And there's also like, a practicality sense of the language where if I need to call my plumber and tell him my septic tank needs to be changed, that's not something you learn in a language school. you know Yeah. but i'm I'm trying to start taking on more of those kinds of things like, oh, if we need to call a gardener for a property, it's like, all right, let let me give it a try. like yeah yeah I'm curious how, I don't know if we already said this already, but how did you find your property in the first place? I found it through... Akiemara, pre -Akiemara days. Pre -Akiemara. Yeah, I found it on ah on the website on athome .co .jp. i've um
Speaker: Yeah, I, I have told people this throughout just saying like, this is how I found it. There's also the other one that I was looking at the time. The website was sumo .co .jp. That's the two that I used to focus on. Plus I used to focus on that plus the Akio bank in each area. Um, there are another, like there's a number of really good websites, but I found mine on, on at home. They usually have some correlation between the websites. They capture a lot of them, not all of them all the time, but.
Speaker: at home was great for me at the time for just scrolling through the entire country, looking for a property on the beach or in the mountains. I'm curious about that but process. Did you just, so on at home, sometimes there's the phone number or the contact of the agency, the brokerage handling the property. You just called them and what kind of the process worked for you? Just sent the message as you fill out the boxes name. um I actually liked that process a little bit because - It's like a form on the website? Form on the website. and You can inquire directly about you can take the boxes of what youre like what do you want to know about it extra information about this and it's quite specific is what you're trying to find out.
Speaker: There's also the box that I ended up having like a bit of a template because I i went and saw a lot of properties when I was looking at the time. um And I just copied and pasted what I was, what was I actually interested in? What's the structure of the house like? Can you send me more photos? What is, is there any special conditions on this property that I should know about? Are there any hidden costs, like any ah extra costs that I should know about? So I just copied and pasted this to all of my ah agents that I would speak with.
Speaker: and and So was that the list price you so it was listed at that amount and you got it or did you negotiate it down or at what what was that process like it was listed at about eight thousand usd okay and i Put in, I felt really bad actually. No, no, no. I know where you're going here with this. Yeah, but I mean, i've I'm going here, there's like an $8 ,000 house and I'm about to put in a, ah I'm trying to negotiate an $8 ,000 house at a ski resort to $5 ,000. And I did that. And then I'm like, I'm click, I'm about to send, I think it was on just a text message or something. And I'm about to send it back to the agent to say, yeah, I want to put in this, this negotiation.
Speaker: and
Speaker: will you, would you consider $5 ,000? And I got a message back almost immediately like, yeah, of course. Yeah. Done. they They're okay with that. they They said, I'll just call them. And then within 15 minutes, yeah, they accepted it. Wow. And I felt terrible. And then I also felt terrible that I probably could have gone lower. But you're yeah it it sounds like I've seen some of your videos. you You're still in touch with those those sellers, right? You have a good relationship with them or? I don't talk to the owners. I know of them coming around the area. um Even my neighbors will say,
Speaker: Hey, um I won't mention the guy's name. Nanjara -san was here the other day. ah He mentioned that the house is looking good. Yeah. I had an answer with the guy that used to live in your house the other day. Yeah. He said that it's looking nice. Like you can't believe we don't know the house, that sort of stuff. So he does come. He has, I mean, he lived here for a very long time from since the sixties. He's got a huge connection here and he doesn't live that far away. Um, so he does come back and see people. He knows. I'm so curious. What did he go back for in the house?
Speaker: What is your theory? What did they come back for? I'm guessing it was money or something. yeah I'm guessing it was stashed because I think it's also, it's common to have cash in Japan. I'm guessing there was cash somewhere in the house. Is there cash in her house, Jerry? Maybe. Could be, huh? Let's look around and lift up some floorboards. Did you? Um, so I've heard.
Speaker: Usually we go through a process where we give the agent and the Shiho Shoshi, power of attorney, and then they can handle everything while, you know, we bought both, you know, all all all of our properties while abroad. ah You were in country. Did you actually go to the bank and like, could you explain that process, how it works when you're, and like the money transfer happens, the seller's in the room, you're in the room, you make the call to your bank or something like that? Could you explain the yeah settlement?
Speaker: Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't that exciting. And it's funny, it's kind of very straightforward, where so i i' I work, I live in Japan on a work visa. um So I don't need to have any kind of, there's no, there was no extra need to prove who I was, my identity, I had my number Japanese, my number card, I lived, I was residing here.
Speaker: So it made it a little bit easier. I had a Japanese bank account, so it made it a bit easier, even though i just I paid in cash actually. But I did the transfer for the deposit through my bank account. I just went to the ATM and I put in the numbers that you need to put in and send it to the son to the real estate agent. um Went straight to that account. I just called and confirmed and said, yeah, I just paid that. I got the receipt from it. That was the deposit. And then it was more or less guaranteed that that was my property at that time.
Speaker: I got the confirmation back through email saying, we're going to be drawing up the contract and then we'll make sure that that we'll have that contract ready to for the signing for the two parties, the seller and the buyer within about 10 days. And it was ah it was within 10 days that we went and met for um the the contract signing. How long does your process take from like kind of viewing to cues in hand?
Speaker: It would have been under four weeks. okay yeah And it was fastest I've heard of. yeah it was It would have been shorter if the the owners actually extended the move out date, but it would have been well under four weeks and then they extended it a little bit.
Speaker: That's incredible speed. The payment, the house, the purchase itself, the only thing that held it up was the owners. And like I mentioned before, they're elderly. They have a lot of things that they probably have to arrange partially due to their their age. And I was very patient with that too.
Speaker: And I would have been happy if they want to stay there for three months, six months. I didn't, a year, I didn't really mind. I felt like I was getting a great, I did get a really great deal. um So you paid the second half, so you paid the deposit at the ATM, but the rest of the cash, you paid paper money. So in the, on the signing date, I paid cash on the day. So we went to, I went up to Joetsu in Niigata where the real estate was. I met with the agent was there, the,
Speaker: The lawyer was there and the real estate, the the owner was there. yeah So we did the signing. I signed, he signed with Inc. We had the stamps, the Inc. so we stamped. um I gave the money in cash. I mean, it was, how much did it was it? It was like $3 ,000 or something. It was just something really not that much. I mean, it's a lot of money for some people, but yeah, it wasn't that much to hand over in cash. I did have the option to pay on credit card or a card or bank transfer. It was still possible. Oh, credit card.
Speaker: I haven't thought about that. That might be an interesting thing to explore if we put it on credit. On a site on banking, do you use online banking in Japan or do you yeah you use the Tsucho for everything? I wouldn't touch online banking. Joey's been a champion in navigating online banking. It's an unbelievable experience. yeah He was like trying to transfer money one day, but it was like, you can only transfer during bank hours or something like that. And we're like, what?
Speaker: I was in Nova Scotia, so I would have had to transfer money ah and wake up at like 4am or something. and Banking can be extremely complicated in Japan. and It's a little bit more, they're strict about payment money coming into your account, leaving your account. Absolutely. I remember it back like years ago. It used to be similar in Australia and in England where if you were saying withdrawing a certain amount of money, you kind of had to be interviewed about it. Say, oh, what are you going to pay for? Maybe you have to sign out what you're taking this money out of your account for. And it's the same in Japan. and
Speaker: i was being paid ah I was transferring myself money from another country, my bank account, into my Japanese bank account. And my transfer was blocked. And I had to go into my Japanese bank and explain in some detail that it was me sending money to me. I'm i'm afraid that's going to happen to us someday when when we're not in country and we need to pay you something. That's my biggest fear. Yeah, Japanese banking is tough. but and so you you have You actually don't use online banking.
Speaker: use the I even had the app, you know, I had the Ucho app. Yeah. I deleted the app. yeah
Speaker: It's just easier. Just doing it the old school way is just easier. Yeah, it works better. Yeah. Here's about renovation now. You know, you got, you have your place, you're, you obviously try to make it clean. Uh, that first winter, actually give me the worst cold store. How cold was it without insulation and just keeping it as it was? It's hard to say because for me.
Speaker: Um, like I mentioned, I did van life living in, in San Francisco. Just prior to that, pretty much like more or less. And I was living at like some of those weekends I'd spend up in Tahoe and I'd be parking at the top of the mountains. Again, you're actually really sick because it was just minus something ridiculous. Um, I think as the season does change here pretty quick, but with the season change, um,
Speaker: my body adapted to the temperature as as you'd expect it to, I think. um I can't think of any particular, just without heating in the beginning, I had to really rush and get the gas heating installed.
Speaker: I bought the heaters, actually, from what was it? It could have been Yahoo Auctions. Yahoo Auctions? Yeah. Is that still around? Oh, yeah. It's the best place to buy stuff. For real? Oh, yeah. So these heaters, I looked at buying them new. I thought I was going to get out of the house with new heating to make sure it works. I looked at the price. I'm like, OK, I'm just going to eat the old stuff. And I bought these. They've even got them, I think, in this room. I got the massive sized heaters, the biggest ones I could find at the time and buy.
Speaker: Um, I bought two of them to install in the house and that gas heating system before that was installed, like it was cold. It was getting cold. I needed to have that super powerful hotel power gas heating. How, when does it start getting cold in Myoko?
Speaker: Around, it's actually pretty close to now. This year's a little bit different. We're having um the summer in Japan has been longer than usual. So it's expected to have a pretty um solid winter this year. I don't know if you guys know that actually, if you're buying a house here, but it's supposed to be a really insane year. We'll see what happens. You never know what's going to happen, but it's predicted that it's going to have A lot of snow. Yeah, a big one. Big one. 50 feet. Yeah. So my first time living in the snow area, I've never lived and never shovel snow in my life here. Give me some tips. you know what am What am I going to be expecting here? What's what's maintenance with snow related in Myoko Akiyas? Good question. This is really new for me. And yet going back to my neighbors, without my neighbor's advice at some of these times, I wouldn't have known to take the snow off of my roof, for example. Yeah.
Speaker: They would just hint at me. They wouldn't say me to tell me directly, like, um, because they also know that I have experience in building. I'm, I'm kind of know my way around like the maintenance stuff. So they would just, um, kind of put me, you should do that. Yeah. They just say, Hey Matt, you know, like you got six feet of snow on the roof. Now it's going to rain tomorrow.
Speaker: I was like, yeah, and like you probably remove that snow. I'm like, oh, I guess it gets heavier when water absorbs into the snow. So just like learning that stuff, yeah um it seems really obvious, but yeah, i didn't I never grew up with having to deal with that stuff. So the biggest learning curve for me was i had ah I have a kind of flat roof and I have to remove that snow myself manually.
Speaker: And when I say I, there are also people out here that do that as a job. You know you can employ people to do that. And I hear they charge around 50 bucks to remove all the snow off your roof. And that might change depending on where you're from, maybe not. But yeah, that's it's it's very reasonable and they're very quick. So it's also, I don't want to make it sound terrible. Like my only option was for me to get up on the roof, put a harness on and like go for my life with removing snow. There are people and businesses out here that do that as well. You kind of mentioned we were touring our house. You said you fell off your roof once? That was the first time I went to clear the snow. yeah and Then it made me remember like, oh yeah, i did i painted the house I painted the roof white with silicon paint that's super slippery for the snow to fall off, but yeah, I fell off of it. how i so Did you like break something? or you just
Speaker: landed in 30 feet of snow and you're fine. There was a lot of snow that broke the fall. yeah if i I'd been shoveling for just like a few minutes and and and enough fell off that when I fell off, I fell on that pile of freshly fallen snow. I saw in your house you have a ladder. i Was that there before? Did you put that there? No, that's there and that's something I need to adjust as well. But yeah, there's there are two ladders to access my my roof to get up there to clear it. If you were designing, let's say, for our aquia, is there like some yeah smart design decision we should think about with with the roof? like One, you said paint it white, for example, for heat. But some snow removal, like if we put some material, yeah any advice there? You have already. um
Speaker: You have a heat system. Yeah. So you have a heated roof actually score. So it's a, it's a hydraulic, it's a water pump system. So that was in your, um, in the shed and the pottery barn. Okay. se Okay. So no, we don't need to go on the roof. You'd have to see how much it costs to see if that thing needs to be fixed, but it seems like it's already set and ready to go. I'm sure the pipes are probably rusted. Maybe I would just expect if I was in your situation, I just expected the worst. Um, but it looks like.
Speaker: something has been set up. So that would be the best case for you guys. Okay. I saw these little metal things on the roof, like kind of Eve space. I wasn't sure what they were for. We saw something in the garage about solar panels. I was wondering, do you think solar panels were sitting on that or do you know what those things are for? That's to retain the snow in the place. But why would you want to retain it? Don't you want to opt?
Speaker: Oh, so it doesn't cream me by accident. Yeah. The main reason is safety. And once, if you want to get up on the roof and have stability, like that'll give you some more stability. I found this as well. You fell off the roof. It gives you some, it keeps the, and when I say it gives you so stability, it gives the snowpack stability when you're walking around up there, it keeps it from sliding. And the reason, I mean,
Speaker: You want to take that off carefully because you want to plan how you're going to remove that. Especially like from my place, I live on the corner of ah of a main street. it's not it's It is the main street, but if someone was if somebody was to walk by.
Speaker: um and have this snowfall on them, like they would be killed for sure. But at the same time, like saying this, I don't want to make it sound like I know everything as well, but there are properties that are not on the main street that also have this. And I can only assume that it was a ah choice for um the design initially um being, this was probably a standard in Japan a long time back. Because if you look at the new houses now, they're all self shedding, they're called self shedding roofs.
Speaker: um These days, that's what you see and people convert to that as well. But there's probably just a lot more. I mean, the time has changed how snow is handled in general. Now there is snow clearing in the roads. Now there are heated roofs. Yeah, there's a lot more options these days.
Speaker: Actually, I wanted to ask about the roads too. What are the roads like in the winter? I saw signs like, oh, put chains on your tires. Will this road in front of our house be like already snow pushed off? I don't know what the term is. yeah it's it's um surprise I found it really surprising how Well, the local councils and government go japan deal with the snow. It's incredible. Yeah, they do a really good job. So I hear if they get four inches of snow, then they must have snow clearing ah machines come around and just get rid of the snow. So they'll scrape the snow back all the way to to
Speaker: the um ah bitumen yeah to the to the street. They get it all the way back there. So it's it's they do a really good job on that. Do they salt roads here or no? They do. Yeah, so if you've got a car here, you should get it kind of paint cleaned and painted, whether you do it yourself or if you go and get a mechanic to do that. Yeah, rust proof. Most people are rust proofing, yeah. Interesting. So if we get 30 feet of snow, we have a graveyard right next to our spot. like Is that like walkable on top of it? Yeah, yeah it will be. Really? Whoa.
Speaker: like This is an incredible amount. I think we got like five feet of snow in the east coast of Canada, Nova Scotia last year. So this is 10X that. If you look around, um, there's a couple of buildings around here. A friend of mine's actually, um, got a lodge over there. And when you go around the back of his house and his house is, it's kind of like ah a bigger height than a regular ceiling or, um, the floor, when you go to the first floor, second floor, it's kind of a larger ceiling height. And.
Speaker: out the back of his house, he's got on the second floor, a small roof that comes out. And you can see there that a few years ago when he was trying to snow clear, he hit that roof and it's grinded away at that roof on the second floor, which is probably about It must be 15 feet high off of the ground. Yeah. Maybe 20 feet high off the ground. He was on packed snow, packed snow clearing and then hitting but his roof on the second floor. Yeah. Okay. Noobie snooze, no question. Are you like true snow days where you cannot leave your house and you like worry like, Oh, I don't have enough food. Or like, is there any fearful days where it snows too much here?
Speaker: there So in Japan as well, they do announce whether it's the snow, whether it's ah an earthquake, whether it's a heat. I mean, Japan's an insane country for for weather. um And I think this is also something people need to consider when they're buying a place or moving to Japan that is very extreme. i I know people say like, I'm from name anywhere in the world, but Japan is quite unique in some ways for a developed country that has this intense diversity in their seasons. um I forgot what your question was. And diversity in natural disasters too, I would say. Yeah, yeah. The snow days. Do you have any fearful days? whole days so they They do announce, like, don't go outside today. Oh, really? We're having um a storm. And we can get, I think the worst day for snow last year was about six or seven feet in a day, one day, overnight. It's insane. So you wake up in the morning and like everything's buried. and
Speaker: When you have those days, it's really cool because that's not cool. like The first time it happened, I just like, what the hell is going on? But um for around 3, 4 AM, these snow clearing machines come through. And my house just shakes. like doo do doo This is a massive machine. I'm just like scraping the floor. My house is attached to that floor. So it's going through the floor, into my house, and into my bed. I'm just like shaking.
Speaker: And last year was a bit different. This year, I'm hoping it's going to be different with the windows. But if you get up and look outside at that time when they're going through, you'll see everyone in your street clearing snow at three, four o 'clock in the morning. And they're just getting rid of whatever they can before the next snow. And they're just working with, yeah, and they're working with the government to push off all of their snow. So they take it to the snow piles where they take it to. And you end up, you know, I get up and I look and I'm like,
Speaker: Oh, man, they're doing it. like It's 3 .30 in the morning. I go outside and show off. I get back in bed like, no, I'm not doing it. And then he's like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, coming back through. And I'm like, OK, I'm going down there. And then you see your neighbors. You're like, hey, what's going on?
Speaker: yeah yeah so Yeah. So you're trying to get it out of kind of your property, walkway, et cetera, onto the street so that the government truck can take it away. Exactly. Yeah. And so they do have these shutdown days, especially for things like the trains. They can't move anymore. They have these big plow trains that push off the snow off the tracks with the Shinkansen for sure. Um, stop roads. Don't usually, I haven't seen roads close down the main roads. They do a really good job with that, keeping those safe.
Speaker: Convenience stores, supermarkets, there are times where they cannot restock things. So you can go in there and the shelves are empty because they just can't drive the trucks, that the companies decide for the safety of their employees. They're not going to send trucks out there. Are you worried about avalanches? I was just thinking, in our our house, we have those like huge cedar trees. like I feel like if you got 30 feet of snow on top of those trees, and like that could all come down on our houses. Or on a ski hills too. Yeah, you're fine with that.
Speaker: yeah there wouldn't be Yeah, in this particular area and even with the trees, I mean, it's good that you got the trees, but you have to have a certain, um, environment to be able to have, and I have, I have, um, kind of a high level in avalanche training as well. I'm backcountry skiing and backcountry snowboarding. We're only going skiing and snowboarding with you. Yeah. So it has to be a certain condition for the avalanche to work and it has to be over a certain degrees, like ah the gradient. Yeah. Um, everything's got to line up for the avalanche, but.
Speaker: Down in the town, not really, maybe now and then some mudslides, but nothing in this area is too crazy. Up in the mountains, yeah. like there's People will die from avalanches. And they did a few people, unfortunately, died last year from avalanches right here at this mountain, right next to us. Where's a good beginner to eat intermediate snowboard slope that's safe? The good thing about Japan in general is that Firstly, the the ski runs all of the ski runs and the hills were set up. I'm taking this actually a little bit further back, but they were set up a long time ago for people that
Speaker: We just wanted to go skiing for fun on the weekends from Tokyo. There's an economy thing right there, like just making money from people. So they never they're never doing doing this gnarly America -style stuff.
Speaker: um So everywhere in Japan offers this level because there's a most majority of people in Japan are at this level. And the approach that the majority of Japanese people, the local community here will have is They're not going out there to die. They're going out there to have a nice, gentle ski. Family friendly. Yeah, it's fun. And it's we're just going to go like slow slow pace. But I hear Myoko is also very well known for its backcountry skiing. And so you if if you wanted to go more hardcore, like how would you get further like better runs or whatnot? They still have. um
Speaker: so hanu This main island of Japan, that Tokyo, Osaka, this big island, um has the Japanese Alps here. We have the northern Japanese Alps. We're just a little bit further. If the northern Alps, they run down, then you have the central Alps and the southern Alps.
Speaker: up on the northern Alps is where you find Hakuba and we're on the tip of that, of the top. You can actually, the side note, you can hike the entire length of the help Alps and you end up not too far from where we're at now at the ocean of Japan. It's really cool, hike it takes about 10 days.
Speaker: but um The terrain here is very varied. We have that that particular mountain range, the Northern Alps and also some of the the Southern Alps are the highest mountain ranges in Japan. So they're all around in meters, 3000 meters.
Speaker: um Which is not that high compared to the US, but it's the highest mountains in Japan. What makes it a little bit different is these are volcanic mountains and Japan was once two separate islands actually. And then it kind of crushed together in the middle where these Alps are and lift it up. in So it's it's volcanic activity. And what I'm getting at it there is it's steeper.
Speaker: So it goes up and it's like a volcano. and okay ah so yeah Speaking of volcanoes and and onsen, so I noticed every mountain is like Akakura Onsen. like is that Is it the mountain or is it the onsen? I don't understand that. Part of it will is to do with um just promoting tourism. but they They do offer onsen. um Onsen around Japan usually are tapped into, they just bore down about like less than a mile, but they go down say a mile underground and they they get this volcanic water. um So you can pretty much make an onsen town really anywhere around Japan, but there's obviously benefits to do it with certain geography in certain areas. yeah
Speaker: Here is actually a pretty, it's kind of unique in some way for, um again, this is just like a side note for you guys. We're going to be living here. Locals now. Yeah. Myoko Mountain here is somewhat unique in Japan where the water from the hot springs here comes from spurting out water from the top of the mountain. It's not like bored down. They actually go up there with a massive pipe and they bring that pipe down to the town. So if you do a hike up there,
Speaker: And on clear days, almost every day, if you look up at the volcano, you can see the steam vents. And people work up there, like construction workers, tapping into that and bringing that down to the towns, to Akakura Onsen, to Myoko Onsen. But Onsen towns in general, they've just decided that this is what we're going to do for tourism. So this is an active volcano right here.
Speaker: Um, could be active volcano. I think anything could be. Yeah. japan have a be active It would it be considered. Um, it wouldn't be active, okay but it's definitely, I mean, it's a volcano. It's on.
Speaker: It's in a volcanic area. Spreading out hot water. Yeah. Okay. Lava. Lava. Yeah. So the day we had this earthquake, um, this year, January 1st, I think it was or second, we had a 7 .4 magnitude earthquake. Yeah. I don't know if you guys saw that video. Night of earthquake. Yeah.
Speaker: When i I saw that video, you went out into the street. Yeah. And it was wild because, um, it actually went on for around five minutes and it wasn't just one earthquake. It was like aftershocks, but it was all, it was all like compressed into five minutes, roughly of earthquake activity. And people, I made a video of that. Um,
Speaker: And people couldn't believe that it was like that long. um It usually lasts for 20 to 30 seconds, something like that. So I actually, I wanted ended up going outside. I stood in my door frame first. Then I ended up just, within minutes, like later, I just decided to start filming. So it already had been happening for a few minutes before I started filming. I went outside. And my instinct was, is it the volcano? It's about to blow. That's scary. yeah And I looked over towards, I have like a really nice space where I can see the perfect view of the mountain.
Speaker: And a lot of my neighbors were actually standing there, maybe wondering the same thing. Yeah. So everyone was outside just wondering like, what's going on? Yeah, this is the big one. Yeah. I was in Iceland once camping by myself and the volcano exploded and I was just like, holy shit, what do I do? But okay. So there's a chance of volcano explosions here. Everywhere. We frequently get the question of like, Hey, Taka, Joey, aren't you guys afraid of natural disasters living in Japan? Like Matt, you know, how would you answer that question? Obviously you were in that earthquake. Does that deter you at all? or
Speaker: No, I don't think so. I have, um I don't want to sound like I'm naive or anything here as well, but I'm interested in that stuff. I mean, I embrace, that's part of Japan. um I'm not sure if you guys have spoken to any of the local guys you've met over the years being in Japan, but Japanese people definitely think about it. Some people will say, like, for example,
Speaker: um Kyoto is a good place to live because they don't have so much activity. There's not volcanic activity there. They can still have earthquakes and things, but it's not considered the same level as certain other parts of Japan that are on that um that line where like the Notto line is going to be. They're watching those videos of the super quake or whatever. Nankai. Nankai, yeah. yeah and'm Scary. But saying this, i mean yeah and people ah ter some people terrified about living on the coast.
Speaker: Um, tsunami and again, like another one of the comments I got a lot was like, Oh, is it anywhere near the coast? And that one too. Yeah. But, um, While there's definitely a possibility that something goes wrong, this it can be anywhere in the world, Japan has also like braced their coastline with concrete masses. I personally would have preferred if they didn't do it that way, yeah but that's what they decided to do like back in the 70s to just put around 90 % of Japan concrete walls. Tsunami walls, yeah yeah. So they have somewhat prepared for it. In saying that you know there wasn't high enough over in Fukushima, for example,
Speaker: to some extent, it's being considered in Japan. yeah Interesting. you know we We drove by an elephant museum here. um Did that volcano explode? Were there dinosaurs here? oh There were so many dinosaurs in Japan. they really actually yeah if you If you guys haven't been, my favorite dinosaur museum is in Japan. and it's in um Fukui. Really? Fukui dinosaurs are really like prevalent in Japan. A lot of activity here. You'll find a lot of information. We're talking reptile, not like just a mammoth, right? But I'm talking like um so they have like the Fukui - Triceratops. Fukuisaurus. It's something like that. They've named a few dinosaurs in Japan. Interesting. yeah
Speaker: All right. Well, you know, another question you've traveled all of Japan, it seems like, you know, we've seen a lot of prefectures. If you could live somewhere else, but Miyoko, where would you, where would you pick or what are hotspots you would recommend people look at that aren't the typical, you know, standard path?
Speaker: Yeah. So i I guess what I had taken consideration now is that I have a house in a ski area, not that I would have other, I definitely have, there's definitely other ski areas that I'd be looking at. Um, I'd say if it was a ski area that I was interested in, I'd look further north somewhere like Akita prefecture. It's really beautiful up that way. Almori.
Speaker: Um, I'm, I won't give you a specific town because I don't think don't blow it up for the, I just wouldn't, I just, there's nothing I would hone into really. Like I would, because you know how it is when you're searching for a property, you can't be specific. I would just say like that area is really like, that's where I'd focus on. I'd find a ski town and I try to find. I'm a pretty high level snowboarder. I try to find something that's not a big beginner mountain that I could live near. So that's, but I'd say like up north or even like Gunma is actually a really cool area.
Speaker: It's close to, if convenience is your thing, then it's a close area to get in and out of from Tokyo. And Gifu, maybe, Gifu's a little bit difficult. Traveling through Gifu on the roads takes a bit more time than going through Nagano at all. It takes a little bit more time, but going up north to even to Gunma, Yuzawa is going to be popular soon. I don't know if you guys know, but Yuzawa is also a Pretty popular tourist destination for Chinese. Really? So all of the Australians are in Nisiko, in Hokkaido, Myoko, Hakuba, and then Yuzawa. It's also a really cool resort. You take a Shinkansen to the, you get off and you can go skiing and from the Shinkansen. So it's very clear to Tokyo. and But yeah, it's it's also blown up with tourism as well. Not to say you can't still find property there for really cheap because you can't because I saw them yesterday. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker: um i guess Last question for me. you know All our listeners are looking at buying a place in Japan. Who's the right person to buy like a $6 ,000 home? yeah what What would you tell them? or you know Who's the wrong person? Who's the right person for this kind of adventure? It's really case by case because yeah i I wouldn't want to judge. I mean, I don't want to judge, but I still have values that I'm attached to Japan. My journey in Japan has been, it will be different to everybody's journey, but I feel like My personality and my character has very much drawn me to Japan from the beginning. If you ask me, why did you move to Japan? Why did you come here in the beginning? I'd say because I feel like I fit in here in some ways. I'm kind of reserved. I'm happy to be quiet. I'm very, um, I'm very hyper aware of my space. I try to, I try to look around and see what other people are doing. And and I don't want to say blend in, but respect.
Speaker: how others are are operating in their behaviors, their attitudes. I would like to think that someone who was coming to Buy a property in Japan would have that a similar attitude where you're able to, and again, I don't want to say adapt, but just be able to look, stand back a little bit and say, you know, I just got here and people are operating a certain way. And I moved here because, I mean, I bought this place here. I moved here. I bought this property here because it resonates with me in some way. I don't really want to, I'd like to make some changes in Japan.
Speaker: Um, but I don't want to change what I love about it, the essence of Japan. So that's, that'd be the first thing as to who I'd like to see coming to Japan. And then secondly, I think just really having an interest beyond cheap property in Japan, having somewhere, I mean, I definitely understand as well that living in other countries can be very expensive. Japan is a very attractive place to live, but I feel like.
Speaker: That isn't the first reason why you should be looking for somewhere here. It should be something to do with, I went to Japan and I fell in love with it and it's something I want to be part of. And when you're buying a property in Japan, you're not just buying a property.
Speaker: You're buying and investing into the community that lives here. And that's number one, you're not buying the property. You're you're saying like, I want to be part of this community. Absolutely. That's a great answer. And I think, yeah, we resonate with that too. And we definitely try to turn people away who are just coming here for the free property or whatever like that. So, um, cool. That's it from me, Matt. Matt, where can people find more information about you? Or I know you have a couple of different social media channels. What, where would you want people to go to find out more about you?
Speaker: I've got so many things going on right now. But yeah, if you go to my Instagram, I use I'm .mattguy. That's my Instagram. And then my YouTube, which actually focuses a little bit more now on property, which is the same thing. I'm .mattguy. You'll find me over there. Cool. Well, thank you so much for being here today, Matt. We learned a lot. Thank you for showing us around and actually convincing us to stay in Myoko another night. Thanks for having me. Okay. I'm going to Outjoe Joey, your favorite Outjoe here.
Speaker: This is my least favorite outro. It's the built -in
