How I ended up buying land in “rural” Japan
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- I now own some land in Nikko, Tochigi. Here's the story of how it came about.
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This is a kind of part 1 of the whole journey. I honestly hesitated a bit about making videos about this since it seems kind of cliche to make videos about buying property in Japan. I think there's some interesting videos that can be made that are related to the topic, such as why there are so many unoccupied homes yet there's very little for sale or what it's like working with an architect. If there are any things you want to know about, I may be able to cover them in future videos. All the best - Greg
Absolutely unique, and something that hasn't been covered enough. Looking forward to future videos!
How exciting! I didn't know your wife was also producing these videos behind the scenes. I'd love to see what it's like hiring and working with an architect in Japan!
Even though there are a lot of "cliche" videos about buying property in Japan, I am glad you made this video and am interested in hearing about your journey. One thing I appreciate about your channel is your ability to highlight the beauty in the every day life experiences and less flashy parts of living in Japan. As someone with in-laws in Japan and dreams of someday doing something similar to what you have done, your perspective is valued.
Are homes covered for earthquakes in a homeowner's insurance policy?
Actually, we love it!
your kids are gonna be in uni in 3-5 years???? 😲 how long have I been following this channel? lol
Yea! I was so surprised too
Yes, I feel so old after his statement hahaha
As it really been that long for me too?
I was wondering thinking the oldest was at least 16 by now. His elementary school rules, etc… videos were years ago.
I feel really old when i see his kids appearing in his videos. They change drastically each time
Congrats man! You chose a beautiful area!
The man himself! When will you be showcasing your amazing land granted by the emperor chris? Haha
Thanks man!
Sir affable himself. 😊
An affable man giving an affable comment to another affable man who bought an affable land. Very Affable
You guys should collab
Congratulations Greg! This looks like a great project! The bottom levels can be used for gardens. I'd love it visit in 2025 to see what you build!
We have plans for a garden, yes, and some other stuff as well!
@@LifeWhereImFromI still don’t understand why you can’t use larger lower level instead… care to explain?
@@vzxvzvcxasd7109 As far as I understand it's the retaining wall. If it were ever to collapse, they don't want any house that could go down with it. I don't know how long ago it was built, but it could be 50 years ago or more. So most of the properties have these walls in place and they are grandfathered in. But if you're going to do something new, they'd want you to redo that wall. For the top portion, as long as we prove the ground is sturdy enough, we can build provided it's a certain distance from the wall.
This is just what I was thinking of for the bottom level. It is a very cool property.
A wall of "sorry, it just sold" can also be a more polite way to say the owners won't sell to outsiders. In places where family and neighbourly roots go back generations, purely "open" or "blind" sales are not always on the table.
if that’s the case, you can check if the property is on the list again later. An affordable house in the walking distance from Nikko station can attract buyers so I don’t think it’s necessarily a lie.
If it’s in a real rural area where no one wants to live in, it’s really hard to find a local buyer so it’s much easier for outsiders to buy.
I get that. Sometimes, when a bunch of outsiders move in, the essence of what made the town special becomes lost.
We visited NIKKO earlier this month and found it a charming little town. We actually bought our groceries at LION DOR, the supermarket appeared in your video. Everything was so close to each other and you really don't need a car. Good luck in building your home and good luck in your next move.
Amazing coincidence.
i totally understand wanting to give us all the details about your new plot of land but i would be so nervous essentially giving the internet my exact address!! 😅congratulations on this big decision and stay safe ❤
ahh i just finished watching and i guess that if you’re planning on renting it out it wouldn’t matter much to protect your address anyway haha!
@@user-elliseuji That's exactly it. This won't be our home, so the address will be known sooner or later!
It’s also in Japan (obviously)… If someone is that weird where they feel like they want to do something bad, they’re likely not going to spend 1000s of dollars just to travel to Japan to mess with them or their property. It not like America where any average Shmo-Joe person can drive some amount of hours or minutes to your dwelling, and do whatever they want. 95% of their viewers are way far away, over seas. But yeah, ultimately it’s a rental-style property, so it won’t exactly matter.
@@Those2menoverthere, yes it would cost me a lot of money to visit Greg... Much less in Canada, but it's still a big country.
@@LifeWhereImFromI’m confused! 😅 I thought it would be your home eventually after a few more years in Tokyo. Are you going to look for another property for your family? Or not move at all in the end?
So you are now very close to the famous Nikko Circuit, less than 20 minutes!! Congrats 🎉
It's also close to the Irohazaka pass, made famous by Initial D, and it's also a very scenic area besides.
I'd love to stay there and go visit Nikko Circuit!!!
You should definitely make a series for this
Then the whole house could be tax deductible!
Congratulations Greg! hoping the best for you and the fam!!! please keep sharing your journey! I love Nikko !
I loved this video. With your storytelling this was more than just a "property buying in Japan" video. This explained the culture and unique rules in Japan, your experience, and most importantly, I enjoyed the sense of being on this journey with you! I love your videos, looking forward to the next videos in the series. Would love to see you redoing old videos now with your kids, such as what having breakfast and dinner is like with them :)
As usual, you do an excellent job of presenting a subject! Even though I have no intention of moving to Japan, you held my interest.
For this one episode, LWIF stands for Land Where I'm From.
Land With Impeccable Foundation
or Land Wife and I Found
@@mfaizsyahmi Land Wife implies the existence of Sea Wife
Great illustration of how great high speed / regional rail connections can make moving to a smaller city or town much more viable, as you can still get to the city with ease when you need to, reducing the pressure on housing supply in the city. But yes, congratulations on this, looks like it will be a really rewarding project!
Small town access across North America is even more viable via the automobile.🚗
@@mel-nq6re They have cars in Japan too (especially in those parts). But going to Tokyo by car takes longer and is arguably not that much cheaper than going by train (you have to pay for parking, gas, and toll stations), and once you're in Tokyo the train system is more convenient than using a car.
So yes, even if you have a car, a high-speed train connection to a big city is a big advantage. Why choose one or the other when you can have both?
@@Knoloaify american brains have a hard time to comprehend this🤣
@@mel-nq6re Think about mobility as a combination of flexibility, speed, and convenience. Where the automobile excels is flexibility and speed, though viable automobile speeds in the most open roads in North America still lose out to the speed of high-speed rail by a significant margin. But the biggest difference between the automobile and public transit is convenience. Assume that the stars align such that I could drive to one given destination in the same time it would take me to get there via high-speed rail (neutralizing the flexibility and speed concerns), let's say it's a 4-hour trip one way. During the 4-hour drive, I can't do anything else but drive. On such a trip, there will be long stretches of time where you can zone out a bit, but you are obliged physically to devote yourself to operating the automobile. During the 4-hour train ride, I can read, work on my laptop, eat, catch a nap, and otherwise make more productive use of my time.
Some people find driving a pleasant experience, but for many it is a neutral chore and for some it is actively unpleasant.
I would be interested in seeing the journey you take in building this.
When I saw the picture right at the beginning of the video, I thought, "Greg, that's a parking lot." Good to know that you can build a house on it!
Amazing man. As a long time viewer of your channel from before moving to Japan, this video sparked a discussion between my wife and I about potentially doing something similar if we one day decide to live long-term in Japan. We both already have a town close to Tokyo where we would could see ourselves setting up. Coming from Canada, it's amazing what opportunities are still possible in this country to make things like this happen.
Absolutely love Nikko! One of the most scenic spots in all of Japan that, surprisingly is not as well known (to foreigners at least 😊)- especially during the Fall Foliage season!
Funny you are saying that. As a foreigner I’ve only been to two tourist places: Nikko and Anraku-ji in Bessho Onsen.
@@christophscholz Anraku-ji in Bessho Onsen? Never been -- will definitely check it out!
Thanks for the insight Greg! So rare to get a frank view into the whole story behind a real estate purchase, wishing you all the best!
Happy John encouraged you to be on camera more. Subscribers like it . Great video you guys! And congrats
Love your videos mate. You have such a great way of explaining things in a very clear and concise way. There’s video ideas I’m sure you have that you might think are boring but I can assure you there’s a large number of us viewers that appreciate and get a lot out of everything you make!
Congratulations! My wife and I moved back to Japan in 2019 and are now looking into property, as well. Nice to have a fellow Best Coaster continue to build a nice life in Japan. Always enjoy all of your work - thank you for sharing these great stories.
Welcome to Tochigi ❤ Nikko is one of the most beautiful places to live in. I'm in Nasu and we quite often visit Nikko national park, mainly Shiobara area.
OMG! Can't wait to see how this develops! 👏👏👏👏👏And congrats!
Aftar finding out about Nikkō, I have another travel destination in my Japan bucket list
Congratulations Greg! Looking forward to your updates on the progress of your construction!
I'm sure this project will lead to many great videos!
Congratulations Greg and family! Excited to see how your new home comes along! 🎉
I guess that I don't quite understand why it came down to a choice between those two at the end. If your plan is 3 to 5 yrs down the road, then why not opt for choice C... which would be wait for some possibly better options to come along. Maybe even open your scope of rural towns to select from (I'm assuming many other locations would fit your particular criteria).
I can kinda understand how many of the potential buyers were leery of that 2 tiered base setup.
I actually really wanted the 2 level piece of land that we got. If I hadn't I woudn't have got it. The real question was whether we could properly build on it or not. And yeah, perhaps there are other areas that fit the criteria. The initial plan was considering a place in 3-5 years, but with this new plan, we wanted something that we could operate a ryokan in 2025.
Once they missed that first property, they got buyers fever and rushed it. So silly to buy a plot of land that fits such a tiny house... especially when it's not a major city.
He wants to take advantage of the foreigner BOOM before that goes bust in 3-5 years when the yen gets alot stronger. Once the yen strengthens and inflation really starts to hit, many tourists wont be able to afford japan anymore. Build now and take advantage now
@@LifeWhereImFrom, I was thinking that all these "no" sellers found that you were Canadian and on TH-cam.
@@karensurgery3845its a rental 😅 air bnb'ers dont need a big place. If they got a big property in existance they would have to earthquake proof and do massive restoration. Easily 250,000 USD or more. He can do alot with that land and nikko is a popular town even for domestic tourists. Its not silly at all
That was really interrestering. Looking forward to new updates. Good luck with it all. :)
I don't care how "cliche" it is, i love watching old japanese home reconstructions. They're so pretty and seeing them refurbished is really nice.
Congratulations on the purchase! I am so excited for you all :) Looking forward to the coming updates!
Congrats! Love your channel and this means we'll have more 'farm' / rural content, yay!
Wow Uni is around the corner, how time flies! So excited to see how this pans out for your family! -SO much love from the USA
Can't wait to see the design and completion. Cheers from Edmonton.
These towns are hidden gems of Japan where is truly eerie and serene. Amazing description!
Hey Greg, I am so glad of you new project. Please keep us posted on your advance. Hope all goes well. Living in a rural area in Japan sounds awesome.
This is incredibly exciting, Greg! I know the exact spot you purchased - the wife and I stayed very near there last September and enjoyed the view from what is now your lot. Congratulations, and great choice - Nikko is a great little town with so much character and history.
Congratulations on the purchase. It's been 20+ years since I've been there, but I love Nikko & the surrounding area.
Please continue to share your experience and journey of building a house in the countryside of Japan. My husband and I are thinking of buying a vacation home in Japan as well. If I can learn from your experience, I would greatly benefit from it. Congrats and thank you for sharing. So happy for you and your family! I would love to see your new house in the future!
Awesome! Smart investment and a great area to buy in, love visiting Nikko. My wife and I were in your situation around 5 years ago, we bought land in a mountain town here in the US. Since then we built a tiny home on it and it's an AirBnb full-time. It enabled us to purchase more land in the area and do the exact same thing, we are on a path to retire in 2 years. If you enjoy the process think about reinvesting into more real estate...we'll be able to retire before we are 40 lol :)
Im am so looking forward to a build up series!
Wow thats an unexpected series of events! lol. Congrats on the new land btw 😄 Cant wait to see what your new house will look like 😁 Hehe
I visited Nikko for 4 days when I went to Japan back in 2018 and it was beautiful. Being in Tochigi prefecture everything was strawberry flavoured for snacks. And I found my new favourite food there: Yuba. Nikko was lovely, so much greenery and our Airbnb host was super kind showing us all the town spots.
This is an awesome nostalgia trip. I lived in Nikko down in Daiyamuko for 3 years and absolutely loved the area. I’d still be there if I could. Enjoy the area and definitely explore as much as possible, we barely scratched the surface of the Nikko area in our time there
Excited to see what will the house look, you guys made a great choice to build something, beautiful channel you and your family are creating a beautiful experience for the viewers, so relaxing and refreshing
Congrats bro! can't wait to see what you do with it, keep us up to date.
That’s great, congratulations to you and your family. I love building/renovation stories so I hope you’ll be posting some updates 😊
such exciting news! Congratulations....never been to Nikko but love to , my dad was there in 1970, nature there is beautiful he mentioned
Congrats on the purchase! Beautiful piece of land in a really quaint town. Will definitely visit. That snow capped mountains in the background and the river is a winner. 🍾
Greg, congratulations on FINALLY buying your property. I hope it brings your family peace and joy. 🏡 🇺🇸🤝🇯🇵🇨🇦
What a crazy story
Woohooo! There's now more of us, hahaha. My whole area is also a bit above 11k. I don't know where most of them live, but not near us. I just moved from Tokyo a few months ago.
The heat is one reason we went north. My wife hates snow, so it was tough to find a place that suits us both, but we did it.
We bought a house with farmland (probably why it hadn't sold yet) that was built in the '90s and renovated recently.
Blindsided by the ending. Can't wait for part 2. This one was so sudden right as the story was getting juicy.
Congratulations Greg. Nikko is a beautiful area.And best of luck for your project!
I was looking in Japan as well. Mostly for vacation rental potential. Good content for others who are interested.
Please don't do this.
Congratulations Greg! I loved the video and I hope you keep on doing more so we can know how things going on. Wishing you all the best and happiness in this new journey.
Nikko was genuinely one of my favorite areas when I visited. Nice choice!
Congratulations on the land Purchase!!! Looking forward to see the layout design! 🤗
Funny coincidence! We bought an Akiya in the Imaichi area just a year ago and have moved in 4 months ago.
Congratulations! And, as always, I enjoyed your story. Best of luck with your plans!
What an adventure! I went to Nikko last year and there is so much to do there; wonderful for hiking in the mountains. People will enjoy staying there I am sure!
Nikko is the sister city of our town in the US. Very cool!
Congratulations Greg and family! This is such a cool property in a nice location. I am very excited to see future videos for it! 😁👍👍
Congratulations! Really interested to hear your experiences about the whole process, and hopefully seeing videos about the region as well!
Nikko is an amazing place (I was there in 2023). All the best for the future there ! Thanks for sharing.
All the best of luck in your new project. Cheers from Brazil.
Congratulations. A new chapter in your family's life is always scary but exciting. I've definitely tossed around the idea of moving to the Japanese countryside with such cheap land.
I was in Nikko about 15yrs ago. It's a beautiful area. Congrats.
The 169 road to Nikko is absolutely breathtaking, you get some gorgeous views, a fantastic viewpoint at Ropposawa observation deck.
You can find some farms on the mountain plateaus, those farmers have truly one of a kind views, I'd love to see a video of you visiting those farms (ex: Ozasa farm)
Nikko is a great area. When visiting Japan. I always make a day trip out there as a pallet cleanse from Tokyo.
I spent a month in the area during the winter, my child was bored but a great place to retire. They have a fascinating illusion museum near by.
Nikko is absolutely beautiful and I think it would be a fantastic spot to live once the kids are in college. Hope the whole process goes well.
Nikko was probably my favourite location when I visited last year. Lake Chuzenji, Yudaki Falls - its very beautiful and peaceful.
My wife and I bought a house and property in a mountain village in Saga. What I wasn't aware of at the time was that we were expected to attend village meetings, participate in village maintenance (cleaning the water cistern, weeding the roadsides), and generally be part of daily village life. Since we are splitting time between that property and one 90 minutes away (by car), it's become very hectic to have our lives in two places.
How did they explain it to you, or was it said during the singing of contract.. That you had to do all those community chores...
Nikko is an area ive yet to visit but is on my list of must see! Heard its a rrally beautiful area. Nikko toshogu shrine with its grandiose structures and the beautiful mountains and rivers one can escape to during the summer makes it a really great area for living!
Cant wait to see what you do with it Gregg!!
Congratulations Greg! Hope to follow along the journey for house building
I loved Nikko when I visited Japan last year. What a nice little town, a great place to live. When we come back for another visit, we'll see if your place is done 🙂
Congratulations! And very interested in how the design process went once completed :)
Congrats!🎉 I can't wait to see what architectural design you all decided to go with.
Congrats. Looking forward to see how this develops 🙌
I have been to Nikko & the National Park in November of 2017. Beautiful, especially Kegon Falls. Didnt get to see any Macaques though.
Congratulations on your newly bought land🎉!!
Congrats Greg and fam. Loved the update.
Whoa excited for you and I can't wait to see the progress on it!
Oh, we have definitely been in the “sold before we could look” camp! Moving from a more laid back community in Kansas to the quickly growing Omaha metro area (also known as Silicon Prairie) we struggled to purchase a home because they often sell within days. We got lucky with our home in that we heard about it, looked at it, and made an offer before the For Sale sign even went up.
Amazing :D I visited Nikko this january, such a lovely place. Congrats!
Congratulations on your purchase! I hope everything goes well, without any issues while designing and building the house. I am excited to see the progress of that, and how the final design of the house will be.
If you are able to build a 2 story house on the land, using the 60sqm out of the 80 (if 80sqm are the maximum available space to build), and leave the other 20sqm for parking space, I think that you could create something really nice!
Greetings, and good luck, from Greece! ^ ^
Nikko is one of my favourite spots! But it's sad to see the tourist not really support local businesses.
I stayed on that street after I walked the Nikko Kaido a couple summers ago! Lovely area but the bugs by the river were brutal haha! Was honestly shocked by how many decaying buildings were in that area honestly. Walking rural japan you see a lot of them but given how close it is to temple, I expected it to be far more tourist centric. Would not be surprised if there was a lot of renovation in that area over the next ten years if the tourist boom continues. In any case, it’s a beautiful city and a wonderful place! You’ve picked well! Good luck!
It sounds like an exciting new adventure for you and your family. I would love to see the process of the build. All th best.
Excellent idea for a video series! please keep us updated with the building process!
Quite interesting. I will most likely never own land in Japan, yet always like hearing about stories like this. Best of luck to you and yours. Hope the retaining wall doesn't prove to troublesome!
Guest house or a hotel would be amazing business for you guys, since you have such a wide reach with your channel.
Congratulations Greg, what an exciting time you and your family are entering!
Seen quite a few architectual videos and it is always impressive what Japanese designers and builders can do with a (relative) small plot and/or a challenging site like yours. People woulde be surprised. 😉 So I'm very curious to the future designs. 😊 Best of luck!
Congratulations Greg! Totally understand your idea about house in rural area, and not in town. I would also love to live in rural area if there was a good working place, but sadly only towns can offer that
Nikko is really pretty- one of the places I'd love to hike and camp in the wilderness near the ryuzu falls in autumn. You also have those colour cube cards that I recently bought!
Congratulations family !!! And thanks for sharing ! I've been wanting to buy an akya I'm Japan for a while...
Congrats! Nikko is one of my favourite place in Japan..
Congratulations , Really looking forward to your progress.