Japan Countryside Drive in The Mountains – I am a Foreigner Living in Rural Japan

Japan Countryside Drive in The Mountains – I am a Foreigner Living in Rural Japan

Hello everyone uh Merry Christmas Happy Holidays happy New Year uh from wherever you’re watching thanks for tuning in so uh this uh upcoming video excuse me I actually shot it about 3 weeks ago and it’s a continuation of the uh video of when I went to uh

Chopwood uh it’s about 45 minutes from here and uh it’s basically the drive through this beautiful countryside and it was early in the morning and foggy as the sun was coming up and uh I I just ended up making a one long video so my apologies if it’s a little bit long but

Uh I just really wanted to share uh the experience of driving through the countryside here in rural Japan um but just why I’m at it just a couple things coming up uh it’s Christmas season so we’ve been working on some decorations here on the house this is our first time

Living in the the countryside of Japan and living in this vacant house or former vacant house or also known as Nikia here in Japan hey y let me see if you can see the Christmas tree here through the window uh so we bought a uh a real fur tree here from the military

Base the installation and our granddaughters are coming over so we’re setting up some decorations for them to enjoy and El is really cool I bought this uh drape lights or uh hanging lights and they come on here automatically once it get a little gets a little bit darker and just a couple little

Decorations and whatnot and I also have the the light uh the laser lights here uh and uh three different ones here throughout the house yeah so hopefully you enjoy this video again I took it uh you know about 30 days ago or so uh and also while I’m out I’m talking about

That I also have some other videos that I just haven’t been able to get to um but I just really want to share them so when I do release them I’m sorry if they’re a little bit late um one of them is about the cant fishing here in

Iwakuni Japan around the kintai kill so basically and it’s kind of a little bit cruel I guess but basically how they um uh fish with the camrod birds and this giv him if I’m using the wrong terminology and pronunciation and uh basically they kind of choke him and the the birds they

Catch fish and then they pull them out and they do that in at night and’s see I also have another um video of a trip that uh when I went to Mojo shimonoseki when my wife was coming back from the Tokyo area she decided to take the ferry

And uh it was like a 24-hour trip from uh Tokyo to shimoi but so that’s a uh interesting way uh uh to travel uh here in Japan as well and let’s see also when I went to Mexico um there’s really cool video about um a tequila tour that we

Took in the town of tequila which is where they make the tequila and uh the um tour guys were actually two two uh gu that have master’s degrees in chemical engineering and they’re explaining the ENT process so it’s not no no some guy or gal that doesn’t know much about

Tequila they know their stuff they they they got it down to science and I think there’s a couple more I can’t really remember so if you like what you see please hit subscribe like share and uh continue uh watching us uh as we continue uh living here in R Japan and

Uh continue working on our house and uh this Japanese garden I’ve talked about it before if this is your first time watching um I’m working on this little by little all right folks thanks again Merry Christmas and happy New Year bye all right so let’s go ahead and uh

Get on over there like I said it’s uh over there by hatsukaichi which is near Hiroshima and it’s quite foggy right now so my apologies but coming back we’re going to take a different route uh and uh both routes I believe they’re going to be pretty scenic here in the uh

Countryside in rural Japan yaguchi prefecture near near miwa so it’s beautiful Town yeah my apologies for the fog right now it’s uh looks like it’s uh well it’s still about 6:50 a.m. so a little early in the Morning If you uh watched the video that I uh released not too long ago about uh maybe a week ago or so but um this is the route where I was taking a walk and then I turn left over here by towards this Elementary School a really beautiful countryside over here ricefields the

River on the right uh several Temple shrines really nice uh Countryside over here Yeah I’ve never been this far yet but so far the beautiful this Countryside farmhouses uh unfortunately many of them look abandoned or most likely older folks uh hopefully they’re not the last ones who ever live in these beautiful homes so again you know this is a Akia

Is a big problem in in Japan Akia basically is a vacant house abandoned house uh with a declining population in Japan that’s a huge issue so a lot of these houses that you seeing on the left and the right um eventually they’re going to become vacant but they are very

Very well built maybe different um uh earthquake standards and whatnot but uh still I mean they’ve been lasting you know 100 years or whatever so I’m pretty sure they’re they’re uh structurally Sound Oh really nice houses over here on the r Oh oh there’s some huge farmhouses here too I bet you know back then you know they they were larger families obviously they relied on the larger family to do uh uh the farming and so or multi-generational houses so many times you see a little cluster of one two three different

Houses because it’s like the whole generation the grandparents the parents the usually the older son that kind of takes over the the property and so we’re going through another little town it’s one thing here they don’t they don’t have like Town names or signs that tells you where

You’re at so he just kind of driving through and yeah it’s another little town but I have no idea what the names of the most of these little towns are I sure they have a name look at these really beautiful houses over here in the oh looks like we’re going through the canyon

Here here coming up Soon the leaves turning bright yellow red really nice time of the year it does snow up this side obviously because a high elevation so it’ be kind of interesting to see what it looks like during the during a little bit more in this the winter

So far I have not encountered a lot of wildlife here and there I’ll see uh monkeys kind of hanging out on the side of the road uh they don’t I don’t think they tend to jump uh in front of cars I think they’re a little bit smarter than

That uh I mean you see the Inu shishi uh or the little Bor Hogs you know um and then the tanukis uh sometimes you know killed on the side of the road but oh looks like there’s little cafe over here that’d be kind of cool to check out

Someday not sure where it’s at but somewhere around here yeah usually these little cafes in the middle of nowhere are are you know really cool and you know because you can uh support the local economy as well and then normally as a as a foreigner when you come into a cafe obviously

Attract a lot of attention and uh you end up uh striking up a conversation and I just kind of posted the other day on another video that uh that’s kind of how the the we struck up a conversation with uh a owner at a local cafe and and uh

End up finding our our our Carpenter on uh and that’s usually a good way you know again just go into little local establishments and just start the conversation and one thing will lead to another wow look at this wow so I’m getting this distracted I’m not paying much attention to the road

Because I keep looking looks like we have some little narrow roads oh this is nothing uh it’ll be kind of interesting to see uh what kind of road I get myself into uh there’s been many times that I’ve gotone to really really really narrow roads where literally the only

One vehicle can fit so if someone is coming from the other direction one of you has to back up to the nearest little wider section and uh let Let each other pass another nice flat house There however coming from Mexico where the infrastructure is not all that great uh what’s really impressive so far that doesn’t matter no it doesn’t matter where in Japan you go most likely it’s paved there very few places are not paved but you could be out there in the

Middle of nowhere and uh that not probably not the best payment like this right here but at least it’s paved um again you can get yourself in some tight situations though and again that’s the beauty of having uh one of these little K trucks I think this is going to get a

Little bit long so my apologies and if you’re still watching uh if you just want to walk away and just let let it let it run but uh yeah this is this is uh becoming a little bit uh interesting and uh so at first I was

Just going to do a timel laps but I think I’m just going to let it run for the most part and and I cut out or do some time lapses here and there to make it shorter but uh it’s interesting to me so hopefully it’s interesting to uh someone else out

There and again thus far I really really do appreciate everyone watching uh because I I don’t know I think it’s kind of cool to share this experience um people throughout the world literally uh make comments and and uh just uh I don’t know encourages me to keep on sharing uh obviously this is

Uh definitely not a way of me making a living but it’s just uh very fun and kind of rewarding uh when you hear comments and uh um or encourage someone or give them an idea or just give you the extra nudge to for you to do the same or something similar doesn’t have

To be in Japan you know the other countries Portugal Spain Mexico there’s all kinds of other countries where people migrate to and here comes a car and looks like they’re going to let me go through bow real quick no more all right a nice River down there N And when I come back I believe that road is a little bit wider in many places so again it’ be kind of cool y all see or both of us see or all of us see uh different ways right now I just turn on my GPS and

It literally gave me the shortest route the other one is only about 3 minutes longer really nice houses right there actually that might be a shrine that’s a ditch yeah so I I’ve talked about in uh some of the things that you should look for when uh looking for a house uh in

Especially the countryside in Japan and obviously you want to be able to have access in and out and as as gorgeous as this is this is probably a little bit too much for uh there’s not much around there’s not even a convenience store a regular store or a gas

Station um so yeah I mean everyone has their own their own uh lifestyle but this is uh probably a little bit too remote for me and and quite frankly um at least where we live yes it’s Countryside but within a 5 10 minute walk we have a grocery store and a

Convenience store and a hospital and the the basic uh Necessities to survive but it’s really pretty look at this early in the morning too so most likely I’m going to be the only Foreigner there uh my Japanese is uh I can get by but defin definitely not

Fluent so that be kind of interesting uh interesting to kind of see the reaction of the folks I have no idea how many people will be there maybe just a handful these uh wood stoves are not very common in Japan and uh actually by now so I’m I’m getting multiple sources

Of wood so not quite sure if I really need it now if this is dry I do need a good um bunch of dry wood for this winter but next winter I should be fine cuz most of the wood that I’ve been getting is freshly cut uh and again just by people getting

To know people keep an eye out uh eventually you startop finding it but it is quite expensive here in Japan unfortunately yeah and here actually this weekend I think I’m going to uh continue seasoning my wood stove um you have to season it total of three times make it reach

100° uh and uh I need to do that two more times 400 me continue Straight great Oh here in front of me looks like there’s a uh local bus or bus that probably takes you to hichi hichi is uh nearby Hiroshima City uh Mima as well uh one yeah um so actually now that I’m thinking about it even though I went the other

Way through the back rows this is actually not a bad way to make it to hirosima if you want to avoid um taking the highway and uh you know just taking nicer scenic route it’s not that bad at all it’s nice beautiful uh drive to hoshima actually wow For to keep my eye out for a convenience store so I can buy some lunch and uh some drinks um hopefully I come across one before I arrive we got about 19 minutes more to go That wow really beautiful rivers around here nice and wide looks like there’s some sort of uh like logging industry around here I’ve seen several large warehouses and wood inside of them this is a larger size town so I might be able to find the convenience store here hopefully so in 400 m slight

Right yeah and for reference I think we’re probably uh flight right 30 45 minutes from hoshima uh so if you’re looking for a house in uh around this area in the countryside M continue straight just to give you a reference we’re in between miwa where I live in Yamaguchi prefecture and then Hiroshima

Which is the the or hero shimi as uh people may know it um that’s and now obviously that’s in the prefix of hirosima as well continue straight nice big city hall or something or community in 300 M slight left uh I bet I guarantee you a convenience door was over there on the

Other side because it looked a little bit more populated but we’ll see flight left then turn right turn Right is okay got we found the S sa a family Mark all right let me go ahead and jump in there buy some sandwiches uh some drinks and uh go ahead and continue and folks if you don’t know about the convenience stores in Japan you have 711

Daily which is one of my favorites Lawson Family Mart and whatnot but uh you can literally find uh a really good meal and uh you know hot fresh meals and uh and then uh you can pretty much survive off them so let yeah let me go ahead and there real quick

All right so I got myself some lunch and a little bit more coffee for this morning since I only drink one cup you see a lot of people coming in here looks like people like dressed up for sports or hiking or something going on but right early in the

Morning got about 15 minutes to get to our destination A What a yeah thanks again for watching we are about to uh cross the yasaka dam which is uh here in miwa and again just to recap I went over to hichi ett pretty much you chop wood until uh noon or so from 8:00 to noon

For about 4 hours and uh you load up as much as you can get uh and in my case I got about probably two or three truck loads and that the yin rate right now which is actually pretty good while the US dollar is pretty strong uh it came out to like

$75 not bad I mean they only reserved that for customers or people that have bought stoves from Woodstock which a small uh company there in hatsukaichi but thus far they have done a really good job installing our stove and uh and and I guess different uh benefits uh

Such as this uh just I know and it was just fun to come and spend the day with folks and chop wood and kind of chitchat the little so again folks thanks for watching uh if you like what you see please hit subscribe like and share and

This is just uh us right now living in uh Countryside of Japan after we renovated our vacant house and Yamaguchi prefecture all right have a great day thanks bye

Come along for a beautiful drive in the countryside of Japan. Thanks for following our channel where we cover our traditional Japanese house renovation, Japan travel and rural in living in Japan.

I am an American (of Mexican descent) living and working in Japan. My wife of 32 (plus) years is from Japan. We bought a vacant or empty house “Akiya” in the countryside of Japan near Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture for $35,000 (5 million Yen as of August 2022). The property consists of a 2-story house built in 1975, small guest house, large 2 car garage, storage building, and 3/4 acres of land with many fruit trees.

As very common when purchasing an Akiya in Japan, the personal belongings of the previous owner were still in the house. It took multiple trips to the local recycle center to dispose of all the property.

The grounds were overgrown with many weeds and vines. This will take a while to get under control, but it is looking much better around the property, and I think the neighbors are happy to see us cleaning up.

This traditional Japanese house also features a gorgeous Japanese Garden in much need of cleaning up and bringing it back to its glory. I am still working on the garden, but it already looks stunning under a beautiful maple tree and huge decorative stones.

We performed an extensive renovation in the entire house. We focused on keeping traditional Japanese features such as the engawa, shoji doors, ranma, shikkui, tatami room, but incorporated modern features making a very comfortable house for years to come. Walls, ceilings, floors were insulated. New modern kitchen, toilets and bathroom units were installed. We installed a wood burning cast iron stove (Quadra-Fire, Explorer II). New electrical throughout the entire house and guest house. Double pane windows and doors installed and much more.

#japan #japancountryside #japanesevacanthouse #akiya #traditionaljapanesehouse #ruraljapan #japanesegarden

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****Recommend using “Chrome” as a browser for Japanese to English translation.****

Akiya Bank for my area near Iwakuni City and Hiroshima City: Miwa Town in Yamaguchi
https://iwakuni-iju.jp/akiyajoho

Miwa Town Information:
https://iwakuni-iju.jp/miwa.html

Dave Olson’s website:
Dave provides many links and information Akiya and Komika purchase.

“Akiya” abandoned, cheap/free* houses in Japan / annotations, resources, riffs, musings, stories

At Akiya Sumai you can search for vacant houses around Japan.
https://akiya.sumai.biz

At Ie Ichiba there is a Bulletin board to search vacant houses / Akiya Houses and old buildings in Japan
https://www.ieichiba.com

Other Useful Links:

Can A Foreigner Buy Property In Japan?

https://www.athome.co.jp/
https://www.kurasapo.net/
https://www.koryoya.com/
https://www.homes.co.jp/akiyabank/
http://www.inakanet.jp/index.html
https://www.akiya-athome.jp