They use to keep the horses inside the house and put poles across to stable them in. Old school garage back in the day. You can see where the slats use hold the poles in place to keep the horses from walking through the house.
Very interesting thread Japanman. Welcome and thank you for sharing your perspective. I remember Japan's "lost decade" that began in 1991. I wonder about parallels here in the US, and from you are saying, Australia as well. We bought a fairly new custom built 3 bedroom, 1 bath home and 20 acres in NE Minnesota for $55,500 in 1990 ( he threw in the washer and dryer for the extra $500 over the sale price of $55,000). This house was built like a fortress with vaulted ceilings, post and beam construction and very good attention to detail. We sold it for $90,000 in 1998 (and kept 10 acres). So the bubble seemed to be starting to expand during that time period even with home loan interest rates in the neighborhood of 10-12%. We purchased a basic rambler with no land, on a city lot in the Mpls area for $187,000 that same year. After reflecting on relative value between our custom home and 20 acres up north, and a 1970s relatively poorly constructed rambler with no land, I knew then that we were starting on a trajectory in terms of inflated asset prices and decided ever since to hold pat in terms of not upsizing to more home, and paying off our mortgage. Now after our own US extended period of engineered low interest rates, real estate is in an ever increasing bubble in many areas. It is interesting, and cautionary to me that a housing bubble in Japan occurred, and then burst after a long period of prolonged low interest rates, which have been ongoing there longer than here.
You can buy an 2 bed apartment about 10 mins from Tokyo CBD for $150k. That exact same apartment was over a $1 million when it was built 25 years ago.
Outside house photos. It has a roof which is about 6 to 10 years old. They replaced the thatched one which had a sheet metal roof placed on top. The owner died not long after it was replaced after going into a nursing home. His daughter just went there occasionally when it was vacant to keep an eye on it as she lived elsewhere. I just have to straighten or replace the guttering and do a little render on the outside to finish it. $2k should more than cover it. As you see they cladded the front and back which is mud wall underneath because it probably was the popular thing to do at the time. I wouldn’t mind taking it off and just rendering it again. It’s just too high and probably costly to do. So I might paint it not sure what to do at the moment.
Sounds like "lost decades." But in reality that would be especially true for those who held inflated assets before they repriced. The stock market there also collapsed from what I recall. For those getting in now at $150,000 maybe there will be some appreciation over a reasonable amount of time, but who knows. I think mortgage interest rates are under 1% there now for a floating rate. I would imagine banks finance loans for those types of properties in Tokyo?
More pics. The yard was hugely overgrown you could barely walk down there it was 2 meters high with weeds and bamboo. I’ve spent a good few of weeks trying to clean it up a bit. There’s a stream at the back which is year round.
Vacancy rates are in the double digits in Tokyo for apartments so not a smart move to buy one in my view. Also people like NEW so a 25 year old apartment would only be occupied if a sudden surge wanted to move to Tokyo or immigration policy changed. I honestly would not want to borrow $150k and have to pay all the strata stuff with the fact it most likely will stay empty.
Stream at the back. Flows year long. Was like a rapid during the recent typhoon it sounded like an aircraft flying by next to the house. These photos were from 2 months ago and now all the vegetation has been washed away. There was wild wasabi (horseradish) growing in the rock beds but it’s now gone.its just rocks at the moment.
Is the background area with mountains accessible to you for hiking? foraging, hunting/fishing, etc.? Do have some land you own with much timber for managing and cutting? I am sure the stream you mentioned has washed out many times before. It will grow back to being lush again before long I would imagine.
It has its own microclimate this area of Nagano it grows table grapes that fetch over $100 a kilo in Tokyo. I’m seriously considering becoming a farmer I used to work in dairy for a few years in my younger days and don’t mind the lifestyle.
There is unlimited supply of timber around here. The government thins the forests out and leaves the stuff on the ground. You wouldn’t bother cutting yourself when the stuff is literally lying on the ground. you could live off the foods around here in the forests. Unlimited bamboo shoots and Warabi and all sorts of native foods. I have Warabi and Myoga Kogomi and mushrooms everywhere in season. My place has persimmons, umeboshi plums, apricot and herbs in abundance. You just need to preserve them because they aren’t there for too long. Bamboo shoots in unlimited numbers are everywhere at their time of year. Old Japanese guys and women are really into the foraging and it’s a communal social thing they do together. Some old ladies spent a day on my land picking heaps of Myoga and cooked some for us as well.
Forgot to address the hiking. There are heaps of hiking trails nearby and the ski slopes are about 30 min drive. Still plenty of infrastructure here still operating from the Winter Olympics as well. Heaps of onsens (hot spring bath houses) as well. Only problem with the hiking trails are the bears so it isn’t popular in this particular area. School kids have bells on the school bags so they don’t accidentally get on top of one. The bears usually go away when they hear people but I would not take that chance especially when you can’t carry a weapon like you can in Australia with a hunting license. Lots of wild deer and wild pigs and it’s fairly easy to get a trappers permit. Only problem is if you don’t have a gun license you have to club them to dispatch of the animal.
Apply an outside coat over the mud to seal it. Could be a cement mixture or just re mud it. Plaster for the outside of a wall of some nature. What do you guys call it?
Welcome to the club. Lots of great folks on here sharing knowledge and humor. That is some great pictures and history you have shared. Great work on the renovation. Beautiful area.
I'm sorry, I am not familiar with it, some homes here have a cement plastering thing here instead of siding but there is much more wall structure behind it and I'm enthralled learning what you are sharing! I've never seen a thatched roof and called my husband over to see the extra bamboo sticks in your historic shed, here it would be ancient lumber/tongue and groove flooring (atleast that what was in my GG Granparents barn built in 1870...) back then. Your daylight pics in the house is something to envy, no doubt the original owners but that nook there for breakfast in the morning? ! Both my husband and I are drooling over the foliage, and he's a roofer, so the tile roof too.
Japan has a big population both now and historically because of the shear amount of rivers and the soil. It can produce so much food in such a small area to support so many people. As a perspective I cut the front of the house in summer down to the ground just the day I bought it so I could get materials in close and 3 weeks later some weeds were head height. You have to cut your grass weekly to stand a chance around here in summer. Once a month in summer everyone in the area gets together at 6am on a Sunday with a weed whacker to clear the narrow roads of weeds growing over the top of it. 2 weeks later you can’t even see it had ever been done. The local taxes would be exorbitant if the council hired the appropriate level of staff to look after everything.
