Hello everyone, I signed up recently after reading all the info on the site. Thought I would say hello after Yooperdave welcomed me into the fold. A little about me, I am active duty Navy here stationed in Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan. I have been in Japan for 17 years of the last 26 of my career and my wife (Japanese gal I am an East Texan) and I decided we would retire in Japan once that day comes and bought a house 1.5 years ago with a wood stove. The builder is located 15 minutes away and gave us access to unlimited wood, the leftover timbers from the houses they build. Not my favorite wood source but managed with it through last winter. Wood stove that was installed by the previous owner is a Japanese stove made in China, Honma brand. Its a small cast iron stove single wall pipe all the way up and out, I have a thimble through the wall. No secondary burn feature . I am out in the country, but only 20 minutes to the city and don't have a lot of access to woods that surround me. I don't discriminate against what I burn, but won't burn pine or sugi which i a type of cedar here that is abundant. I have a neighbors that are great and offer up free wood if they have any on their little garden plots or land. they are all much older than me and appreciate me coming to clean up their property and it helps me out as well. My primary wood source is the base. I picked up two pallets worth of cherry last year and some Ginko which I split and stacked and have used this year. The public works manager has my card and give me a holler when they plan to do some trimming and typhoon season can be a windfall for me. I am a scrounger as well always keeping an eye out for any crews who may be trimming grounds of local businesses or whatever I can get my hands on. My wife thought I was crazy the other week when we happened to be out and running errands and i just stopped and walked up to a crew who was cutting trees to remove them to widen a road. I am not entirely fluent in Japanese but can read, write and hear,speaking Janglish. So the look on these guys faces when they see a 6'2" 200 lb American stop and walk up to them out of the blue asking for wood can be amusing. So far everyone of them is more than helpful and some have even asked what size rounds I need and have trimmed down logs on the spot so i can chunk them in my station wagon and split them at home. The little stove provides plenty of heat for our small single story home but in the future want to install a little larger stove and with secondary burn. I will have some questions with a creosote issue i have noticed but will post in the other section. For now looking forward to reading your posts and learning a bunch while sharing with y'all what goes on over here in Japan. Here is my set up. Made a wood shed out of pallets from base had both sides filled with sakura (cherry) and some kunugi (oak). Have some ginko round the side of my house in a wood rack I will get a pick of that later. On the right of the wood pic is all cherry.
Welcome aboard! You nigh want to check out you tube. Theres plenty of example of people installing their own secondary systems. If you're handy. Thats a neat stove and it would be great.if it had a secondary burn system.
Hello NavyinJapan! Again. Just in a different area.... Hey, twice the responses? Thanks again for your service So, Sakura, Kunugi, and Ginko. At least two names we can throw into the stacks ova here. And stuffing into the station wagon? Oh man, you got hoarder fever for sure!
Welcome aboard, NavyinJapan! Glad to have you join the family, and God Bless you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service to our beloved USA!!
I always had thought that firewood might be hard to come by in Japan considering the land mass vs number of residents. Have always wanted to go to Japan. Welcome from another newbie!
Welcome, Navy. Glad you found us. Looks like you'll fit in just fine here. Thank You Sir, for your service!!
Welcome! Thank you for serving this great country of ours. That's an unusual looking stove. I like how it has a view from the sides.
