When Lee Xian Jie first stepped foot in the standard farmhouse situated in Ryujin-mura, a village in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture, it was “quite rundown” — with floors so rickety they shook beneath him with every step he took.
In spite of everything, the major structure of the abandoned home was 300 years old, Lee said. But when he took a better go searching the house, he could tell it was “properly built.”
“The pillars are all Sakura wood, which is a particularly dense and hard wood,” he told CNBC Make It. “It is also a thatch constructing, which may be very rare in Japan now … So it is a constructing with great historical value.”
The property, which previously housed 4 generations, is certainly one of Japan’s tens of millions of vacant houses often called akiya, Japanese for “empty house.”
But unlike many akiya which can be on the market, this was for rent since it’s on “good land,” and there are two family graves in the world, Lee explained. He was, nevertheless, given permission by its landlord to revive the premises.
“My interest has all the time been in history. I desired to see what it was like for people back then to live without chemical fertilizers that we use immediately. How did people construct homes with just wood and joinery?”
Things to contemplate
Covid-19 fast-tracked Lee’s dreams of living in rural Japan. He began his own tour company in Kyoto six years ago, but moved to the village through the pandemic when there was no work.
He quickly fell in love with Ryujin-mura and decided to rent the farmhouse, together with one other akiya, which is now a co-working space for digital nomads.
The 33-year-old runs a farm-to-table cafe on the farmhouse three days per week, using ingredients he harvests from the farm, which he also uses without spending a dime.
But that is not all. He also bought one other 100-year-old constructing round the corner, which he’s converting right into a guesthouse.
The farmers are the busiest people here — the one difference is that you just haven’t got to sit down in front of a desk.
While akiya often have low cost price tags, there are a couple of things to contemplate before moving to Japan to buy one, said Lee.
“That is specifically for Japan: For those who cannot speak the language, you’ll be able to’t get along together with your neighbors … communication may be very difficult,” he added.
“People forget that point invested within the language is a whole lot of time they will use elsewhere. It takes anyone at the least a bare minimum of 4 years to be fluent in Japanese, seven to eight years to be really fluent.”
Farm life is usually romanticized as quiet or peaceful in comparison with town, but Lee says “no farmer here has a slow life.”
“The farmers are the busiest people here — the one difference is that you just haven’t got to sit down in front of a desk,” added Lee, who has almost 16-hour long days on the farm.
There are also “social expectations” corresponding to maintaining the grass around your land, which requires more time and energy than one would imagine.
“I am unable to stress how much grass cutting goes on because Japan has a whole lot of rain and plants grow thoroughly. For those who don’t maintain it, it’ll look very messy and your weeds will affect the neighbors’ crops.”
“Life is slow should you pay to remain on the farm as a guest. For my guests, it’ll be a slow life because they’d need to do not one of the chores,” he added with amusing.
While it’s a whole lot of exertions, it’s all price it for Lee — who finds essentially the most success from knowing what goes into the food he serves at his cafe.
“Probably the most fulfilling a part of the experience is that once I serve tea now, it’s my very own tea that I made. After I serve rice on this cafe, I do know that I even have used no pesticides,” he said.
“I’ve made many local friends here … it is the human connections I even have here which can be truly priceless.”
Cost of renovations
Living in rural Japan is little doubt cheaper in comparison with town. Lee said that he pays “well under” $750 for the major farmhouse and co-working space, which sit on a property measuring a complete of about 100,000 sq. ft.
“I did my math and realized that if I renovated a spot nicely, I might be paying the identical amount I might have if I lived in Kyoto for five years,” said Lee.
Nevertheless, he warned that renovation costs is likely to be hefty, depending on the condition of the akiya. The floors of the major farmhouse for instance, were weakened by the humidity and termites.
“I believed I could replace the ground [through] DIY but then I fell through the ground,” Lee recalled. “Then I just hired the carpenter who lives about 10 minutes away.”
For the guesthouse, which sits on a separate parcel of land measuring 190,000 sq. ft., he spent about $97,000 with two friends to buy and renovate, with the majority of that going toward renovations.
One other $37,000 was spent to show the major house right into a living space for himself and a functional cafe.
Lee needed to involve himself within the demolishing work — partly due to a shortage of manpower within the village.
“But it surely also means you’ll be able to cut your costs just a little, should you’re willing to get your hands dirty,” he shared. “Lots of work went to the electrical work, pipes … Getting a correct flushing toilet, before that it was a hole in the bottom.”
Having spent five figures on all of the work on the property, whether he can recoup those costs is a priority because “there’s so much less work” to be present in rural Japan.
“If you would like to do agriculture, you may have to be an authority in agriculture, otherwise you’ll fail. There are fewer jobs here also of any sort,” he explained.
“Living costs are lower in rural Japan, but so is the income.”
However the 33-year-old said he was “never apprehensive,” as his experience as a tour guide since 2017 gave him a keen understanding concerning the activities that will attract visitors.
“There are going to be tea workshops organized here for some Europeans later this October. And that was sold out inside an hour.”
“There was interest on this. This yr we have had a couple of groups are available in to experience that with me here,” Lee said.
While the guesthouse will only open officially in June, he’s already been getting some bookings. At full capability, he expects to make about $7,500 a month from the cafe, co-working space, tours and guesthouse.
“There’s a whole lot of interest on this area specifically because we’re two hours from the closest airport … There are also a whole lot of cultural and historical things to see here — plus the character in fact,” Lee added.
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Correction: This text has been corrected to accurately reflect the land size