When I was out driving over the weekend...

[slow 0]

I mean 'original state' when you moved in.

 

 Quote:

Originally posted by sakebomb:

I am trying to avoid dealing with real estate agents and deal with some generous owners direct. I would probably need to draw up a contract in any case, yeh?

It's a big challenge, sake! I don't think Japanese land owners want to do it by themselves. But you should try, you may be able to change Japanese real estate industry!

[soubriquet 0]

slow is right. Find something you are interested in, go to the city office and find the owner and approach them directly. Gaijin or not, money is money and people do deals.

[fukdane 2]

I would think some people will jump at the chance. There are so many empty buildings around. Since this thread started I've looked around where I live more as well and there are some sad looking places around. You tend not to notice once you've been here a while.

[Dims 0]

You tend not to notice a lot of the crap things about Japan once you have been there a while fukdane, very true. Only when you live somewhere else for a while and come back for a visit does it hit you like a shovel in the face!

[sakebomb 0]

How true that is Dims!

There is plenty of empty real estate siting empty, anything from restuarants, houses to hotels and resorts just itching for some attention (or bulldozer).

[soubriquet 0]

The built environment in the parts of Japan I know is pretty horrible, a shame considering that the parts without buildings and power lines are so beautiful. I asked my goil about this. She said it's because when you build in paper and wood, there is a cultural expectation that buildings are transient things.

 

A lot of the rubbish around me is 50's-60's stuff, built when there was little money around and really low quality. It is being replaced at an amazing pace, and the new stuff is fine. My house is new, steel framed, insulated, aircon and central heating. We've a LAN as well as all the bathroom and toilet gizmology. No-one's going to want to knock this one down anytime soon.

[oo 1]

Let's hope an earthquake doesn't do it instead

[Ocean11 0]

> My house is new, steel framed, insulated, aircon and central heating.

 

I've been looking at a lot of these with a view to buying - and most of these are horrible too. Functionally inferior architecture with every kind of cor-blimey Western-style garnish, from Tudor English to Tex-Mex Provencale.

 

Even though Japan famously has 4 seasons and cries out for overhangs over windows (like old Japanese houses have), the new houses have horrible cut-away rooves so the windows look like a person who normally wears glasses but hasn't got them on today. This means that you need more air-con. I looked at a house recently and noted the absence of overhangs, and house-builder matey said, "If you katte-itadakimasu the house, we'll jerry-build some on for you, without charge. Anything to satisfy you." "That will look nice and won't leak or anything", I thought to myself.

 

What also amazes me is how they build their best effort at a snazzy, overstated luxury design, then put a breezeblock wall around it.

 

Just as all that 70s flim-flam seems really dated now, I bet that toilets with birdsong and self-lifting seats will seem naff when oil prices get a bit higher.

[NoFakie 45]

The "earthquake special" they had on the TV recently showed how easily those breezeblock walls keel over in a quake. If a "tremblor" hits, don't go anywhere near one. Or a vending machine, for that matter.

 

Personally, I think the main problem here is a lack of planning (i.e., regulation). The rules concerning what you can build are far too slack. In many Western neighbourhoods, you can't build a little shed without having the plans checked first. In Japan you can do what you like.

 

As for ordinary properties, I agree with Indo in that a lick of paint would make a lot of difference. Instead of all that full-blown "gekiteki before/after" type stuff, a paint job, a few plants and a good clearout would make a lot of places much better.

[sanjo 2]

Based on what I have seen in Kawaguchi, Ojiya and Nagaoka, the best houses to have are the ones that the ground floor/garage is concrete with wood 2nd (and 3rd) floor.

 

They're the ones that survived the powerful Chuetsu quake anyway (they even survived the shindo 7 of Kawaguchi fairly well by the looks).

[soubriquet 0]

Inland Yamagata in nice because the central valley is a classic graben, with all the volcanos lined up nicely along the lines of faulting (Zao one side, Gassan the other). Because it is going down (normal faulting), we don't get much serious activity.

 

Lightweight construction is ideal because in theory a light flexible structure can bounce around, or even come off its foundations without collapsing. The steel frame really helps tie things down and together. The problem is that in Oishida, we are in high snow area. 14 metres last winter, on a daily accumulation basis. Anything like overhanging eaves or window shading, or even gutters gets crushed by snow. I had to get up on the roof of her bakery twice to shovel off the snow, and we still needed a new roof come spring.

 

Spec built houses are always going to be naff, but it's easy to keep costs down so you save money. My partner's had to be purpose designed because it has a shop and is five sided to fit on the block. We went from this:

to this:

 

Sorry, Ocean11, t'would seem you will have to pay someone to design and build a one off if you want what you want.

 

Agree about the lack of planning regs Mr Wiggles, but one of the things I really like about Japan is the freedom to live my life without the infuriating beaureaucratic interference of EC or Oz regs. Maybe I'm missing something.

[soubriquet 0]

Forgot to add O11, I was effing grateful for the self-lifting toilet seat when I stuffed my back again this spring. I couldn't put on my own socks or underpants, but at least I could take a piss unaided.

[Ocean11 0]

When I can't walk, I find my walking stick handle useful for getting a purchase on the bog seat to hoick it up. We looked at building a house - too expensive for what you get.