Hello from Okayama
Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 4:51 am
Hi all,
I’d like to introduce myself; I’m Del from the UK and my Japanese wife of 30 yrs. We are in the long process of moving to our Kominka in Wake, Okayama having completed the buying process last month. We found this forum whilst we were searching for wood burning stoves Having read some of this forum’s content it is great to have found like minded individuals and thus decided to join. We hope that we are welcome.
My wife describes herself as a semi-retired professional photographer and I’m counting my days to retire from a major UK Airline. Over the past 3 years we both talked about moving to Japan initially to Okinawa then Hokkaido. We considered my wife’s home prefecture of Shiga and my personal favourite Narita, Chiba. At one point we actually signed a contract to rent in Kyoto, but quickly cancelled. In effect we were undecided about where we wanted to live. What we did know is that we wanted a Kominka that was habitable with some land and a naya ( barn ).
By chance my wife 18 months ago was invited to go a British Fair held in Hiruzen, Okayama after which we decided to have a look around. We were impressed by how welcoming the people of Okayama are as well as the number of Kominkas available. Research online revealed two things that surprised us both. Firstly that certain parts of Okayama was least prone to earthquakes as well as typhoons. ( I know this is subjective and that we can’t beat Mother Nature ) Secondly that the Prefecture had a variety of incentives via some of their local wards to encourage people to move to the Okayama.
Six trips to Okayama and a year later we eventually found a habitable Kominka in a small village in the mountains with a view, a small hatake and a Naya.Not too isolated (23 friendly neighbours) and quiet. My Japanese language being very poor has prompted one neighbour to say I have 2 yrs to improve. Lots of work to be done details of which I’ll put on a separate thread as we will be asking lots of questions. We will also try to answer questions if we can as well.
Sorry for the long intro, but felt I needed to provide some background.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu
Del & Wife
I’d like to introduce myself; I’m Del from the UK and my Japanese wife of 30 yrs. We are in the long process of moving to our Kominka in Wake, Okayama having completed the buying process last month. We found this forum whilst we were searching for wood burning stoves Having read some of this forum’s content it is great to have found like minded individuals and thus decided to join. We hope that we are welcome.
My wife describes herself as a semi-retired professional photographer and I’m counting my days to retire from a major UK Airline. Over the past 3 years we both talked about moving to Japan initially to Okinawa then Hokkaido. We considered my wife’s home prefecture of Shiga and my personal favourite Narita, Chiba. At one point we actually signed a contract to rent in Kyoto, but quickly cancelled. In effect we were undecided about where we wanted to live. What we did know is that we wanted a Kominka that was habitable with some land and a naya ( barn ).
By chance my wife 18 months ago was invited to go a British Fair held in Hiruzen, Okayama after which we decided to have a look around. We were impressed by how welcoming the people of Okayama are as well as the number of Kominkas available. Research online revealed two things that surprised us both. Firstly that certain parts of Okayama was least prone to earthquakes as well as typhoons. ( I know this is subjective and that we can’t beat Mother Nature ) Secondly that the Prefecture had a variety of incentives via some of their local wards to encourage people to move to the Okayama.
Six trips to Okayama and a year later we eventually found a habitable Kominka in a small village in the mountains with a view, a small hatake and a Naya.Not too isolated (23 friendly neighbours) and quiet. My Japanese language being very poor has prompted one neighbour to say I have 2 yrs to improve. Lots of work to be done details of which I’ll put on a separate thread as we will be asking lots of questions. We will also try to answer questions if we can as well.
Sorry for the long intro, but felt I needed to provide some background.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu
Del & Wife