Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Please introduce yourself
starting_the_dream
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Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by starting_the_dream »

Hi all. While I've been a lurker off and on for a bit, I thought I'd introduce myself and get 'proper' acquainted with everyone here. In the fall of 2016 we bought an empty farm house near Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Spent about 6 months from planning to completion remodeling and updating the kitchen and bath as well as a few other things. Then we needed another year before we were ready to move in full time, but in February we started unpacking the boxes and haven't left since.

Looking forward to sharing our journey!

Here's a pic from the day we closed with the bank. House on the left, barn on the right.
IMG_3747a.jpg
IMG_3747a.jpg (63.09 KiB) Viewed 1284 times

Shizuman
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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by Shizuman »

Gday Mate

The house looks amazing! Nice to hear from ya!
hows it coming along?

Cheers

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Welcome to Japan Simple Life and thank you for taking the time to sign up, we really do appreciate that.

Firstly, what an awesome looking house you have and the barn looks fantastic, almost like a second house. Amazing, I'd love to have a barn that size. Would be great to see some more pictures if you have the time or inclination but please don't feel under any pressure if you'd prefer not to. Sounds like you've some some pretty thorough preparations before moving in, what are your future plans if you don't mind sharing, self sufficiency, farming or something else altogether ?

How are you enjoying rural life ?

starting_the_dream
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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by starting_the_dream »

Thanks for the replies!

Our goal in buying the property was to let the little ones grow up playing in the dirt and making friends with the bugs. Along with a healthy bit of indepence that can't be found in the city! Neither the wife nor I are from farming families, so we're learning as we go. We hastily put some potatoes, squash, edamame and watermelon in this spring and have been having a great time harvesting what we get. We don't have enough land to make farming a career, but more than enough for a 'robust' garden. This year is all about 'getting ready to get ready' and trying a few things to see how they go.


So far we're loving the peace and quiet and haven't encountered any big problems (knock on wood!).

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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by Shizuman »

Sounds like a real good plan mate!
Good luck!

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Does indeed sound like a good plan.

Slow down a little and take life at a quieter pace, grow some veggies for you all to enjoy but don't work yourself to death doing that whilst giving your kids a safe environment to learn about the world and nature around them.

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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by Chris64 »

That really is a lovely house with the potential to grow lovely memories! How did you find the place?

starting_the_dream
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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by starting_the_dream »

Happy New Year!

For years, we'd been causually browsing the larger national inaka sites, http://www.inakanet.jp/index.html for instance, to see what was available near us. Occasionally we'd even spend a Sunday driving around the area trying to find the house. Nothing too serious, but it gave us an idea of prices and availability.Even planted a few seeds of what we'd like in a house/area should the opportunity present itself.

When we got serious about leaving the city, we started creating some parameters of what we wanted from a house and area. And since we wanted to stay in Hiroshima, we then started looking at each town's website and their 'empty house' page. When we had three of four possible candidates, we'd contact city hall to set up times to visit. The rest is history!

If you don't have a location in mind, I'd recommend using the national sites for a general overview. Once you have a prefecture in mind, start looking at the local resources.

Happy Hunting!

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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by Chris64 »

Thank you, that link will be helpful!

I have been looking at various sites and found this one recently. https://www.ieichiba.com/
Full of wonderful places but it seems that they are not inaka or akiya sites. My problem now is that Google cannot translate ieichiba.com because it is too big and even when I select an interesting looking place, the text count is still too big! I have to translate a paragraph at a time... My Japanese vocabulary is about 6 words now ( but learning Kanji every day! ) so I am pretty lost...

If there is a brave soul on Japan simple life willing to assist me, I would be grateful!

Please link or list resourses - this information should be a permanent post to be contributed to by everybody.

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Re: Hello from Northern Hiroshima

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Just use Google Chrome and it will automatically translate the page for you. It had no problem translating IE Ichiba.

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