Aye up from Tokushima

[Kamiyamajin]

Hello all. I'm originally from Lancashire, England but now living in the mountains of central Tokushima with my family.
We love in a town called Kamiyama and have been here for ten years now.
We live in an old kominka with a kayabuki and we've been DIYing it slowly for seven years..
We opened an gallery space in the house last year and have had some great shows partnering up with the Kamiyama Artist in Residence program.
I love the inaka and I'm really fascinated to see how creativity can bloom here.
Hope you're all doing OK and looking forward to diving into this forum.
Ta.

[Zasso Nouka]

Welcome to Japan Simple Life Kamiyamajin and thank you very much for taking the time to sign up. How did you manage to find us, if you don't mind me asking, we're not exactly at the top of many Google searches.

Hello all. I'm originally from Lancashire, England but now living in the mountains of central Tokushima with my family.

I really wanted to live in Shikoku when we first moved to Japan, beautiful scenery and fantastic climate, I'm quite jealous of your location.

We live in an old kominka with a kayabuki and we've been DIYing it slowly for seven years..
We opened an gallery space in the house last year and have had some great shows partnering up with the Kamiyama Artist in Residence program.

If you have the time and inclination would love to see some pictures of what you've done with the house. No pressure but I do love to see other folk's DIY projects and it might help other people contemplating a similar course.

I love the inaka and I'm really fascinated to see how creativity can bloom here.
Hope you're all doing OK and looking forward to diving into this forum.
Ta.

Well let me once more extend the warmest of welcomes and hope you enjoy being here, we sometimes go a bit quiet but everyone is pretty friendly.

[gonbechan]

Welcome, welcome.
I would also like to chime and request house porn piccies. Haha.

I envy your location very much. It is so energizing living surrounded by creative people.

[Kamiyamajin]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I discovered you guys via a fairly innocuous search for something like 'Japanese mud walls' . I was looking for some info about old Japanese houses for a friend (who has just moved to Kamiyama).

Hopefully I can share some of the experiences I've had with properties and living in the Japanese countryside!

I will post some pictures as soon as I can!

[Zasso Nouka]

I discovered you guys via a fairly innocuous search for something like 'Japanese mud walls' . I was looking for some info about old Japanese houses for a friend (who has just moved to Kamiyama).

Classic, hadn't thought of that. It's funny how Google works sometimes but glaad you found us anyway.

Hopefully I can share some of the experiences I've had with properties and living in the Japanese countryside!

I will post some pictures as soon as I can!

That would be awesome, no hurry or pressure but if you have some free time would be great to see what you've done.

[Tora]

I discovered you guys via a fairly innocuous search for something like 'Japanese mud walls' . I was looking for some info about old Japanese houses for a friend (who has just moved to Kamiyama).

I live on the way into Tokushima City from Kamiyama and have done some work with mud walls on as I’ve renovated our house. Bamboo backing (Japanese name escapes me), arakabe base layer, sandy nakanuri, homemade shikkui finish. I’d be happy to share what I’ve done and learned. It seems to be working for us but I won’t claim it’s right or easy.

[LOAF]

Hello,
I just joined this group myself, and enjoy reading about everyone’s whereabouts and life style in Japan.

I actually have been in touch with Kamiyama Ijyuu Centre back in Melbourne Aus to get info re living there. It is such a beautiful place.

We would like to start or take over someone’s farm to contribute agriculturally, meanwhile set up our own online shop selling by-products via the food we grow. Also teaching English remotely etc..

I am wondering how easy or difficult it is to live in Kamiyama. I know it’s relatively small populace and tightly knit community. Is it easy to mingle with others in the community?
Is it hard to obtain land or buy Akiya there?
Sorry to bombard you with many questions. I should be asking these things to the Kamiyama Ijuu Centre, but it would be interesting to ask someone who actually lives there as a foreigner too.

Once SOE, we hope to visit Kamiyama and Tokushima in general anyway, so hopefully get a better idea

Cheers,

Maria

[Zasso Nouka]

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

I can't say anything specific about Tokushima or Kamiyama but as a general rule for moving to the countryside if you are willing to mix into the local community and pitch in at community events and get to know potential neighbours it's doable or so we've found.

I am wondering how easy or difficult it is to live in Kamiyama. I know it’s relatively small populace and tightly knit community. Is it easy to mingle with others in the community?
Is it hard to obtain land or buy Akiya there?

You probably already know about the Kamiyama town website, it seems quite helpful and encouraging for newcomers but hopefully you can get some input from members here that live in the area.

Once again thank you for joining and looking forward to hearing how your move to the countryside goes.

[Tora]

Hello,
I just joined this group myself, and enjoy reading about everyone’s whereabouts and life style in Japan.

I actually have been in touch with Kamiyama Ijyuu Centre back in Melbourne Aus to get info re living there. It is such a beautiful place.

We would like to start or take over someone’s farm to contribute agriculturally, meanwhile set up our own online shop selling by-products via the food we grow. Also teaching English remotely etc..

I am wondering how easy or difficult it is to live in Kamiyama. I know it’s relatively small populace and tightly knit community. Is it easy to mingle with others in the community?
Is it hard to obtain land or buy Akiya there?
Sorry to bombard you with many questions. I should be asking these things to the Kamiyama Ijuu Centre, but it would be interesting to ask someone who actually lives there as a foreigner too.

Once SOE, we hope to visit Kamiyama and Tokushima in general anyway, so hopefully get a better idea

Cheers,

Maria

Maria,
We don’t live in Kamiyama per se but just off the road into the city.

Kamiyama is attracting a lot of attention with a number of IT firms opening satellite offices there recently. We considered moving there from the city many years ago but it was a little far (30-60minutes) for my wife who was working in the city where the majority of jobs are. Other friends living there have confirmed that the drive gets old after a while. If you’re going to be farming that might not be a problem.

Would you be looking to rent or buy property? The cost of land and houses on the market via real estate agents (that I’ve seen anyway) seems really high based on the location but it is a popular place to live these days. That being said, a friend just bought a house with a small field via a deal he made in person (no real estate agent other than for final paperwork) and it was more reasonable. Personal contacts, a solid business plan, good work ethic and a friendly personality will get you a long way. One more thing, don’t want to discourage you but a number of restaurants and so on that have opened up recently seem to close after a few years. Not sure if that’s due to changing life goals, poor sales or..., but I would definitely want to get in touch with others running businesses there and get their impressions.

It’s a beautiful place with a vision which is good but rare to see in the Japanese countryside.

Good luck

[LOAF]

Thanks so much Tora,

I have the same impressiom about the property on sale in Kamiyama, and also wondered how business survive there.. It sounds like an ideal place especially if you already earn money working via a laptop. One can virtually work from anywhere! As for us, we moved from Aus and currently just learning farming through a mentor.

Hopefully I get to visit the place in person and see what it is like. Tokushima in general seems like a nice place to do agriculture work, so will look at another place in Awa (where they do organic farming) and see if we can work for
him. So many options, but with Covid on the rise, its hard to look around. Thanks for your input!!