Return to Japan

Return to Tokyo

One of the best ways to enjoy Tokyo is to avoid expensive hotels. My plan is to rent a short term accommodation in Tokyo for a month. A fully furnished apartment, of recent build can be found at around 120000yens. That is much better than staying at the hotel. We can’t wait to eat proper food again, relax at a café. I think I waited too long for my return to Tokyo.

Of course speaking of café, Komeda in Aichi is waiting for me.

Moving to Vancouver

I will settle to Vancouver for the next few years as I build up my Japanese skill. Access to Japanese food is much better than Ottawa and we can escape the rotten province of Quebec.

Deserved with direct flight to Japan, and all of Asia, Vancouver is a central location for any companies serious about doing business in Asia.

Coming soon, chronicles of a bilingual sale engineer.

Where in Hong Kong should I live?

“Where in Hong Kong should I live?” is the title of a blog entry I was reading yesterday. Considering the price and the relative ease one can start a business in Hong-Kong, we have been thinking of living for a while in Hong-Kong. If we check the price for an apartment in Tokyo and compare it to Hong-Kong, there is not that much of a difference. Also it is much easier as a foreigner to rent in Hong-Kong than in Japan.

Yes, the Inaka life is not for now and even Japan will have to wait at least 3 years. But in the meantime we are considering our options. As long as the job gets done, there is almost no limitation in location for my job as a web strategist. My clients are always satisfied and I can always manage my project with my partners with the usual ease the internet offer us.

To go back to the subject of living in Hong-Kong, we figured that the rent would be the same as in Vancouver and that we would enjoy more the highly urbanised lifestyle of the main island. The rent will be higher but we will save on transportation cost. I really hate using a car and that’s the most depressing part of living in Canada.

Buying a Used House in Japan

The idea of a “used house” sounds strange for me. It is perfectly normal in Canada to buy a previously owned house. But as you may already know, in Japan, only the land has value. I won’t cover for now all the detail of what’s involved when buying a house but I will just say that Izu land and house are relatively cheap compared to more densely populated area. To live in Izu is also an economic decision. Think about it when you return to your apartment with no kitchen. Is this healthy? Does it make sense? If feel like taking a look, check out this website about Izu houses for sale

Izu Peninsula Life

We have been considering moving to the Izu Peninsula for some time. Izu is central to Nagoya and Tokyo where we both have familial and professional interests. I recently found a really great site about Izu with breath taking picture of the sea. Unlike Aichi-ken dirty sea, thinking here for example of Gamagoori, the water is blue. Lots of mountains and the climate suits my aspirations of escaping the winters of Canada.

I also note that our general impression is that most of the resident, are more educated. They are owner of summer house, they come to Izu to enjoy life rather than badmouth their neighbors. This is a point we are strongly taking into account when researching a location for a possible return to japan. We are slowly agreeing that Izu life would not be bad at all.

Is Space Needed for Farming?

Following on my post on Homesteading, I have been asked by relative if I did not find it counter productive to move back to Japan, if indeed, I wanted to grow vegetables. But just how much space is needed to grow vegetables? First, if I am to restrain myself on space I would just grow my favorite vegetables. Since I plan to move where there is no snow accumulation, and the temperature barely gets close to 0 degrees Celsius (Freezing point) , vegetable will grow and be harvested almost year long. Following the Japanese climate will allow me to rotate my cultures. With this in mind, I don’t think space will be a problem for my farming back in Japan.

Homesteading in Japan

Homesteading in Japan, is the subject of one article from escape artist. Now they changed the site a little, its now an almost made for adsense website. Besides some many facts that they got wrong, some parts of the article are not bad. So for a return to japan, not only a farm, but homesteading might be the way to go. Rural Japan has many good points. Yes I am aware of the bad ones too.

Visit the original site here:

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam15/Homesteading_In_Japan.html

***Update***

It looks like that the real original article should be this one: http://www.mail-archive.com/futurework@scribe.uwaterloo.ca/msg07324.html again this is from a scrapper site. I think the original came from a university mailing list.

Here is a reply to the article about homesteading in Japan

Life and Retirement on a Japanese farm.

What kind of crazy person would want to return to Japan and willingly inflict on him the hardship of life and retirement on a Japanese farm? You can factor in the fact that the wife is Japanese, that her parents are growing old and that I hate winter. You can add the fact that I do not think much of working for someone else except for the learning experience. The sum of this produced this fantasy of a return to Japan.

Return to Japan

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