- 6 minutes ago
I bought a house in Japan, and the journey from house hunting to move-in turned out to be far stranger, cheaper, and more practical than most people expect. After leaving Germany and starting over in Osaka, the search opened up a housing market full of empty homes, traditional rooms, modern renovations, and prices that can feel unreal compared with Europe.
From browsing English-language Japanese real estate listings to comparing Tokyo and Osaka, the video follows the full buying process: choosing a city, narrowing down neighborhoods, viewing houses, making an offer, signing the contract, and finally getting the keys. Along the way there are tatami rooms, built-in storage, Japanese toilets, renovation surprises, furniture shopping, and a realistic look at what it means to buy property in Japan as a foreigner.
It also works as a Japan real estate guide, house-hunting storytime, and moving-to-Japan lifestyle video for anyone interested in akiya homes, Osaka living, Japanese countryside houses, or affordable property in Japan. The focus is on practical decisions, family life, and what daily living looks like after the move.
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A house-hunting and move-to-Japan story with Japanese real estate, Osaka neighborhood scouting, traditional tatami rooms, renovation details, and practical buying advice. Ideal for viewers searching Japan property, akiya house tours, Japanese home buying, and relocation lifestyle content.
Buying a house in Japan becomes the center of a detailed lifestyle and real estate journey, from online listings and neighborhood comparisons to the final move-in day. The video blends travel, housing, and everyday Japan culture in a way that fits searches for Osaka house tour, Japan relocation, foreign buyers, and affordable Japanese homes.
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A personal Japan relocation and property-buying story with real estate scouting, neighborhood research, furniture shopping, and the challenges of settling into a new home. It’s a strong match for search terms like buying property in Japan, Osaka living, Japanese house tour, akiya, and Japan expat lifestyle.
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From browsing English-language Japanese real estate listings to comparing Tokyo and Osaka, the video follows the full buying process: choosing a city, narrowing down neighborhoods, viewing houses, making an offer, signing the contract, and finally getting the keys. Along the way there are tatami rooms, built-in storage, Japanese toilets, renovation surprises, furniture shopping, and a realistic look at what it means to buy property in Japan as a foreigner.
It also works as a Japan real estate guide, house-hunting storytime, and moving-to-Japan lifestyle video for anyone interested in akiya homes, Osaka living, Japanese countryside houses, or affordable property in Japan. The focus is on practical decisions, family life, and what daily living looks like after the move.
SEO: Japanese house hunting, buying a house in Japan, Osaka real estate, akiya homes, move to Japan, Japan property market, foreigner buying property in Japan, Japanese countryside house, house tour Japan, lifestyle in Osaka, and Japan real estate guide for viewers researching affordable homes and relocation.
A house-hunting and move-to-Japan story with Japanese real estate, Osaka neighborhood scouting, traditional tatami rooms, renovation details, and practical buying advice. Ideal for viewers searching Japan property, akiya house tours, Japanese home buying, and relocation lifestyle content.
Buying a house in Japan becomes the center of a detailed lifestyle and real estate journey, from online listings and neighborhood comparisons to the final move-in day. The video blends travel, housing, and everyday Japan culture in a way that fits searches for Osaka house tour, Japan relocation, foreign buyers, and affordable Japanese homes.
SEO: Japan house tour, Osaka house hunting, Japanese real estate, moving to Osaka, akiya house, affordable house in Japan, Japanese lifestyle video, property buying process in Japan, traditional Japanese home, and relocation content for viewers interested in Japan living, foreign home buying, and real estate in Osaka.
A personal Japan relocation and property-buying story with real estate scouting, neighborhood research, furniture shopping, and the challenges of settling into a new home. It’s a strong match for search terms like buying property in Japan, Osaka living, Japanese house tour, akiya, and Japan expat lifestyle.
SEO: buy a house in Japan, Osaka real estate tour, Japanese home buying process, akiya property, Japan expat housing, Japanese lifestyle and relocation, traditional and modern Japanese houses, Osaka neighborhood guide, and affordable homes in Japan for viewers looking for moving advice, property insight, and Japan living content.
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TravelTranscript
00:00Guys, I bought a house in Japan. This is it, the key for it.
00:05Last year we made a decision that completely changed our life.
00:08We left everything behind in Germany and decided to start completely over in Japan.
00:13With 9 million empty homes, Japan has become one of the most interesting and strange housing markets in the world.
00:20So instead of renting, we decided to do something most foreigners never even consider.
00:24We bought one.
00:25This is basically move-in ready.
00:26This is everything that happened from our first day of house hunting to finally moving in.
00:31Everybody thinks that Japan is one of the most expensive countries in the world.
00:35And that has been true for the past few decades.
00:37But things have changed.
00:39Right now there are over 9 million empty homes in Japan.
00:42So housing here has become quite affordable.
00:45And in this video I want to take you along and show you just how easy and cheap it can
00:48be to get your own house here in Japan.
00:50No matter your budget. If it's 2,000 or 200,000.
00:53Yes, you heard me right. You can get houses here cheaper than 2,000 dollars.
00:59And big ones as well.
01:00Alright, step one of many.
01:02We have to look for real estate.
01:04It used to be quite difficult to look for real estate in Japan.
01:07Because if you don't speak Japanese and if you can't read the kanji and hiragana,
01:11it was almost impossible to look for listings.
01:14But thankfully that has changed over the last few years.
01:18There are websites now that let you browse through all the listings in English now.
01:23And the first one and in my opinion best one is Akiamart.
01:26That's also why I've partnered up with them for this video.
01:29So let's have a look.
01:30No minimum price range.
01:32Maximum 20 grand.
01:34Let's see what you can buy in Japan for 20 grand.
01:36A lot of things.
01:37Look how many properties there are for 20 grand.
01:397 grand.
01:417 grand.
01:42Wow.
01:43That is a huge space.
01:44This needs some work guys.
01:46I mean if you want to buy cheap, there's work involved.
01:48You can be sure of that.
01:50I've always dreamed about living close to the beach.
01:52Let's see.
01:53By the sea.
01:5562 dollars.
01:57Are you kidding me?
01:57This house costs 62 dollars.
01:59It has 46 square meters.
02:01And it looks like it's been abandoned for a while.
02:03I mean 60 dollars is a meal for two people in a restaurant.
02:07You can get a house.
02:08An old house in Japan.
02:09Maybe that's why there's no homeless people in Japan.
02:11They're just back for two days and then they can afford a house.
02:15Alright.
02:16Let's increase the price to 50 grand.
02:18Okay.
02:19Let's go somewhere really far off from the touristy track.
02:24Not many people go here in this area.
02:26I would say another house for 62 dollars.
02:28You can get this house.
02:30We have a plot of land of 500 square meters.
02:33That's huge.
02:33If you ever dreamed about living this city life, living in a village, become self sustainable.
02:40Just go to Japan.
02:41Buy this farm here for 60 bucks.
02:43This looks cool.
02:4520 grand for 969 square meters of land.
02:50This is pretty dope.
02:51This is a very beautiful interior.
02:55Wow.
02:56Japan is going to become a digital nomad hub.
02:59They have the digital nomad visa.
03:01You get it for six months.
03:02Tourist visa, three months.
03:03I'm calling it now.
03:05Influencers are going to buy those houses for cheap.
03:07And they're going to make retreat centers out of it.
03:10I don't think there's another place in the world where you can get such beautiful, huge
03:15houses on the countryside for such a price.
03:17Japan is safe.
03:18Look at that.
03:19I don't think you have to do anything here.
03:21It's huge.
03:22It has been on the market for three years.
03:24Nobody wants to buy it and it's losing value because the yen is weakening.
03:28That's why the graph is looking like that.
03:30Where is it?
03:30It's this one.
03:31It has six bedrooms and it's literally a 10 minute walk from the beach.
03:36Is there a beach?
03:38There's a beach.
03:39I'm buying this thing, guys.
03:41Satellite.
03:41There's a beach, guys.
03:42It's a small beach, but it's a beach and you can basically walk there.
03:48You have this beach for yourself.
03:50How long is it from the house?
03:5215 minutes from this house to the beach.
03:54And look at the water.
03:56It's beautiful.
03:56I'm a little bit tempted by this, to be honest.
03:59And what's on the other side?
04:00Is there also a beach?
04:01This looks like a beach, doesn't it?
04:03Guys, there's another beach.
04:04And it's even closer than the other one.
04:06Seven minutes to the...
04:09Seven minutes to the beach.
04:10I don't think it's going to get better than this, to be honest.
04:1320 grand.
04:14Seven minutes to the beach.
04:15And if you ever have thought about getting your own place in Japan.
04:17Maybe a vacation home, investment or you actually moving there.
04:21Go check out their website.
04:23In my opinion, they're the best ones out there.
04:25And if you decide to sign up for the premium version.
04:28I've got, of course, a discount card for you.
04:30It's right here.
04:31You can thank me later.
04:32The great thing about Akiomarp is not only their website that they built,
04:36but they actually have another service in which they help you purchasing property.
04:40So if you look at properties here and you decide, I want to buy this one.
04:45You can actually reach out to them and they will help you with the whole purchasing process.
04:49They will connect you to local agents, trustworthy local agents.
04:53And then you can either go there yourself with the agent and look at the house.
04:57Or you can just send the agent and he will look at the house for you, send pictures and videos.
05:02So basically you can even buy properties in Japan without ever being there, which is kind of crazy.
05:06But we didn't want to buy a house remotely.
05:09Buying a house is one of the biggest decisions you'll ever make.
05:12So we wanted to see every property with our own eyes before making an offer.
05:16After getting in touch with Akiomarp to figure out how the whole process worked,
05:20the agent recommended starting our search about two to three weeks before arriving in Japan.
05:24As good properties tend to sell quickly.
05:26There was just one big decision left to make.
05:29Where in Japan did we actually want to settle?
05:31Coming from Berlin, we love big cities.
05:33So it was really just either Tokyo or Osaka.
05:36And after spending some time in both cities, the clear winner for us was Osaka.
05:40It really came down to four reasons.
05:43First, the people.
05:44People in Osaka are just more easygoing, they're warm, they're funny.
05:48They come up to you in public, in the subway or in the park.
05:51And they ask where you're from, they're being funny, they're making jokes.
05:54Whereas in Tokyo, that rarely happens.
05:56You know, people there are more cold and distant and professional.
06:00Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but we prefer just the vibe here in Osaka.
06:04It feels more casual.
06:06In Tokyo, I have also this salaryman culture.
06:08You see much more people in suits.
06:10Whereas in Osaka, the dress code is more casual.
06:13And we like that.
06:14Secondly, the housing.
06:16We thought Tokyo is just a bit more expensive.
06:18But while looking at houses, it turns out that Tokyo is much more expensive.
06:22Like the same house that you can buy in Osaka for like 200,000 would cost you in Tokyo at
06:29least a million or one and a half.
06:30So it's 400 to 500% more expensive.
06:33And I think with our budget, we can have a much higher quality of life when it comes to housing
06:37in Osaka.
06:38Because we can afford a much bigger space.
06:40Third, we had to consider family life.
06:43How does it feel as a family being in each city?
06:45So Tokyo is very crowded.
06:48You don't really want to live in the city center and walk around Shibuya with a stroller.
06:52It's kind of a nightmare to go through all the stations when it's crowded.
06:56Especially during rush hour.
06:57It's much more convenient in Osaka because it's not that crowded.
07:01I mean, it is also crowded.
07:02But even in rush hour, you can easily go on public transport.
07:05And lastly, it's the surrounding area.
07:08Osaka is in the heart of Kansai.
07:10And you are quickly in many other diverse cities.
07:13Within 40 minutes, you are in Nara, the deer city.
07:16Then you are in Kobe, the meat city.
07:18And in Kyoto, the old capital.
07:20And also, you're much quicker in nature, which is kind of nice to have.
07:23When you live in Tokyo, you have also a lot of things to see.
07:26But it's still just Tokyo.
07:28If you want to go anywhere else, it takes you quite some time to get there.
07:31Especially if you want to go to nature.
07:32You have to drive two hours just to get out of the city.
07:35And here, you just 30 minutes, you're out in the woods.
07:38We really do love both cities, Tokyo and Osaka.
07:41In Tokyo, you have everything you could ever imagine 20 times.
07:45In Osaka, you have it maybe just two times.
07:48But two times is totally enough.
07:50Once we had decided on Osaka, the next question was,
07:53which part of the city would actually be the right fit for us?
07:55After all, Osaka is still a massive city.
07:58And two neighborhoods, just a few train stops apart,
08:00can feel like completely different worlds.
08:03So actually, I made this little Google map over here, custom Google map,
08:07for all the areas that we have visited in Osaka.
08:11Because last year, we did a lot of scouting.
08:14We went to a lot of areas to find out if we can imagine living there.
08:17And the red ones, we can't imagine living there for various reasons.
08:21This one is too close to the airport.
08:24Here, there's a huge airport, domestic airport.
08:27And you can hear the planes flying all over.
08:30I don't want to have that.
08:32The yellow parts are maybes.
08:35So if you find the perfect house there, okay.
08:38But ideally, it's going to be in the green area.
08:42This might be potentially also a nice area.
08:44Because there's this huge park close by.
08:49And we do want to have a park in the area.
08:52Let's put on the filters.
08:53Our budget is going to be between 100 and 250 grand.
08:58We want to have at least four rooms.
09:00Our flat in Berlin had 110 square meters.
09:04Which was a good size.
09:05In Japan, it's also a little bit important to look at the year built.
09:10Because there was a big earthquake in the 70s.
09:13And after that, they changed the earthquake regulation.
09:17And made it much stricter in 1981.
09:21So you want to have a house built after that.
09:23If you don't want to do any retro fitting.
09:26It's just easier to look for houses built after that.
09:29That's all.
09:30Let's have a look at the map.
09:31Look, there's already so many houses showing up.
09:34Quite some big beautiful houses here.
09:36112 square meters.
09:38It is a pretty house.
09:39We have a beautiful garden.
09:40Looking at Japanese layouts is a bit different than in the west.
09:44They don't use square meters.
09:46They use tatami mats.
09:47So this is a Japanese style room here.
09:49This size is 6 tatami mats.
09:51This is a western style room.
09:52And one tatami is basically like 1.6 square meters.
09:57What's this?
09:58This is beautiful.
09:59This is not looking at all Japanese.
10:02But it is a beautiful house.
10:05New kitchen.
10:06Wow, all buildings look like that.
10:08I've never seen a neighborhood like that in Japan.
10:10What about this area here?
10:13Wow, look at this room guys.
10:15This is such a beautiful room.
10:17I want to have one of those.
10:18I love that the windows have those sliders here.
10:21It makes everything so much more beautiful.
10:24And from the outside, those houses don't look like much.
10:27They're not very pretty.
10:28But from the inside, this is great.
10:31That's in Euro.
10:32150,000 Euro.
10:34What can you buy in Europe for 150,000 Euro?
10:38Closest station.
10:39Tsuruhashi station.
10:40Pretty central actually.
10:42Tsuruhashi is a great neighborhood.
10:43We've been there.
10:44If you're looking for houses not to live in Japan.
10:46But for investment purposes.
10:48Akiamart also shows you if the house is located in a zoning that allows Airbnb.
10:55Which is showing you that in all the green areas you can buy a house and rent it out short
11:02term 365 days a year.
11:05The red ones are not allowed and the yellow ones are allowed for half a year.
11:10That's very cheap.
11:11100,000.
11:12I like that brick wall at the end.
11:15Kind of industrial.
11:15You probably wonder why houses are so cheap.
11:18There's a few reasons for that.
11:20The first and biggest one is demographic change.
11:24Japan has, as you probably know, an aging population.
11:27And not enough young people.
11:28All people die away.
11:30Houses get empty.
11:31And there's not enough demand for all the houses.
11:34Another reason, especially for these houses that are a bit older, built in the 80s, you know.
11:41In Japan, there's not really a renovation culture.
11:44So people rather just tear them down and build new ones.
11:49In Japan, just people don't value old houses.
11:51They want to live in new houses.
11:53I guess for them, this is just like for a German Fachwerk house.
11:59You know, I wouldn't want to live in that.
12:01Because it's so old fashioned and rustic.
12:05This is a pretty new house, built in 2007.
12:08So that's what I'm talking about.
12:09If the house is new, there's no Japanese style room.
12:11There's maybe one.
12:12Like here, this is a Japanese style room.
12:14All the other rooms are Western style rooms.
12:17And they are moving away from those Japanese style houses.
12:21Which is kind of sad.
12:22If you're interested in Japan, you've probably seen that this has become a trend in the last few years.
12:27Of foreigners buying old Japanese houses as vacation homes or to live there.
12:31It's kind of ironic that foreigners value and keep up those traditional Japanese houses more than Japanese people do.
12:39There are so many houses for that price.
12:42It's gonna take forever to look through them.
12:44So after spending another few days digging through an endless number of listings,
12:49I finally narrowed everything down to my top nine.
12:51And sent a list to the agent about two weeks before arriving in Japan.
12:55Once we landed in Osaka, our agent Ryo picked us up and took us around the city to start looking
13:00at the first houses.
13:16What I love about Japanese houses is that they have so much storage space built into them.
13:21You don't need to buy any wardrobes or anything.
13:23You can't get a big piece of furniture up here for sure.
13:26So we want to check the termite situation.
13:29This is what it looks down below the floor.
13:32Interesting.
13:34It's so steep.
13:35It's going up here.
13:36The children are gonna dine here.
13:39If you fall down there.
13:42Jesus.
13:43Look, it's not even stopping.
13:47This house feels like a maze.
13:52Like a ninja trap house or something.
13:57But this one has been newly renovated.
14:01And they also tried to get an Airbnb license.
14:04There's this floor plans.
14:07There's the fire extinguisher.
14:09Maybe they didn't succeed in getting a license in another setting.
14:13After having a look at all the properties, we had a clear favorite.
14:17Of course, it happened to be the biggest and most expensive one of our list.
14:21Which was sitting slightly over our budget of 250 grand.
14:24But we really wanted to have it.
14:26So we made a formal offer.
14:28It's a 200 square meter house built in the 80s.
14:31Five LDK layout.
14:32So five bedrooms plus a living dining kitchen area.
14:35A few days later, we got the call we'd been hoping for.
14:38Our offer had been accepted.
14:40We paid the deposit.
14:41Signed the initial contract.
14:43And just like that, the deal was secured.
14:46We're in the house.
14:47We don't have the keys yet.
14:49But they let us come to take some measurements.
14:51So we can already look for some furniture.
14:53Let me give you a little tour.
14:55So this is the entrance area.
14:57This is the front door.
14:59And look at this.
15:00This is the first big room.
15:03Directly connecting to a beautiful tatami room.
15:07Out there, there's also a little terrace.
15:10I'm not going to show you outside because I don't want to dox myself.
15:13When we were looking at houses, we definitely wanted to have one of those traditional tatami rooms.
15:20We love this style, you know.
15:22We don't have to have the whole house like this.
15:24But we want to have at least one of those rooms.
15:27And I think this one is very beautiful.
15:29So this is probably going to be the living room.
15:32With a nice Japanese style extra living room here.
15:36And then it continues here.
15:38Here's the little garden.
15:39Like, there's a little garden and a little terrace.
15:42A tree is also there.
15:43Here's more space.
15:46You know.
15:47The thing that annoyed me the most moving in Europe
15:50was having to carry wardrobes.
15:54Wardrobes are not fun to move with or buy or put up in Japan.
15:59Everything is built in.
16:01So if this would be the only entrance, this would be an issue with those two rooms.
16:05You have to walk through both of those rooms to get to the other rooms.
16:08But there is a separate entrance from the garage, which is perfect.
16:13So if you have guests, we can use this entrance.
16:15The guests have their own entrance.
16:17We have here a bathroom.
16:19I think everything is new, kind of new.
16:20It was replaced when they renovated it.
16:25So in Japan, they love these cabins here.
16:28They are made out of plastic ventilation, which usually people keep running 24 hours a day.
16:36So you don't have to worry about mold.
16:39And then you can really easily clean everything.
16:41I kind of like it.
16:42Some people don't like it, but I do.
16:45We're going to keep that the way it is.
16:48There is no toilet, but here is the toilet.
16:51Oh, there's both even.
16:53Pissoir and the normal toilet.
16:55And of course, it's a Japanese toilet.
16:59Look, it's already.
16:59There's even light.
17:00Why is there light in the toilet?
17:01Who needs light inside the toilet?
17:03Getting a Japanese toilet is the biggest upgrade in your life quality you can ever get.
17:08Trust me.
17:09Then we have the kitchen.
17:10It's also a huge kitchen for Japanese standards.
17:14It also connects to the outside area.
17:17There's more storage space here.
17:20So big, a whole person can fit in here.
17:24We also have some curtain rails, which is great.
17:26I'm going to put some beautiful curtains there.
17:28We didn't bring any items yet, because we actually don't own the house yet.
17:32We just paid the deposit.
17:33But we went to the flea market the other day, and I bought my first item for the house.
17:39Shall we open this?
17:40So, we love drinking matcha.
17:44So this is actually a matcha bowl.
17:47Look, this beautiful matcha bowl.
17:50Okay, let me show you upstairs.
17:52So this house was owned by a Japanese family before.
17:56I was thinking maybe it's some westerners that owned this house,
18:00because the doors look kind of western,
18:03and the huge living space is also not very common here.
18:07So this is the first room upstairs.
18:09For the next few years, it's going to be my office,
18:11and when the kids grow up, they're going to get this room.
18:14There's plenty of space.
18:16I think two children can live here together for a while.
18:19Look at this.
18:20So much space.
18:21No wardrobe needed.
18:22I will never have to carry a wardrobe again.
18:25I can't even stand in here.
18:26Oh, we have a visitor.
18:28Oh no.
18:29Is it good luck or bad luck?
18:31Someone tell me.
18:33There's a toilet up here.
18:35Japanese toilet, of course.
18:37This is half the reason I'm moving to Japan.
18:39So, here is the master bedroom and connecting room,
18:43which we're going to use as a children's room for now,
18:46so we can sleep over there.
18:48The kids can sleep in this.
18:49A separated room.
18:50Maybe we put some curtains also in here.
18:52Not sure yet.
18:53We have to decide.
18:54There's so much space.
18:57The other room is open.
18:58So, as you can see, this house is pretty much ready to move in.
19:01You don't have to do anything.
19:03This is another bathroom.
19:05This is very unusual in Japan that you have two whole bathrooms.
19:11One in each floor.
19:12All the other houses we looked at had only one bathroom in the bottom of the house.
19:17And every time you want to go to the toilet or whatever,
19:20you want to brush your teeth,
19:21you have to go down the stairs to the ground floor to brush your teeth,
19:26which is not ideal.
19:27I don't know why they do that,
19:28but it's the most common setup here.
19:31Now that we have some time to spare until handover date,
19:34we will already do some shopping.
19:36Get the basics, some furniture,
19:38so we don't have nothing on the day we move in.
19:41And our first stop is Nitori,
19:44which is kind of the IKEA of Japan.
19:47I've never been, so let's go check it out.
19:49So, one of the first things we want to buy is curtains,
19:52because we don't want to wake up with the sun rising,
19:54which is right now at like 4.30.
19:56And we were a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to find good curtains here,
20:01because in the Airbnbs, all the curtains were kind of shitty.
20:04But it turns out, Japan is curtain heaven.
20:08Look at that.
20:09Look at those curtains.
20:10I've never seen so beautiful curtains in my life.
20:13And in Germany, I've been looking a long time for good curtains.
20:17Couldn't find any.
20:18And I've never seen curtains like this anywhere in Germany,
20:21especially not so many in one place.
20:24I'm not a curtain guy at all, but this impresses me.
20:29I'm actually looking forward to buy these.
20:31And they're quite affordable.
20:32Well, it turns out we are going to have a very rough time finding furniture.
20:38That is our size here.
20:41Look at the sofa.
20:42It's tiny.
20:43All the sofas here are tiny.
20:45I mean, Japanese people are a bit smaller, but they're not midgets.
20:50Look at this.
20:55And what I absolutely don't get are those floor sofas.
21:00This looks like the most uncomfortable thing ever.
21:06Is there any person out there who thinks this is comfortable?
21:14I don't know.
21:15It's one person so far.
21:18Or is this for children?
21:19Someone explain, please.
21:21I don't get it.
21:22We love those chairs.
21:24But unfortunately, they're also too tiny.
21:26I mean, in height.
21:27It was like five centimeters more.
21:29It would be perfect.
21:30This should have been like 90 degrees.
21:32But it's not.
21:33I don't know.
21:34Maybe we have to go to IKEA.
21:35Quick lunch break here at one of my favorite sushi chains in Japan.
21:39Hamasushi, which is, in my opinion, the best of the big three.
21:43And one thing I love the most about Japan is the restaurant scene.
21:47They're all so good.
21:48The quality is good.
21:49And they're so efficient.
21:50I love the efficiency.
21:52I'm German.
21:53You never have to wait for a waiter because there are no waiters usually in most restaurants.
21:57Either you order on an iPad that is on your table, like here at Hamasushi.
22:01And then it gets delivered within like a few minutes.
22:04You never wait more than like two, three minutes to get your sushi.
22:07Which is amazing.
22:09It saves you so much time.
22:10Or when you go in the restaurant in Japan, there's often these machines where you just
22:14order on the machine.
22:15You put in the money.
22:16You get a receipt.
22:17And then you get delivered your food.
22:19You never have to try to get the attention of the waiter.
22:22In Europe, I often wait like 30 minutes until I get the attention of the waiter.
22:27Then you have to wait another 30 minutes or 40 minutes to get your food.
22:30And then you have to try to get the attention of the waiter again.
22:32It's kind of a hassle.
22:33That's what I love about the Japanese food culture.
22:35Is that it's very efficient.
22:37You go in, you eat, you go out.
22:39And I love that.
22:40I don't like sitting in restaurants for a long time.
22:43For no reason.
22:44But food here is so affordable that you can eat out for like 6 Euro, 7 Euro.
22:48Get really good ramen.
22:50Get sushi for 10 Euro.
22:51And something like that is not even possible in Europe anymore.
22:55Everything is costing like 15, 20 Euro.
22:57A standard meal.
22:59Medium quality.
23:00And in Japan, you get high quality food for a very affordable price.
23:04It's probably also the reason they can offer the food cheaper.
23:07Because they don't have to hire so many waiters, right?
23:09So much staff.
23:10Europe has a lot to learn from Japan when it comes to restaurants.
23:14So when you're done here, you just press the button.
23:15We ate two people now.
23:17A full meal of pretty good sushi.
23:19And it's just like 10 Euro per person.
23:21You take the receipt to the cashier in the front.
23:24And then you're done.
23:25You don't have to wait for anyone.
23:26And now, let's look at some more furnitures.
23:29This is the fifth furniture store we're looking at right now.
23:33The furniture is pretty nice.
23:34But it's all way too small.
23:36My feet have to sit like this.
23:38Look at the stool.
23:39This is not for small people.
23:41This is for children.
23:43All the furniture here is designed to be this tiny.
23:47It's kind of crazy.
23:48I feel like a giant.
23:50Over the next few days, we visited dozens small furniture stores.
23:55Finding a table wasn't too difficult.
23:57But chairs?
23:58The few stores that actually had chairs our size that we liked were asking insane prices.
24:04Seriously, who pays 600 Euro for a single chair?
24:07Anyway, the move-in day was approaching fast.
24:11Today is the day.
24:12Today at 10.30 we met up with the seller's agent and the seller to do all the rest of
24:18the paperwork.
24:19We did the remaining transfer to the seller.
24:21And now, we have the keys and we are in the house.
24:24We brought already our luggage and all the stuff we bought in the last week.
24:28That's all we have for now.
24:30I'm so glad this moving is over.
24:32You know how many times I moved in the last 10 years?
24:35Many, many times.
24:36No more moving.
24:37I'm packing now.
24:49Beautiful.
24:51It turns out big furniture takes a long time to deliver here.
24:55We ordered a sofa.
24:55The sofa will take 3-4 months.
24:58Same with the dining table.
24:592-3 weeks they said.
25:00So we are going to live on the floor like real Japanese old school people.
25:04No, I did buy a small table for in between.
25:07It looks kind of ridiculous in this big room.
25:09We will find a purpose for it later.
25:11But what we can learn from this is you should look for furniture before you look for the house in
25:17Japan.
25:18You can thank me later.
25:18We also prepared some omiyage.
25:22Some little presents for the neighbors.
25:24So online people wrote it's two houses next to yours.
25:26Then the neighbors on the other side of the street and on the back of your house.
25:30So all in all we have 15 of those.
25:33Of course we have a little towel that is very common and tradition in Japan to give those.
25:39Then we have a little card with our infos.
25:41Who we are etc.
25:43And okashi snacks.
25:46We thought it would be nice to put some German snacks in here.
25:49So we put some kdoppers in here.
25:51Then we have maowam.
25:53Different kinds of maowams.
25:54And risen.
25:55So three different snacks people can try.
25:58I didn't see any of those in Japan.
26:00So I don't think they sell them here.
26:02We were lucky that my niece was visiting a few weeks ago.
26:05So she brought a lot of snacks from Germany.
26:08I hope people will like it.
26:10And that we didn't forget anything.
26:12Because we don't want to be the rude neighbors.
26:14Right?
26:16Well we have a 200 square meter house now in Japan.
26:19It's gonna take a while to fill up.
26:21But this is the German dream.
26:23Right?
26:23The German dream.
26:24It's not what you think it is.
26:26It is getting your own house.
26:30The Eigenheim.
26:31The German dream that no German below the age of 40.
26:35Can't afford anymore.
26:36So we can afford this dream in Japan still.
26:41And have a much better quality of life here as well.
26:44Of course we're not only coming here because of the cheap housing.
26:47We also love Japan for many other reasons.
26:50The food, the service, the people, the culture.
26:52But it's just very nice to have housing affordable.
26:57Such a big house in Europe.
27:00In Germany.
27:02In a similar location.
27:04Would cost five times as much at least.
27:07And it's even more crazy that this house.
27:09In this location.
27:10Was sitting on the market for three years.
27:12Nobody wants to buy it.
27:14I mean it's not ideally cut.
27:17The rooms.
27:18But we can make it work.
27:20And we're in a big city.
27:21Really.
27:21Just imagine what you can get here in Japan.
27:24On the countryside.
27:25You know.
27:26In a small village.
27:27If you like village life.
27:28I personally don't like village life.
27:30But if you like to live in the countryside.
27:32Japan is the dream.
27:34And of course many of the Akiyas have some problems.
27:36They need some renovation.
27:37But this was fully renovated for kind of a flip house.
27:40I guess.
27:41It was renovated before it was put on the market.
27:44You can get those houses much much cheaper.
27:47If you want to do it yourself.
27:49If you are a do-it-yourself person.
27:51Or you want to hire some company.
27:53To do some renovations.
27:54But I'm not a do-it-yourself person.
27:56And I don't have the time to do this.
27:58So I'm happy to pay a little bit more.
28:00Europeans can't grasp this.
28:02Also myself.
28:03I can't grasp this.
28:05That to a Japanese person.
28:06This house is not worth much.
28:08Even for tax reasons.
28:10You basically pay almost no tax on this house.
28:12Because it's over 40 years old.
28:14It's completely deducted.
28:15So in paper.
28:16It's almost worthless.
28:17Because Japanese people don't want to live in those old houses.
28:20They're too old-fashioned for them.
28:22They're badly insulated.
28:24Which is not the best of course.
28:25But we're kind of used to it.
28:27Living in Berlin before.
28:28We used to live in an Altbau.
28:30A building that is like a hundred years old.
28:32Then the insulation there was non-existent as well.
28:34You could feel the wind coming through the windows.
28:37Sitting next to it.
28:37So we don't mind the insulation here.
28:40We're kind of used to it.
28:41Japanese people are so kind.
28:42We visited some neighbors already yesterday.
28:45And they were all super happy.
28:46Super open.
28:47We really felt welcome in the first meetings already.
28:50You know.
28:51They especially love Germans.
28:53Every time you just mention you're from Germany.
28:55They light up.
28:56Yeah.
28:57It's kind of crazy.
28:58I think Germans are the Japanese people's favorite nation.
29:01I watch a lot of anime.
29:02And there's so many German characters with German names.
29:06Or German nations in those animes.
29:09It's kind of crazy.
29:10For some reason Japanese have a kind of weird fetish for German culture.
29:13But we do as well.
29:14So.
29:15If you want to get your own place.
29:16Don't forget to check out Akyamark.
29:18It's absolutely worth it.
29:20They're the best ones out there.
29:21And now.
29:22Happy scouting.
29:23And good luck.