- 16 minutes ago
After years of travelling the world, Lloyd and Mandy are turning a $22,000 abandoned farmhouse in the Japanese Alps into a real home, and this week brings a major step forward. They buy their first car in Japan as foreigners, rip up decades-old flooring, uncover hidden surprises inside the house, and keep pushing through the realities of rural life while living out of a renovation site.
Along the way, they deal with everyday challenges like sorting Japanese rubbish, shopping at local supermarkets, and figuring out old heating and hot-water systems. They also explore a nearby ski resort and mountain area, giving a clear look at the scenery, pace, and practical side of moving to rural Japan and restoring an akiya farmhouse.
This is a renovation vlog, Japan travel-lifestyle episode, and rural home restoration story for viewers who enjoy abandoned house renovations, akiya house projects, Japanese countryside living, and first-hand property transformation content. It is also a useful watch for anyone searching for Japan renovation vlog, abandoned farmhouse in Japan, rural Japan lifestyle, and moving to Japan home project.
Along the way, they deal with everyday challenges like sorting Japanese rubbish, shopping at local supermarkets, and figuring out old heating and hot-water systems. They also explore a nearby ski resort and mountain area, giving a clear look at the scenery, pace, and practical side of moving to rural Japan and restoring an akiya farmhouse.
This is a renovation vlog, Japan travel-lifestyle episode, and rural home restoration story for viewers who enjoy abandoned house renovations, akiya house projects, Japanese countryside living, and first-hand property transformation content. It is also a useful watch for anyone searching for Japan renovation vlog, abandoned farmhouse in Japan, rural Japan lifestyle, and moving to Japan home project.
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TravelTranscript
00:00We're Lloyd and Mandy.
00:01After spending the last four and a half years
00:04traveling the world in search of
00:06somewhere to call our forever home,
00:07we finally found it. A $22,000
00:10abandoned farmhouse in rural
00:12Japan. It's now week two of
00:14turning it into our home, and this week
00:16we're buying our first car in Japan.
00:18Total price was 300,000 yen.
00:20We're ripping up decade-old
00:22flooring.
00:24Wow. Look how much nicer
00:25that flooring is! Woohoo!
00:28Uncovering more surprises
00:30left behind.
00:31Oh!
00:34What?
00:35Staircase.
00:37Whoa! It's so dirty.
00:40Ew. Is someone else living down there?
00:42And exploring the ski resort
00:43just minutes from our doorstep.
00:47Sweet
00:52disposition
00:53Hold on.
00:53Whoa!
01:15All right.
01:19It was summertime in the Japanese Alps, and it had been seven days since we had moved
01:28into our $22,000 abandoned farmhouse.
01:33Although it had been an uncomfortable week camping inside of the house, we could feel
01:37we were making progress.
01:39We were busy cleaning things up and assessing what needed to be done before we got started
01:44on major renovations.
01:48Things were feeling easier every day.
02:25Well…
02:45all right I'm just down here in Nagano I just caught the bus and the reason I'm down here is
02:50because I'm going to look at a van that we're hopefully going to buy we've been renting a
02:54car for the last few days since we got here and I really don't want to waste too much money
02:59renting
03:00a car because the daily price is like 4,500 yen which can add up if we're going to be
03:05doing that
03:05for a few weeks so thought I'd come down here check out this car the guy's actually coming to
03:09pick me up in the car and I'm going to be able to check it out and hopefully I will
03:13be driving it
03:14back to our house and not catching a bus back home because yeah it took me about an hour to
03:19get down
03:19here and I have no idea who this person is just been talking to him on Facebook marketplace he was
03:24nice enough to offer me a lift when I sold him I was getting the bus he said he'd come
03:28and pick me
03:28up from the station I do know what the car looks like though so I should be able to find
03:32him I suppose
03:40this is
03:46oh nice it's so small isn't it
03:51Oh
03:57Why
04:02Why it's fun. Okay, I'm buying this car. I'm just going to give him a deposit and then he's going
04:08to do the
04:09transfer and everything
04:11so
04:13About two weeks and the car will be on an aim, but he's going to let us actually
04:17Drive away with it today, which is awesome
04:21So we're just getting some money out to give him a deposit
04:23We're going to do a contract and everything and then in two weeks it'll be in our name
04:32Okay, we just bought this car a lot of people told me that you cannot buy a car here in
04:37japan if you're on a temporary visa
04:39So we're here on a tourist visa even though we own a property that doesn't give us a residency
04:44A lot of people said we couldn't buy a car that you can it is totally legal
04:48You just need to find the right dealer who knows what to do and basically you just have to give
04:52similar paperwork
04:53Than what you have to give to purchase a house if you're trying to buy a car in japan
04:57Some people might say you need to be on a work visa or have a residence certificate
05:02But it's not the case
05:03I actually put all this in our ebook that we made about buying a property in japan because if you
05:07buy a property
05:08You're going to need to buy a car. That's just the way it is. Japan has great public transport
05:12But if you're renovating a house, especially you're going to need a car and they're very cheap and very high
05:18quality
05:18So check out our ebook on our website
05:31I ended up paying for this
05:332007 suzuki every wagon including two years shakin which is like roadworthy certificate name transfer
05:41For four winter tires and he even threw in a baby seat because he's a really nice guy
05:46The total price was three hundred thousand yen. Yeah, much less than two thousand dollars
05:51U.S. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Is that a good price? Do you think
05:56I overpaid?
05:57I think it's pretty good. Like this thing feels amazing
06:00It runs really well. It's got
06:03Full service history and the winter tires is huge as well as the two years shakin so
06:09I think we did pretty good
06:10as he turns out
06:22By the way, I was, I'm not going to be the other hand
06:32They're also previously said that having gone on
06:33One night to begin
06:34One night to meet them
06:37We had a promise there, for I said that no way
06:43Both of them were influenced, we had a divine set
06:49To know what to say, find this embrace of it
06:55To call for I said that no way, to be your own
07:01Would I be who you know?
07:11One night a tiny brush, a star, a simple touch
07:17One night a precious year, a bad dream
07:23And days of perfect, the colors red and blue
07:28We had a promise there, we were in love
07:36To call for I said that no way, to be your own
07:47To call for I said that no way, to be your own
07:50To call for I said that no way
07:52So lost, I tried to run out of battery
07:55Oh no!
07:56What do you think?
07:58It's sick!
08:04What do you think?
08:15It's sick!
08:17Oh my gosh!
08:19He's awesome!
08:24I'm babysitting.
08:29I'm babysitting.
08:31It's sick!
08:32What do you think?
08:33I love it. It's so cute.
08:35It's really roomy.
08:36It is.
08:38It's pretty big, isn't it?
08:39It's huge.
08:40There's so much space in the back.
08:41And he was such a nice guy.
08:44When I said like,
08:45where do we get a babysit?
08:47Yeah.
08:48He just said, I'll give you mine.
08:50Wow.
08:51That's so nice.
08:52And when we were going to test drive,
08:54his wife came out and handed us ice creams.
09:07The fridge that I spent probably almost a full day cleaning doesn't really work.
09:14This is the freezer section and it's just cold enough.
09:18Like it's keeping this stuff cold, but only, I mean only barely.
09:24Like we're buying stuff from the family mart down the road every day.
09:28Got everything here to cook.
09:29Our burner works.
09:32And we have cookware that we ordered from Amazon, but we just don't have anywhere to store everything.
09:37So we've just ordered a brand new fridge from Amazon, but it's not going to be here for a few
09:42days.
09:43We're just living off convenience store food for now.
09:50Okay.
09:51Well, the last few days we pretty much had just been getting the lower half of the house livable.
09:57So the kitchen bathroom, one of the bedrooms.
09:59So today I'm going to clean this top two bedrooms, maybe even this one across the hall.
10:07Ah, so that we can use the whole house because at the moment we're just using the bottom half.
10:12So I'm going to get stuck into it.
10:40It looks like we have some stuff here from the previous owner.
10:43I always get nervous in these wardrobes, like something's going to jump out of me.
10:47I think we're good though.
10:59It's like a bed sheet or something like that, but it's filthy.
11:03I don't think we'll be keeping that.
11:05This looks okay though.
11:09It's like a quilt.
11:14I don't know.
11:17It's like a...
11:23Just like a cushion that you can sit on.
11:25It's actually kind of nice.
11:26You keep finding more and more stuff hidden everywhere.
11:35Cushions.
11:36I think there's two.
11:40No, four.
11:46They're kind of nice too.
11:50There's six of them.
11:55And another one of these mats.
11:57This room up here is actually not in bad condition.
12:00It's pretty nice.
12:01And you've got this view here.
12:02We might actually be able to start using more of the house.
12:04Maybe this can be like our living area.
12:07Where we can eat and watch TV.
12:10And then we just keep sleeping downstairs.
12:11Who knows?
12:26Who knows?
12:28No I'm wrong.
12:30No, no.
12:35No, no, no.
12:36No, no.
12:38No, no, no.
12:56Rise up this morning
12:59Smile with the rising sun
13:02Three little birds
13:05By my doorstep
13:09Singing sweet songs
13:12Melodies pure and true
13:16Saying this is my message to you
13:23Singing don't worry
13:25About a thing
13:30Cause every little thing
13:33It's gonna be alright
13:37Baby don't worry
13:39My life's about a thing
13:44Cause every little thing
13:47It's gonna be alright
13:49Alright we're just headed to 2nd Street
13:52Which is literally the best thrift store I've ever seen
13:57They have such good clothes there
13:59And furniture
14:00They have like couches, fridges, rice cookers, kettles
14:03Like TVs, everything you can imagine
14:05But it doesn't feel like it's all second hand stuff
14:09It's all really good quality stuff
14:10So today we are going there to get a washing machine
14:15Because we haven't done laundry since we moved in
14:18We can go to a laundromat
14:19But I figured what's the point in doing that
14:22If we're gonna keep doing laundry
14:23It's like 15 minutes or 20 minutes drive to the nearest laundromat
14:26So we might as well just buy a washing machine
14:29And it should fit in the back of the van
14:31Hopefully
15:03Go
15:04Lyla would love one of these
15:05I think I'm gonna get one for her
15:07We've got so many kids toys here
15:18Diapers
15:19Second hand diapers
15:36Is it working all good and everything?
15:39Yep.
16:01Okay.
16:44It's smaller than I thought but I think it'll be good for the studio.
16:56Today's pretty exciting, we are heading to one of the nearby mountains for the first
17:00time today, Mount Iwataki and there's meant to be a cafe up the top, it looks so pretty,
17:06we've seen some photos so we're really excited to head up there.
17:08In the comments in our last video we had a lot of people commenting wanting to see more
17:12of the nature around where we've moved.
17:14There's so much nature.
17:15So much.
17:16The way that I would probably explain it if the Canadian Rockies and Bali had a baby,
17:23the rice paddies are absolutely incredible, stunning.
17:27They have a backdrop of incredible mountains which is just so unique.
17:58It's just so unique.
18:00It's just so unique.
18:01It's just so unique.
18:24Wow I cannot believe that this is so close to our house like it is so beautiful here
18:31it feels just like a ski resort in Canada and for all of us to take the gondola was about
18:3850 Australian
18:39dollars we'll put the conversion on the screen but wow is that affordable we went up the gondola
18:44in Whistler last summer and how much did that cost 200 bucks baby yeah crazy
18:56that's sheep sheep
19:02black sheep who like it hey yeah why are they on the mountain
19:08a well oh this is the mountain bike of course okay are you gonna try it you think 100 yeah
19:15I think 80 dollars to rent a block for the day you're Australian yeah and this is the course all
19:22through here
19:23Yeah.
19:24Hello?
19:25Hello.
19:26Haha.
19:46It looks cool up here.
19:49What's in there?
19:55How's that weird to sound like God in Japan right now?
19:58I don't know.
19:58I love that.
20:25I don't know.
20:35Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
21:20Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
21:28Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
21:46Oh, oh, oh, oh.
21:48Oh, oh, oh.
21:53Oh, oh, oh.
22:10Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
22:20Oh, oh, oh, oh.
22:38Oh, oh, oh.
22:49Oh, oh, oh.
22:55Oh, oh.
23:10So
23:57What do you reckon's in there?
23:59Dead things.
24:01Dead what?
24:02Maybe.
24:03It can't be clean under there.
24:05This kitchen was disgusting.
24:07It's been a week and we haven't opened this little hatch door, whatever you call it.
24:12I think it's something mechanical.
24:15Maybe something to do with the water.
24:18Let's find out.
24:20Why is it creepy?
24:24Because there's an abandoned house and it's like a hidden hatch.
24:26Like, what if there's a body in there?
24:28Jesus.
24:33So jumpy.
24:36Okay.
24:36Cool.
24:38What?
24:39Whoa.
24:39Staircase.
24:41Whoa.
24:46It's so dirty.
24:48Ew.
24:48Is someone else living down there?
24:54That's terrifying.
24:56Oh my god.
24:58There's so much rubbish.
25:01Why?
25:02Ew.
25:04It's just a little box.
25:07Now we've got to clean up.
25:09It's so dirty down there.
25:10Yeah, we're going to have to clean that.
25:11It'll probably smell a lot better in here once that's done.
25:14That's probably one of the reasons.
25:15Okay, we also got given this garbage collection calendar.
25:21So I'm going to have to translate this and figure out where to put our garbage on what day because
25:27we've accumulated so much stuff already.
25:31Look.
25:36This is all stuff that the previous owner left in here and then all the cardboard from things we've bought
25:42on Amazon.
25:43And some more stuff that the owner left that we'll probably be throwing out.
25:48So I'm going to have to do a run to the garbage drop-off point.
25:54Hopefully we can take all our stuff there.
25:58We might have too much and I might have to drive a bit further to the recycle center.
26:03We'll see.
26:03Okay, I was able to translate the garbage collection timetable.
26:08It was actually the one we had was from last year.
26:10So I got a new one from the village office.
26:13There's a lot of sorting to do.
26:14So everything has to be sorted separately.
26:17So you've got like burnable waste.
26:19Then there's plastics.
26:21But it doesn't include all plastics.
26:23It's just like lids and stuff.
26:25The other plastics go into burnable waste.
26:28And then there's PET bottles, glass bottles, cans.
26:31And everything's picked up on a separate day.
26:32So I'm going to spend this afternoon probably sorting through everything because we've got a lot of stuff.
26:37We've got all that cardboard, all the styrofoam.
26:39I'm going to sort everything out.
26:40Tomorrow we can drop off the burnable waste in bags.
26:45Everything has to go in their own bags as well.
26:47Got to wait a week for some of the other stuff.
26:49Two weeks for some of the stuff.
26:50So maybe we'll do a tip run.
26:52We'll see.
26:52I have to actually find where to drop this stuff off because I have no idea.
27:18Look how cheap everything is.
27:24Everything here is so cheap.
27:26But the only problem is I don't know what half the stuff is.
27:29Look at the price of pasta.
27:34That's less than a dollar.
27:59Okay, so I pretty much just did a whole week's worth of groceries for about 8,000 yen.
28:05Which is like less than 50 bucks US or just less, just a little bit less than 80 Australian.
28:15That's really good.
28:16That's cheaper than Thailand, Bali and maybe even Cambodia.
28:20Okay, I'm just headed up the mountain.
28:22I'm going to this bakery that we found online that has really good reviews and it looks really nice.
28:28They do like sandwiches and pastries and coffee and stuff.
28:31So we're getting a bit sick and tired of eating from the conbini stores for lunch.
28:37That's why we've been doing grocery shopping.
28:40And we're trying some of the local businesses around.
28:43So this is up in Papawani Mountain.
28:48I'm going to check it out.
28:57So this is up there.
29:00Let's go.
29:04Let's go.
29:21I don't know.
29:35And they're closed. Damn it. I wonder why they're shut. It's 12.30 on a Monday. Okay, this here is
29:46the bag that you get from like a convenience store. You just buy it and this is for burnable garbage.
29:55So anything that's like natural and burnable, you put in this bag and then drop it off wherever that location
30:01is, which I'll find tomorrow morning.
30:02Do have to sort through all of our garbage because I don't want to put anything that isn't burnable in
30:07there because they're going to burn it obviously.
30:08And I don't really want to be that new neighbor who's dropping off stuff that shouldn't be burned to the
30:13burnable pile.
30:14And in our last video, I was wondering why this cord runs from the bathroom into this pipe here.
30:21I think I figured out that this is a heating pipe and it stops all the pipes and everything from
30:32freezing over during winter.
30:35That's why it's got a valve on top so you can turn it off. I think so anyway.
30:49I think so.
30:53I think so.
31:19I think so.
31:21I think so.
31:23I think so.
31:31I think so.
31:36I think so.
31:50Alright, I've been able to figure out this setup here for the hot water.
31:54It's a pretty standard setup for Japan.
31:56It's not something we usually see at home, but basically it's a kerosene boiler.
32:01Fill the bathtub up and then it circulates the water through this boiler and spits warm
32:08water back out basically.
32:09And it's got a timer here.
32:13And then there's the kerosene tank outside, but that looks pretty old, so I have no idea
32:21how long the kerosene has been sitting there.
32:23So I'm going to pump that out, fill it up with some fresh kerosene from the hardware store
32:29and just give it a run just to see if it does work.
32:31We're going to replace this system, we're not going to use this system.
32:34It does look quite old, but I just want to see if it works first.
32:38Maybe we can get a few uses out of it while we're waiting to see what we do with the
32:43new
32:43system.
32:44We're probably going to do a whole new bathroom to be honest.
32:46If we can just have hot baths in the meantime, that'd be awesome because at the moment I'm
32:50pretty much just doing cold baths because it is really hot anyway.
32:54But yeah, Mandy and Lila have been heating the water up on the stove and it can be quite
33:00annoying and you can't really heat that much up at a time.
33:03So I'd like to at least be able to have them have hot baths for now.
33:07Let's go.
33:09Let's go.
33:10Let's go.
33:12Let's go.
33:21Let's go.
33:29Let's go.
33:42Let's go.
34:25Alright well we tried but it's not working.
34:31It seems like there's just no power getting to the boiler or maybe no fuel I'm not sure
34:38but because it's so old we're just gonna replace it and we're gonna see if we can
34:44replace it with a boiler that'll give us the flexibility to either have a shower
34:49or a bathtub in the bathroom because we don't know what we're doing yet but
34:53while we decide and while we wait to actually get our bathroom renovated we
34:58do want to have hot showers and hot water so yeah I think we'll try and get
35:05someone around to give us a quote and install a new boiler in the next few
35:08days I think.
35:19There's a room to play.
35:27Tom get rid of these hideous carpets.
35:31These?
35:32Yeah.
35:33This?
35:37Ugh.
35:43Look at the wood underneath though.
35:45Look at the dust.
35:46Ugh.
35:47I don't want to need a mask on.
35:48Yeah probably.
35:57Ooh.
36:00Wow.
36:02Look how much nicer that flooring is.
36:05Woohoo!
36:12Wow.
36:15That's so much nicer.
36:17It is.
36:20I actually don't mind that now.
36:34Wow I cannot believe that's what it was under there.
36:43Dust.
36:45Need to sweep that up.
36:48Look how.
36:49Even they are.
36:53Is that the house on the lane?
36:55No it's broken down there.
37:05How careful do you want me to be?
37:08Um.
37:09I don't know.
37:10Don't break him.
37:12I mean we've got so many of them I'm not too concerned if one or two break.
37:18If you need to be harsh to get him out I'm not too concerned.
37:22I'm just impatient.
37:25There you go.
37:27You just have to talk about it.
37:29I need to know if I'm allowed to do that.
37:38Wow it already feels so much bigger in here.
37:41I can't believe it.
37:42I can't believe that's what was hiding under that green carpet.
37:45I can't believe it.
37:45Oops.
37:51Oops.
37:51You alright?
37:53It's pretty tight.
37:57Oh whoa.
37:59Look how big it feels.
38:00offglars.
38:03Offglars!
38:04Offglars!
38:19Offglars!ANKS!
38:21Offglars!
38:21Offglars!
38:21Offglars!
38:22Offglars!
38:24Offglars!
38:25Offglars!
38:27Offglars!
38:28Offglars!
38:29Volunteers! Offglars!
38:45Oh my gosh. We vacuumed this so many times too. It did nothing. Nothing was just
38:54caught underneath. Yeah. Should have just done this as soon as he got in. Woo. Oh my gosh. Jesus. Holy
39:13dust.
39:24Wow. It looks like a completely different house.
39:44Now we got it.
40:19Oh my gosh.
40:22Good work, love. It looks so much better.
40:26We need to see what's under these tatami mats. This one's really sunken because they had one
40:34of those, what do you call it? A table with the fire? Barbecue table. I can't remember what it's
40:40called. Yeah. We saw a photo with that there and it looks like it's sunken down. So we just want
40:45to
40:45see how bad it is and if we need to completely redo these mats and what's underneath. We have no
40:52idea what's underneath.
41:01It's like this floor is an onion. It just keeps going and going. There's more and more layers.
41:06That's it.
41:09So now we got to see what's under these ones. This one's really thick actual mats. Yeah.
41:20They're the ones that you can get replaced. Oh yeah.
41:25Oh. It's not good? It's not great. What are we looking at? Looks like maybe rotted, collapsed,
41:35boring.
41:40Oh. Yep. That's exactly what it is. It's gotten wet. Yep.
41:50All right. Not ideal. It's okay though. At least we know. Yeah.
41:54What about the rest? Like is here all okay? Like that's easily fixed. Yeah. It's just one section.
42:03That's not bad. That's good. That's not bad. Hey. No.
42:07Definitely needs a clean under there. Yeah.
42:20Let's go.
42:33Oh that was better.
42:34Oh that was better.
42:35That was better.
43:01chicken
43:34Oh
43:51Oh my gosh, look how much better it's looking about those ramps and the carpet.
43:57We've still got to get rid of this tape that's here, but my goodness, like what a difference.
44:04It just feels so much cleaner in here and smells better already.
44:09Still pretty dusty.
44:10We've got to keep vacuuming out of here, but wow, it's looking great, Hela.
44:15What do you got there?
44:17Creme roulette.
44:18Yes.
44:20Yeah, I'm keen.
44:22So hot.
44:34Rise up this morning, smile with the rising sun, three little birds by my doorstep, singing sweet songs, melodies pure
44:52and true, saying this is my message to you.
44:59Ooh, ooh, yeah, singing don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright, baby don't worry
45:17about a thing.
45:22Guys, if you made it this far in the video, thank you so much for watching.
45:25Don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe.
45:28In the next video, we're hopefully going to be getting started on some painting stuff, which is really exciting, some
45:33actually nice cosmetic things that we'll get to get started on.
45:38Lots of projects to get stuck into.
45:39Thank you guys so much for all your support of this new series that we've started.
45:43We really, really appreciate it.
45:45Thank you for all your comments and support.
45:47And as always, we will see you guys in next week's episode.
45:50Bye.
45:51This is my message to you, ooh, ooh, yeah.
45:56Baby don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
46:09Baby don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
46:21All right.
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