where is this house?

we are so incredibly lucky to have found this house in maruyama, okayama. despite being surrounded by forestry, it's only a 20 minutes drive from the main okayama station. 

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is this for rent / am i able to stay with you while visiting okayama? 

although we have thought about listing the home on airbnb, the minpaku laws in japan differ from everywhere else in the world. so listing it as an accommodation online would not be that easy. however, it is something we will work towards. in the meantime, we welcome anyone. just slide into our dms and we will reply you as soon as we can. 

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what is your long term plan for living in japan? 

we are well aware that we are parents of a singaporean toddler and the education system back home. while what we are doing is unconventional, we wanted to have more adventures and really just live the best version of ourselves. in order to escape from the judgement and opinions, we had to create our own bubble. we don't have official work in japan. if either of us were to apply for a job, getting a dependant visa is one thing, but getting a visa for your child is a whole other issue. so we are going to travel back and forth, two months each time on the tourist visa between singapore and japan. unless life has other plans for us, we will be doing so until she turns of primary school age. 

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how did you find this place? 

sean did the bulk of the research. buying a house in japan doesn't actually require you to be a resident and because you aren't, no tax! seeing as how we aren't fluent in japanese + we were focusing our search in the outskirts, we hired an intermediary who can help us sort out the necessary paperwork, contacting agents etc. we are however, lucky enough that the realtor for this property could speak basic english which made the transaction very smooth. 

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how did you start searching for it? 

cheaphousejapan was a good starting point. everything you see there is priced in USD. for good measure, here is the our home. while we did manage to bring the price down due to some plumbing issues, it gives you a good ballpark for how much we spent on just the purchase of the property alone. so for anyone who wants to look into it but on a tighter budget, go forth. 

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how far away is the nearest neighbour / amenities from your home? is it safe? 

the house is tucked away in a forest, but just about 2 minutes walk away from an immensely dense neighbourhood. there are 2 supermarkets, (one of them is 24-hrs!) just at the bottom of the mountain, a 5 minute drive away. a hospital, 20 minutes away.