Is this the one?!

Yesterday, Tomo and I went again searching, this time in Nagano prefecture. We met an agent who showed us a couple of places. And there it was - a beautiful house. Could it be the one?

This house seems to have been extended over its life time. The Main structure uses a traditional straw roof, topped by a "crown" of metal. It looks as if the owner had made the house wider below the thatched roof, by adding a lower angled conventional shingle roof. Another extension is in the east with a lower metal roof. There is also a peripheral 2 floor building at the back. It looks like it was originally used as a agricultural store house, similar but not as sturdy as a "Kura". Now it has been converted into a bed room connected to the main building by simple stairs. The outside of this building is clad with - corrugated metal sheets (please see my earlier post as to what I think of this material). We also find two more external buildings: a shed stuffed with old rice cookers, TVs and other rubbish, and a shed/toilet, which is nearly falling down.

The location of the house is very convenient. It can be reached from Tokyo within 90 minutes of Shinkansen journey, and a further 30 minutes buy car. It is surrounded by many hotsprings, and in fact one is located just 5 minutes walk from the house. It is surrounded by fields and agriculture, and the forested mountains 200m behind the house invite to pleasant and peaceful strolls.

Included in this home are two fields, one smaller patch just in front of the house, and a bigger one around 300m distance. It means we could also start to grow things - great!

The inside is traditional Japanese and as expected needs to be completely replaced. However, it is in good condition and is absolutely dry. Because it is connected to public water and sewage system, only very little plumbing is needed.

We checked two more houses that day, but this one made a lasting impression, so we expressed our interest to the agent and ask him to inquire about it.