Inaka Home

Guest contributor Roberto

2009-10-20T21:34:00.002+09:00

Today I am extremely happy to publish a guest contribution from Roberto De Vido, well known publicist and cynical polit commentator at http://politicomix.blogspot.com/ .

Click to enlarge!

From 20070915

A spot of agriculture

2009-10-01T22:54:00.007+09:00

After our achievements on Saturday, we decided to dedicate Sunday to field work. As Yuko and I are known to sport the "black thumbs of death" in terms of gardening, we were glad to have farmer son Alastair to give some hints.

Please be careful when cutting grass when you visit, as we have embedded edible plants in various locations on the field and other places around the house.

Basil and Rosemary

Blueberries

Raspberries

Another Rosemary

Another Basil

What do you think?

Some sort of flower

Surprise Visitor

2009-10-01T22:38:00.004+09:00

As we were all loitering about in the house and garden, we were suddenly greeted by Kobayashi-san, the 79 Year old builder who thatched our roof last Year.

He walked into the house and was awed by the great changes that have taken place in the meantime. During his young years, Kobayashi-san actually stayed many times in this house as apprentice thatcher to the previous owner's father. Tears were about to fall when he commented that the house was rescued, something he thought not possible at the time.

Later we talked business - envisaged future projects and improvements. However, when it came down to details, I let junior handle it. Perhaps he will be a lawyer when he grows up, or is he giving architectural instructions?

Inaka Cinerama

2009-10-01T22:26:00.005+09:00

Alastair, being as useful an architect as can be, brought his projector with him. We improvised a screen from bed linen, and were ready to watch the latest movies, when we discovered that I brought the wrong display adaptor for his PowerMac!!!

All was saved though, when we connected the projector to the multi-system DVD Player (can Play either PAL or NTSC all regions). The movie itself was quickly copied to a USB memory stick, which in turn was inserted into the USB port of the Player.

Oh how joyful my daughter was to see "Meister Eder and his Pumuckl" come to life on the 2m wide screen! Unfortunately the days exertions and a generous consumption of the Inaka Home house wine (red) led to me nodding of fairly quickly ...

Late Summer's Weekend

2009-10-01T22:15:00.009+09:00

Our Friends Kayoko and Alastair of Bakoko the up-and-coming design and architecture practice, recently joined my family and me at Arisaka House.

Late summer created pleasant warm but not too humid temperatures, ideal for a casual Bar-B-Q.

Besides the pleasure of grilling and eating, some work needed to be done. You can see me - in dress rehearsal for the Oktoberfest - disposing dried cut grass, vines and other garden organics, while Alastair tries to improvise a new Moskito net for the windows.

Long Absence, and a busy season

2009-10-01T21:34:00.008+09:00

Hi, this is the first post for a long time. I am happy to say one of the reasons for the long break was a high occupancy of our Arisaka house, so that I had not many opportunities to visit it myself.

But this is great for us, and I think we have won many new friends to Inaka Home. Please let me share some feedback from guests.

The most important thing though - remember that Autumn is a really different season of wonderful beauty. So you should visit again in Golden and Red season!

Paola & Jonathan Mannaro:

"We found the kitchen to be very well equipped, and absolutely nothing
was missing, we also used the washing machine and that was perfect too.
Everything was in good working order and we were delighted with the
luxury of the beds, the bedding and of course the sound system.

You had a fun choice of LPs and we listened to all of them as well as some
CDs of our own. We had not expected Madness in Arisaka, but they were right
there !

SO – thank you very much for making the house so comfortable and homely
it was one of the most relaxing holidays we have ever had !"

Glen Maxwell-Heron:

"Just a quick note to let you know that the weekend went well at the Arisaka House. You were right - the bedrooms do warm up very quickly and the kerosene heaters are very effective at heating the main space. It is a great location and the directions are certainly sufficient to find it.

As I say, we all really enjoyed our stay and will try to get back there again."

Ryo Sato:

"It was obsolutely fun trip to there!
Me and my mates enjoyed having BBQ and swiming in a waterfall:-)"

Michael Arnold & Hitomi

"just wanted to say thanks for letting us rent the Arisaka house -- we had a wonderful time! It was tough to come back to work today. Hopefully we can rent it for a few days again in the fall."

Auto Camper expedition

2009-06-28T16:33:00.002+09:00

Yours truly has been enlisted recently to help the Japanese "Auto Camper" magazine (by Yaesu Publishing) test a Camping Vehicle on loan from the maker. They were very interested to my opinion about usability, and asked me a lot of questions about Camping in Europe. My friend Damon also took part in this test and represented the United States.

After picking up Damon from Tama Plaza, we headed out to a day camping site in the nearby mountains. Damon and I took turns driving the machine.

At the camp site we each started preparing our respective country's signature dishes.

In case of Damon: Cheese Burgers. In my case German Potatoes Salad(Kartoffelsalad), and Sausages. The result was lovely as you can see!

We had a great day out!

To get all the Details, please buy the July Issue of the Auto Camper Magazine at a bookshop.

Friend or Vermin?

2009-04-26T11:52:00.005+09:00

Talking to the village chief the other day, I heard that people here in Arisaka get frequent visits from herds of deer. They come down from the forest, to forage and it seems they are not too scared of humans.

Locals don't enjoy them too much - they make dirt on the streets and eat produce from the fields.

According to him, other wildlife also includes Tanuki (Japanese badger, Bears (very occasionally) but fortunately no monkeys.

If you as one of our guests have a chance to see them, please send us a photo!

Children Play Area

2009-04-26T11:40:00.006+09:00

If you experiment a little bit with your route when walking to michi-no-eki, you may find a little unkept path leading up the ridge . After about 2 minutes, you can walk on a better kept path, and enjoy a nice view on the village on the other side of the valey (Tateiwa) and the hills beyond.

This is a little resting place that can be used to just take a break, or have a snack.

If you turn down left a little behind this place, you reach the big roller slide. This is brilliant for kids and papas!

Unless you want to receive a thorough massage of your buttocks, I recommend using a piece of card board, to sit on.

At the end of this slide there is a Children's play area, including a big Jungle Gym,

And once you and the little angels have exhausted themselves, you just pop into the Onsen which is conveniently located at the same site, overseeing the play area.

Bigger kids will also find a Basketball Court here, and a larger flat, grass covered area ideally suited to play frisbee.

First Picnic

2009-04-26T11:29:00.004+09:00

This is a late posting of the first picnic this year in the beginning of April.

The sun shone so warm in front of the house, that we decided to have sandwiches outside. Kana and Troy prepared them with their special recipe, and I wish they'd share it with us.

Each Sandwich was individually marked with Cheese cut-outs to indicate its owner.

Mmmmm - Yummy!

Afterwards I fell asleep, and it was difficult to get any work done...

Spring Postcard from Inaka

2009-04-06T11:18:00.005+09:00

Finally spring has arrived in Arisaka. Of course it is still colder than Tokyo, and sometimes snow falls instead of rain, but overall you can feel nature waking up around the house.

The Ume tree in front of the house has started to sport some blossoms, and I was able to have the first outside picnic on Friday. It was nice sunny, warm so that I fell asleep.

Karuizawa Designer and Artist exhibits at Arisaka House

2009-04-06T10:42:00.004+09:00

To celebrate the spring opening of our house in Arisaka, a designer and artist Toshiro Takakuwa(and friend of inaka home) has kindly given us a selection of his artwork for exhibition.

He created the one on the left, inspiring a feeling of clean water, while the other three are a series depicting the earth. Please check his website avecth for more information and his bio. He also wrote a nice blog entry about us, which you can read here.

We have placed one picture in the living room, one in the kitchen and one for each bed room.

I hope you will all enjoy them during your visit!

Golden Week approaching, think ahead!

2009-03-23T10:16:00.005+09:00

Now that officially spring has arrived in Japan orders are picking up, and certain dates get pretty busy. Even though golden week seem still far away for many hard working Tokyoites just trying to get the fiscal year finished, in fact we already get many inquiries for Golden Week.

So if you think about spending that holiday at our house, you better get your reservation in quickly. Another thing to take care of are other travel arrangements - please remember that rental car company run out of cars, and that the shinkansen trains run at more than official capacity(reserved seats advisable).

Lastly, be aware of traffic conditions. Even though it usually takes me about 2 hours drive to get from Nerima to Arisaka on a Friday night (after 19:00h), Saturday morning, long weekends and special holidays can easily make this a 6 hours drive! So get up early or drive late to avoid the crowds.

For those of you who are more flexible and despise crowds, why not try to make it before Golden Week? Particularly during the week you may find it easier to secure the house.

Inaka Home awarded 3rd place on GreenDot 2008 competition

2009-02-10T18:42:00.004+09:00

Inaka home was awarded 3rd place in the category "service" of this competition.

What is the GDA?

"The jury of the international Green Dot Awards (GDA) announce the winners of the 2008 competition. The GDA was established to reward and promote forward-thinking businesses that create environmentally friendly products or services, and to reward revolutionary green proposals. The GDA aims to bridge the gap between truly innovative businesses that practice excellence in environmental responsibility and international consumers and media."

Who was on the jury?

"The Green Dot Awards were juried by experts in the industry including: Kyle D. Brown, Ph.D., Director of the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, California State Polytechnic University
Daniel D. Chiras, Ph.D., Author of The Homeowner’s Guide to Renewable Energy, The New Ecological Home, The Solar House, The Natural House, Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods, and The Natural Plaster Book
Peo Ekberg, Environmental Consultant for Sustainability and LifestyleCO2 Adviser
Dave Evans, Author of Cool Green Stuff: A Guide to Finding Great Recycled, Sustainable, Renewable Objects You Will Love
Steven Foster, President of the Steven Foster Group and commercial consultant for eco-sustainability
Christine Mason McCaull, Co-founder GoGreen Online, and Go GreenTV
Shelagh McNally, Editor at Green Living Online & Green Living Enterprises
Luis Valenzuela, Founder and CEO of Green Art USA"

What does it mean for us?

"Although the Green Dot Awards are worthy onto themselves, they are also a consumer guide to excellence in environmentally-sustainable practices. A business with a Green Dot Award is a business that can be trusted by consumers with stewardship of the environment."

Mount Asama Eruption - are we facing total destruction?

2009-02-04T14:54:00.006+09:00

Recently the news covered the eruption of Mount Asama, an active volcano on the border of Gunma and Nagano prefecture.

Thinking about how close our home is to the Volcano, perhaps you are worried about Arisaka House? And the other question is - was it just a coincident that the volcano on Sakurajima in Kagoshima (southern Japan) spew lava at the same time?

According to our local Guide, Hiro-san, Arisaka and our beloved valley is completely unaffected - The ash went only to Gunma, Saitama and Tokyo thanks to the wind. Arisaka people don't really notice anything.

His comment:

"Its great - as I don't have to clean up volcanic ash!"

These are some pictures I took earlier from across the hill in Tateshina village:

From 20070915

However, morbid / decadent followers of the inaka home blog may be tempted to quickly reserve Inaka Home for this weekend, to enjoy the spectacle from a safe distance.

If you are so inclined, you can see you are well placed to witness the total destruction of Saku, Komoro and Karuizawa from this picturesque Japanese village.

For your enjoyment of this exhilarating potential catastrophe, we recommend the following essential items:

Camping chairs & camping table
Sleeping bags to keep you warm if the disaster occurs in the afternoon (your viewing position will be in the shadow, but Asama has the best lighting of the setting sun)
Binoculars
Video Camera and Tripod
Digital SLR with tripod and super zoom
Champagne bottle & glasses
Thermos Flask with hot milk tea
Ritz Crackers and Cheddar Cheese
Book "Restaurant at the end of the Galaxy"

Cross-Country Ski / Langlauf

2009-01-27T22:32:00.003+09:00

Today we received an inquiry about cross-country skiing near our Arisaka House.

What a great idea! I haven't done proper cross-country skiing since my childhood, where I participated in a 14km Volkslauf in the Black Forrest. Although I did use my touring skis a few year ago to reach Honzawa Onsen in Winter ( a6 hour uphill treck), and saw other people use it a bit further up in Yatsugatake.

A quick search has revealed the following possibilities:

1. Blanche Takayama (20mins) is rumoured to have a 4km track and rental of equipment, although I still need to confirm this. It can be reached even under snowy conditions, but winter tyres are required, and chains should be carried.

2. Utsukushigahara a high mountain plateau, cross-country and snowshoe tours/rental available. This website seems to be operated by a hotel, which judging by their website is not as good as Inakahome, so don't stay there. Getting there is also a little bit of a concern, as it is very high up (dangerous road conditions in winter). We will check it out and post some updates.

3. Nagato Highland Farm, normally a dairy farm producing loads of icecream and expensive rare cheese, uses its cow pastures as cross-country tracks. My comment would be - make sure there is enough snow if you value your equipment!

For those of you who like downhill activities, here is one extra information: Blanche Takayama is Ski ONLY. So if you have snowboarders in your group, you had better drive a few minutes further to Echo Valley.

We will check out those options, and post an update once we have the facts

Patrick is speaking at The Tokyo Small Business Meetup Group tomorrow

2009-01-27T22:25:00.004+09:00

I was invited to give a presentation tomorrow about Inakahome, and how we made it a reality.

The audience is the "The Tokyo Small Business Meetup Group", an informal group of entrepreneurs current and future, who want to exchange ideas, experiences and network.

In case you are interested, please sign up to the group (free), and sign up for the event on this page (better hurry, its filling up quickly).

Arisaka House converted to Danish territory (temporarily)

2009-01-27T21:11:00.004+09:00

A little belated reach us the photos of a merry Danish delegation that took over Arisaka House for Christmas week. Trying to escape their busy yearend schedules, Rebecca and friends found a welcome home-away-from-home in our house.

Communal cooking is the best fun :-)

Here a special Danish Christmas dish is prepared - Yummy! I wish I had the recipe! Do you notice the gentlemen reflected in the stainless steel surface(top left of the picture)? Obviously not everyone was helping.

Their hard work was rewarded with a sprinkling of snow for a white Christmas.

The view over our field.

Happy New Year

2009-01-13T22:17:00.006+09:00

On behalf of Inaka Home I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year 2009!!

Towards the end of December, Winter has finally arrived for real in Nagano, and plenty of snow is available in Blanche Takayama, Echo Valley and other ski areas within 20 minutes drive reach of Arisaka House.

Our house is located just over 600m so is spared the heaviest snow fall. Nevertheless a beautiful coating is always welcome, in particular by my daughter.

From 20070915

Why not have a pleasant family ski weekend, at our home? We still have vacancies for January and February, so you beter hurry to get your reservation in (please use the feedback form on our homepage)! You can read last Year's entry about our skiing at Blanche Takayama here.

Waterfall revisited

2008-12-01T08:21:00.002+09:00

Ardent readers will remember our summer guests going bonkers at the nearby waterfall. We revisited the place this weekend.

Leaves are already past prime

From 20070915

A steep rock face lines the path; it takes about 10 minutes to walk up.

From 20070915

I will come back to see it frozen.

From 20070915

Falcon Attack

2008-12-01T08:13:00.002+09:00

Wildlife is nice. As long as it behaves reasonable. Unfortunately one inconsiderate specimen - and honestly speaking a rather foolish one - decided he doesn't like our house.
While Hiro-san worked nearby, a sudden bang as loud as a gunshot made him duck. He found that a falcon broke our kitchen window...

From 20070915

After ejecting this juvenile delinquent, he fixed the window provisionally until its replaced, and cleared up the debris.

From 20070915

Exploring the Nakasendo

2008-12-01T07:10:00.003+09:00

The Nakasendo is one of the main roads of old Japan. Those of you who have looked us up on the map, may have noticed that Arisaka is very close to this road. Just driving about 15 minutes down the road, you can find a village with many old houses from that era.

This building used to be a Ryokan for special guests who travelled the Nakasendo. Daimyo (local nobles) has to travel to Edo every few years to show their loyalty. On their way they staid in this nicely restored house.

From 20070915

Another restored house nearby harbours a country side restaurant: Kaa-san's.

From 20070915

We enjoyed tasty and fresh Inaka-soba, together with sansei forest vegetables.

From 20070915

This lady runs the place:

From 20070915

Travelling a bit higher we found snow left over. The ski-season starts only end of December, but the road already required winter tires further up.

From 20070915

Retro Style Music

2008-12-01T06:46:00.002+09:00

Our living room provides an excellent space for listening to music. But most amplifier and sound systems have a rather clinical and cold digital sound. We have now installed a Hifi set that will satisfy even distinguishing guests with wonderful warm analogue sound:

Analogue valve type amplifier - It takes a few seconds until the valves heat up, and glow. The reward of patience is a fantastic sound with volume and depth.

From 20070915

Second, a turntable to play vinyl records. The analogue nature of these recordings create a much more accurate reproduction of the original recording than modern CD players can do. This machine, despite being built in 1980, can effortlessly compete with modern equipment !

From 20070915

Financial Times prints Patrick's Comment on Carbon

2008-11-26T21:09:00.000+09:00

The Financial Times recently quoted an investment Manager who criticised the usefulness of voluntary Carbon Emission disclosure by companies. Because I don not agree with this view, I am glad that the FT printed my letter (on Tuesday November 25) responding to this statement.

The text is as follows:

Carbon units and company value

Published: November 25 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 25 2008 02:00

From Mr Patrick Niessen.

Sir, I was interested to read two contributions on the usefulness of carbon reporting in your November 17 edition. James Murdoch pleaded for a mandatory disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions (“Carbon disclosure should be mandatory by 2010”), and Rory Sullivan was quoted as criticising such disclosure for being irrelevant to investors (“SRI veteran questions ‘spurious’ data”).

Of course Mr Sullivan has a point: GHG emission estimates for a company can vary strongly depending on who prepares the data, which method of estimation is used and where organisational boundaries are drawn.

Voluntary disclosures of companies may tend to err on the side of self-interest, and critical examination and adjustment is required before the data can be used (corresponding to how most information provided by a company should be treated). On the other hand he is wrong on two counts.

First, even voluntary reporting can have comparison value: progress over time can be observed even with a bias (if the estimation method remains the same), and an approximate grasp of scale can be gained. Second, reporting standards do exist, and third parties are available to verify and certify these standards (admittedly they could be improved).

GHG figures may be poor indicators of future investment performance, but on the other hand they are good indicators of a company’s environmental performance and the sustainability of its business model. For instance, how many cars can each consumer own at the same time? Can car sales growth be sustained forever?

Carbon accounting will eventually have a strong impact on a company’s value, when legislation forces accurate measurement, introduces taxes on emissions and requires all agents in the economy to pay for their contribution to global warming in one way or another. I agree with Mr Murdoch that mandatory disclosure is necessary, but would go even further in that the entire life cycle of a product must be considered.

To take the guesswork out of the emission counting, perhaps we will one day see carbon units printed on our purchase receipts. At that time companies will need to treat such receipts with the same care as normal expense receipts, and keep them on file to allow detailed audits to confirm disclosures.

Patrick Niessen,
Tokyo, Japan

Local Tourist Association

2008-11-14T22:16:00.002+09:00

We are now also listed on the page of the local Tourist association. This page is also useful to find out what's going on in the area, and what kind of sights and restaurants exist.

Nagawa Tourist Association(http://www.nagawa.info)

Going up to the Ski area and the lake, it gets very touristy, and it will be difficult to meet true locals. On the other hand, there may be some good restaurants, although I cannot recommend any yet...

Event updates Takeshi

2008-11-14T22:14:00.001+09:00

Takeshi is another village near our house. Actually you can walk there easily, but from an administrative viewpoint, they belong to Ueda City, where Arisaka belongs to Nagawamachi.

Information of Takeshi area

11/15-16
新そば祭り　武石観光センター　10:00-15:00 new Soba festival
もりそば、かけそば　各500円
もち　つきたて即売
http://www.unkeiso.com/center.html

12/22
番所ヶ原スキー場　オープン Open of Banshogahara ski area
当日(22日)リフト無料 free ski lift, only 12/22
スノーボード滑走可能スキー場
http://www.unkeiso.com/ski.html

うつくしの湯　営業時間10:00-21:15 Utsukusino-yu
12/30 休業　close
12/31 営業 open 翌2:00amまで　年越しそば販売
09/1/1-1/3も営業 open
http://www.unkeiso.com/utsukushi.html

hiroyuki yanagisawa

Inakahome director featured on Staralliance

2008-10-21T23:36:00.000+09:00

Inakahome director Tomohisa Miyauchi is currently featured as a "young and dynamic entrepreneur" in a documentary recorded for Staralliance. If you remember, it was already mentioned in an earlier post here. The program is called "A Meeting of Minds" and follows Tomo and two other young entrepreneurs as they "meet with famous international business leaders and find out what it truly takes to go global".

You can find the episodes on the star alliance website, on this special campaign page.

You can see our Arisaka House for a few seconds in the background.

Events around the House

2008-10-14T23:45:00.000+09:00

Fresh from our event co-ordinator:

Updated Homepage, with Arisaka House Detail

2008-10-14T23:25:00.002+09:00

Now that we accept bookings for Arisaka House in Nagano-ken (near Ueda), we took the opportunity to update our official homepage, and add more Detailed information about the house.

http://www.inakahome.com

Please feel free to explore Arisaka House from all angles:

Arisaka House

Hülsta Sleep fair special campaign

2008-10-14T23:13:00.002+09:00

Inaka Home and hülsta have teamed up for the "Fresh Life, Every Day" campaign promoting healthy sleep. Visitors to the hülsta Tokyo showroom have the chance to win a week-end at Inaka Home and would be able to experience highest quality of sleep in the tranquillity of Nagano's beautiful country site. A special discount for hülsta customers is also provided by Inaka Home.

As you may know from earlier posts, our Arisaka House's living/dining and bed-rooms are furnished by hülsta.

Please check out the company's homepage for details of the campaign:

www.hulsta.co.jp

Kitchen fine-tuning

2008-10-14T23:02:00.003+09:00

Last week's guests already enjoyed the fully equipped kitchen, to produce French / Asian fusion cuisine. This weekend I optimised the usability for future guests by adding rails, and storage options.

From 20070915

The kitchen is not just great to cook, or have a small snack in - it also look fantastic from the outside! The neighbours have peeked in and envy our excellent facilities ever since.

From 20070915

Tsukimi - Watching the Moon

2008-10-14T23:00:00.002+09:00

The full moon gave a wonderful illumination of Arisaka house. No need to say more than that.

From 20070915

Waste Management

2008-10-14T22:46:00.003+09:00

Partys are fun, but sifting through other people's garbage is not as enjoyable as it sounds - its worse.

From 20070915

Arisaka operates a strict waste management system, in order to maximise the recycling of refuse. To help reduce your ecological foot-print, please contribute your share when visiting us by separating the garbage.

We have a guide at the house that explains the different categories, so it should not be too difficult to do your share.

Inspection of previous week's work

2008-09-24T22:33:00.003+09:00

After our last work weekend I was keen to see how everything came together.

First of all, I was very happy with the way the mud walls dried, and their nice natural appearance.

From 20070915

This light sculpture was added by Tomo, who stayed one day longer than us. It is a truly unique piece of art.

From 20070915

This place is definitively ready to use.

From 20070915

The main lights in the bed room are also wonderful, and cast a comfortable glow on the bed and walls.

Putting the kitchen to use

2008-09-24T22:15:00.004+09:00

I had a bunch of business to sort out in Arisaka, but one main objective was to unpack all the shiny new kitchen gear that was delivered this weekend. As a hobby cook I enjoyed buying al my dream gear, but of course I am sad I cannot have such nice equipment in my Tokyo home (its too small).

Most of the gear unpacked, washed and ready to cook:

From 20070915

I could not resist the temptation and invited the Yanagisawa family over for lunch. On the menu - Spaghetti Bolognese (admittedly a simple meal but tasty nevertheless).

From 20070915

Good food is a function of the chef's ability, and the quality of the ingredients. Fortunately thanks to the wonderful fruit and vegetables available in the village the taste was exquisite!

Fresh freeland organic Tomatoes harvested (probably) the same day:

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Big Pots! Can cook for many people!

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My idea of good bolognese is that its not like making a sauce, but more like cooking a jam. The more time available the better, so cooking tomatoes and meat for 1-2 hours would be perfect. However, we were starving, so opted for about 20 minutes - enough to evaporate a bit of the wine (purchased in the small liquor store in Tateiwa).

I was very please - my guests all had seconds, and there was nothing leftover!

From 20070915

Visiting Arisaka House by Bicycle

2008-09-24T21:07:00.005+09:00

After the Taifun passed, at last a sunny was forecasted, and I was keen to ride my bike. So I rode down to Ueno station, packed the bike into the obligatory "bike-bag", and took the Asama shinkansen to Ueda.

From 20070915

Patrick of Team Gerolsteiner - ready to roll!

From 20070915

The route was pretty straight forward. However, instead of the busy 141 for the initial traverse to the east, I stayed near the river to avoid traffic. It was really easy to navigate and the ascent was extremely slow and easy. From Maruko onwards, the road was not in good condition - on my racing bike I could feel every single pock mark and imperfection on the surface.

Ueda to Arisaka House (inakahome)

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Although initially overcast, the weather turned out really pleasant and sunny around lunch time.

From 20070915

Cosmos was blooming all over the place, contrasting wonderfully with the rice, whose still wet heads hang down heavily, with harvest only days away.

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Finally the house.

From 20070915

Despite the slight uphill route and a head wind for the initial escape from Ueda, I reached the house only 35 minutes and 17 km later. I am looking forward to spend a long weekend here with my cycling buddy. Using the house as a base, we can explore the mountain passes to the south, west, and east and return to a pleasant house with peace and quite for recovery.

WARNING: Country roads are not well lit at night - if at all. If you travel after sunset, please ensure you have plenty of lighting (front and back)+ reflectors, so that cars can see you, and maybe even take an extra flood light to see the road in front of you. I put on a Climber's headlight on my forehead, and that worked pretty well. While cycling during daytime, there are many alternative routes that may be more scenic. In any case, I STRONGLY advise to stay on the route described here after dark, in the interest of your safety !!

End of Summer Events in Arisaka

2008-09-20T14:47:00.004+09:00

I just talked about reservations - why not send out a mail straight away to us, fix a date and take part in one of those great countryside events.Our local expert Yanagisawa-san notifies us of the following:

2008 Sept 21Flea market in Nagawa フリーマーケット
at MichinoEki 8:00-15:00　道の駅　

2008 Sept 28 Megamiko festival　女神湖感謝祭
At Megami-lake open space front of center , starting from 10:00am. Bring your chopsticks. 箸持参のこと。
You can eat Tatesina's pork and soup of kind of mushroom, Trout, .cher, etc. Free of charge.
http://shirakabakogen.jp/event/kansyasai.pdf

Reservations

2008-09-20T14:39:00.002+09:00

Did I mention we accept reservation for stay and events? Thomas and I are right now working on a super-duper online reservation system, but unfortunately its not finished yet. Until then, please send e-mail "reservations at inakahome dot com" (replacing the "at" with "@" and the "dot" with ". "). Let us know your preferred period of stay, and we will let you know availability and price.

Final Sprint

2008-09-07T22:58:00.002+09:00

Even though the house is essentially ready, and usable for guests, Tomo and PeterA came up with Victor and me to put a strong effort into fixing some "cosmetic" outstanding items. Even though cosmetic, they were no less hard and tiresome: I applied a finishing layer of mud plaster to the remaining wall panels. Some of them still had the first "scratch" layer of mud, and now needed a more beautiful finish. Some others consisted of the original blackened old mud cover, that was dirty and cracked.

From 20070915

Tomo focused on detail work, such as staining wood parts with natural oil, and tackling other smaller jobs.

Peter and Victor kept me supplied with mud mixture.

This weekend was very special for us in the sense, that for the first time we were able to use the fully functioning designer kitchen. You can see Peter on dish wash duty.

From 20070915

We also had great fun in the evening, when we took off to Ueda with Hiroyuki, our local service manager. Admittedly, we only had curry at the excellent Jaipur restaurant, but after a hard day's work, there is nothing like a proper Butter Chicken Curry!

Adobe wall with hidden secrets

2008-09-07T22:42:00.004+09:00

This weekend saw the return of our eager volunteer Victor. If you think back to May this year, you may remember the episodes titled "Blue paint scrub" and "Mud bricks". In the latter, Victor helped us to make the mould for the mud bricks.

Now he was able to complete his work, by actually laying the bricks into their final location:

As you can see on this picture, a small section is laid out with solid mud bricks, to provide thermal mass in the centre of the room.

From 20070915

Behind the bricks, a small cavity exists, and not wanting to simply waste the space, we decided to put it to a long term use: We use it as a time capsule. That is, we place things from our time into the cavity, so that future generations may get an idea of what it was like in our days. To accomplish this goal, we purchased a selection of contemporary Japanese magazines and newspapers.

From 20070915

After quick handy work by Victor, the capsule was sealed until ...

From 20070915

Shoji and - again - mud walls

2008-08-24T22:48:00.004+09:00

Tomo spent the week at the house doing paper work, and checking the kitchen progress while his two kids collected insects and frogs. He also managed to use these exquisite artist's washi (=Japanese paper), for our Shoji.

This one is blue, but we have the other side in green.

He passed the baton on to me, and I went again at my normal occupation - the preparation, application and finishing of mud-walls (again!).

The weather was on Saturday, so I first created adobe bricks to fill the special heat storing wall segment. Last time I made a start on it, but ran out of material. So on Saturday I made 24 bricks, which was three 20kg bags of sand and an nearly same amount in volume of red earth. My back muscles bear witness to the magnitude of the task.

Later it started raining and kept doing so the whole Sunday. But fortunately the DIY market had the Silica sand in stock, that is key ingredient of the finish wall layer. Despite the rain and the absence of volunteer helpers, I mixed up with pulverised straw, clay, a lot of silica sand and worked from 06:00h till 16:00h nearly without break.

I managed to finish 5 panels on the western side (darker coloured patches), covering the cracked and smoke blackened original wall, as well as one of our new wall panels (not shown on photo). The quantities of sand and clay should be chosen such that the clay merely makes the sand sticky. The trowel, then pushes the sand over the wall, evening out bumps. The straw prevents cracking. With a helper, the remaining panels should be finish-able within one day.

Taking shape

2008-08-24T22:03:00.004+09:00

The two bedrooms are now ready for action - I confirmed the excellent comfort myself .. but I nearly slept over. But with so much work remaining for the weekend, it was just something I could not afford.

Here the left room:

And the one on the right:

The Kitchen is is also nearing completion, and is scheduled to be operational end of next week.

Waterfall Adventure

2008-08-12T21:46:00.001+09:00

When popping into the tourist information office at the nearby michi-no-eki, Byron's eye was immediately caught by a poster showing the Fudodaki Waterfall.

It is only about 10 minutes drive from the house, and a 1km foot trek is required to reach this enchanted place.

View Larger Map

Without delay he moved his party to the place and everyone discovered there inner spiritual side.

While first circling around the cold water ...

One after another dipped in

"The water was just the right temperature - not to cold. But because of the water pressure you could only endure about 20 seconds under the water" commented one of those Yamabushi afterwards.

Fantastic time at the house

2008-08-12T21:45:00.001+09:00

Once arrived, they immediately relaxed and enjoyed the natural environment in the house and around it. The weather was fantastic - hot during the day, but not as humid as Tokyo, and cool at night - and a gentle breeze rang the wind chimes and provided natural cooling.

Because there is no fridge yet, a water cooler was improvised. Vegetables harvested the very same morning locally can be seen sharing the coolness with cans of premium malts.

In place of a kitchen the food was prepared in true Asian style (is this Bangkok?):

The summerly mood was further heightened when Byron started serenading Okinawa style:

And of course there was plenty of cheap Suika (Watermelon):

Birthday Readiness

2008-08-12T21:44:00.000+09:00

A party of 8-10 people was expected to come to inakahome this weekend, for bar-b-q and to celebrate Byron's (a friend) birthday. So we temporarily stopped all building activities and cleaned up the property, removing dangerous tools and piles of mud and cleaned the rooms.

The house still needs a little work, such as kitchen island and appliances, and lighting, but it is already usable for some things, such as having a relaxing day in the country side.

A view of the living room (need to add a finishing layer of mud plaster to some walls, and complete the brick section):

The lower part of of this side of the room looks nearly perfect already:

The flowers are grown local:

Thunder and Lightning Art

2008-08-03T23:15:00.004+09:00

The previous weekend we were dogged by bad luck with the weather. Whenever we wanted to start mixing mud, it started hammering down with rain. Hot and cold air fronts hitting each other created two full days of non-stop electric storms. As a result we didn't get much work done, however it was quite a spectacle to behold.

Our intention was to close the highest odd-shaped panels with mud, so we stapled some metal lath on the beams surrounding the openings. The reed was not really usable here because the openings were very small, and we couldn't fit the drill in. Unfortunately, the metal lath didn't work so well: it was floppy so that when applying a little pressure, bits and pieces of mud would fall off. If we used to much pressure, mud would just fall through the lath. I therefore tried to get some mud to stick at least, and next time we try it may offer a better, stickier surface.

In any case, while we battling the elements, a young, up-and-coming Japanese artist stayed at our house. Ryo Matsuoka absorbed the environment and atmosphere of the building, and surrounding fields+nature to create paintings on the Fusuma (Japanese sliding door), as well as a wood panel and a cupboard. You can find his impressions on his website: http://www.ryoart.com/nagawa08/08july.html

You can see the creation story here:

Of course we did not let the opportunity slip, and PeterO began a fully fledged improvised interview. Jan, his wife, kindly prepared and excellent translation that I used to add English subtitles. Interview is uploaded to youtube, and you can watch it here:

For those who don't have the patience to watch, here is the translation:

Interview with artist, Ryo Matsuoka, on July 27, 2008

Peter: First of all, thank you for coming to Inaka Home. I believe this is your second time painting on fusuma doors (Japanese sliding doors)?
Matsuoka: Yes

Peter: I understand that you have spent one night here already and that you will stay for another two or three days as you continue to paint. I have been watching you work today, and I am very interested to know what you saw and what you felt while staying here in order to come up with this image as your final product.
Matsuoka: Rather than creating a specific image, I clear my thoughts of everything and start from zero. That way, I can bring forth something new and fresh that incorporates all that I saw or felt or touched. I’ve been doing this since I was a child. I make a sketch diary of what I’ve experienced. These are some sketches I did while I stayed here. I picture things I experienced and then I clear everything out of my mind and relegate everything to zero and a bigger picture evolves.

Peter: You mention your sketch diary. For example, take the first one you have in your hand. What is that image? Is that a bird? Rather than objects, are these expressions of your feelings?
Matsuoka: Yes that’s right.

Peter: So then what was the feeling you felt when you created today’s images on the doors?
Matsuoka: What was it, I wonder? This is something that I can only create here and now. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact feeling or thought to this or to label a title to this piece. It started from the moment I got on the bullet train from Tokyo to come out here, eating, meeting people, hearing the thunder, being surprised by the beauty of the stars, seeing the biggest spider ever; all of these experiences from this place come together like a living book, which I throw against the panel and it creates this image.

Peter: You had mentioned that you sketch some images first, then you zero yourself and then you begin painting. As I watched you work today, I noticed that you would paint and then you would pause to look at what you painted and then you would paint again. In the first stage of painting, your pauses were about 10-20 seconds, and gradually the pauses became longer as the painting time became shorter. In the final stage, you would wait for 2-3 hours, then paint one stroke.
Matsuoka: (Laughing) Yes, that’s right. Interesting.

Peter: Can you tell us what is going through your mind during these stages?
Matsuoka: In the beginning, I work on a white canvas and follow my instincts. It’s not complicated nor strange, I just start painting and see where it takes me and see what shapes emerge, and follow along. Then I begin the process of slicing or shaving off layers and that’s probably when the time shift occurs.

Peter: Today’s date is July 27, 2008 and you can only draw this particular image today. So what will tomorrow’s image look like?
Matsuoka: I don’t know. Something very different.

Peter: You will also paint the areas to the right, in the tokonoma and on the other door?
Matsuoka: Yes, and also the door on the other side. I wonder what it will look like. I hope when I look at my finished product, I am surprised by it or am pleased with how it turned out. It’s something that was just instantly created and not preconceived.

Peter: Is this your technique as an artist?
Matsuoka: Yes, as a child I loved to draw and have been drawing ever since.
Peter: So you would call this abstract art?
Matsuoka: When I was little, my father would draw and sketch and use oils. And now I’m painting abstract art, but I also draw travel diaries. I draw words, or rather they are more like symbols. I try to embody words. If I meet someone, I would draw that experience. It is not so much my drawing of the impression I had, but more about the person himself. It’s like a diary. And this painting today is a part of my diary that I could only draw here. And this will continue on with the next place I visit and the next.

Peter: Thank you very much for coming to Inaka Home and for painting this for us.
Matsuoka: Thank you very much.

Massive Work Weekend

2008-07-23T23:59:00.000+09:00

The last weekend was extended thanks to "umi-no-hi", a national holiday on Monday, and we tried to utilise the time to make a final effort to complete the house.

For this purpose the staff of ISSHO Architects (http://www.issho.com) was conscripted, Hideaki and Kazuha joined as true hard working volunteers and PeterA, Tomo and I sweated as directors of Inakahome and I was supported by my wife and two kids.

Overall more than 16 people contributed this time, and thanks to everyone's effort, the project leapt forward dramatically!

An easy start turns into heavy lifting

2008-07-23T23:58:00.001+09:00

I picked up Hideaki and Kazuha and drove up Friday evening. The traffic was not too bad, and so we were able to buy some essential materials for the weekend's work, like silica sand, extra trowels and shovels.

We started off the next morning by preparing the wild and overgrown garden for mud mixing. The two volunteers vigourously hacked at the weeds and creepers to create a nice clearing. Thanks to the safety training and precautions no one got cut!

This tranquil start to the weekend was not there to last, as we were interrupted by the arrival of the magnificent Huelsta (http://www.huelsta.jp/)furniture. The lorry was too large to come up to the house, so high quality furniture had to be moved over 150 yards to the house. Of course the truck was only staffed by one tiny guy, so that it was up to US to move it!!

Our reward was the first rest on the comfortable sofa.

PeterA called up from the station, and after fetching him we were able to get going on the mud work. Filled out the remaining panels, and created some more mud bricks. We estimate that we need about 24 to fill the space in the wall, so still a few more to do. The brick with the funny shape is PeterA's work by the way.

Team ISSHO tackles the inside

2008-07-23T23:57:00.001+09:00

While some of them painted the roof in its new colour (controversial decision), the interior was beautified in various ways

Here two ISSHO girls scratched off the ugly mineral coating that we hate so much, and later covered it up with a new mud plaster layer. It was a pretty dusty job, hence the breathing masks.

This guy expertly tapes off vulnerable light surfaces in preparation of the wood staining.

Tomo's high school mate also helped with this delicate and important work.

The master himself, applying the dark tanning oil. We use a natural product from Germany for all wood surfaces. Its so harmless that it could even be regarded as good for your health!

One of the bed rooms, with finished dark stain for wood detail. The floor is not treated yet, but it will remain much lighter.

Mud finish layer

2008-07-23T23:54:00.000+09:00

Previously we used a mud mix, consisting of the red earth, a bit of straw, and some coarse sand. The result was a sticky mixture, which however ended up having a few cracks. That is fine for the first layer, and actually helps the second layer to adhere better.

This time we were able to cover all last time's panels with the finishing layer. The ingredients were quite different:

1- Loads of fine Silica Sand
2- Half a load of red earth
3- finely chopped ("pulverised"=> thanks Mira!) straw in large quantities
4- A bit of four star wall paper glue

Before applying the mixture we sprayed a mist of water on the lower layer, to prevent to fast absorbtion of water, which could lead to cracking or incomplete binding.

The straw shines through the mud after application, which makes for a nice texture and pattern.

Once dry, this surface should lighten up markedly.

Respect to the manly crew of ISSHO mud mixers. It was a tough job in the heat, and this silica sand is much heavier and harder to work with. They kept the supply coming all day, enough to make us, the trowellers sweat in streams.

4 Earth Panels, Shoji Cleanup and some Worms

2008-06-30T23:26:00.002+09:00

This weekend saw me coming up supported by PeterO, my wife Yuko, and my kids Maya(4) and Sean(5mths).

Peter and I tackled the heavy work straight away - we mixed up dirt, stamped it to a nice plaster and slapped it into four wall panels. We were so hard at work for the second half of the day, that we couldn't take any photos or video. Anyway, this is the view on the next day:

A little bit on the right remains, and one full panel in the centre right. We ran out of daylight, sand, reed sticks so postponed the remaining work to the next time. The centre left panel will be filled by mud bricks at the bottom, to store heat.

On Sunday, Yuko, Maya and I took off paper windows from the Shojis. Usually this is pretty simple and quick work if done properly every year, however it looks as if the previous owner changed his Shoji paper ... It was a quite a bit of watering, scrubbing and scratching, and all had to be done with utmost care not to damage the soft wood of the frame. We'll stick on the new paper another time, when no more dirt is generated by our construction.

Maya was also interested in studying the local wild life, and took a sample of the local fauna:

TV Crew

2008-06-26T07:15:00.004+09:00

On Tuesday, Tomo popped round with a film crew from CNBC Europe. Johanna, the producer and Karelle, the cameraman, flew in from London to interview Tomo for a program featuring young international entrepreneurs. He persuaded them to do the filming at the house, and they were rewarded with good weather and some nice countryside footage.

This shows them filming Tomo at "work", or more precisely, inspecting Peter and my Work ;-)

The interview was conducted outside, with the house as a backdrop. Unfortunately I couldn't take a photo, as I held the microphone boom over my head to provide the sound. I was incidentally filmed too, mixing mud and applying it to the wall.

As far as I understand, this program may be shown on star alliance as inflight entertainment, so keep you eyes peeled next time you use one of their airlines.

The living room wall

2008-06-26T06:55:00.007+09:00

After receiving advice and instructions from the expert Kabeya-san, we straight away got onto the job of producing the lattice. For that purpose, thin bamboo sticks are placed into the horizontal and vertical axis of the frame. First a hole is drilled on both sides, then the a stick that was cut to the right size is flexed into them.

Next a pair or three sticks of reed are tied up against the vertical bamboo. Between the reeds bundles a space of two fingers should remain.

This photo shows Peter at work tying them up.

After the horizontal is complete, next vertical reeds are added in a similar manner, this time leaving only one finger space between.

Finally, the mud plaster can be applied.

The whole process is shown in this video. 1st - drill holes and place the bamboo, 2nd Tie them up, 3rd - add plaster:

Because that tying up took a while, I could only start on the mud plaster pretty late this weekend, and finished only one panel before returning to Tokyo.

The result looks presentable, although the critical bit will be to find out how much cracking will occur on the mud. A little will be ok, as there needs to be another layer of finish that will cover up cracks.

The builders come in

2008-06-26T06:32:00.005+09:00

Bedrooms and kitchen are made from boards that are not suitable for mud plaster. Thats why we used a commercial, but natural plaster instead, and asked our contractor to arrange the application. The team of three came in and quickly transformed the rooms:

Before:

In between:

After:

Arisaka Dirt-Shirt

2008-06-16T11:28:00.005+09:00

I visited Kauai Island the week before last, and found that they sell dirt-shirts, that is T-Shirts that have been coloured by using the local mud which is of striking red colour. It has become a major tourist souvenir, and actually looks pretty appealing.

But I thought - why should I pay for this - I have my own red earth at inaka home! So I brought a white shirt and just tried it out.

This is the original website DirtShirt.com:

Ok, and this is the Arisaka dirt shirt after proper soaking and wringing in real Japanese arakabe:

And this is after washing and wringing in cold water:

Looks pretty pleasant! I'll test drive it for a while, and if it stays as nice we'll produce a few for mail order. If you can think of a motto to print on the front, please share it with me.

Straw Roof Finished, Floor uncovered & Window front OK

2008-06-16T11:19:00.005+09:00

Just some photos of the house.

Kobayashi has finished the roof and done a marvelous job. Last time I saw it it was all rough, but he went in with a hedge cutter, and now its really nicely trimmed, and looks sharp!

He also replaced the metal structure on the top and painted it a more pleasant brown, as opposed to the striking red we had before.

On this view you can still see the light blue on the metal roofs. I need another sunny day to finish painting it.

The Kabeya-san, finished plastering after Kunihara-san put the windows in their frame - it looks fantastic!

Having basically completed his work, Kunihara-san uncovered the wooden flooring and put all shoji's and doors in (I took a photo of Shojis too late in the day and it was too dark).

Cesspit and Crowbar

2008-06-16T10:54:00.002+09:00

After spending half night working on the computer, why not get up after 3 hours sleep to head up to Inaka Home? I certainly cannot think of anything better!

We tackled two jobs:

1. Tomo used the crowbar to rip down the ugly garrage spoiling the northface of our house. The place is now clear for painting white.

Check out Tomo's hard triceps!

After:

2. The less glorious job has no photos. I ripped out pissoir and toilet bowl from the old shed. We had some piles of old earthwall lying about on the field that were removed by contractors. I moved that rubbel to the shed and filled up the cesspit with it. Of course it had been pumped empty before we bought in, but rain water has seeped in the mean time ... It was a pretty tough job as a lot of earth had to be moved!

That shed must go

2008-05-24T08:39:00.001+09:00

Do you remember the ugly shed in front of our house? The previous owner used it to store 10years of rubbish in it, and it gave shelter to a surprising diversity of wildlife and plantlife.

Anyway, we have decided that it should go, and instead we use the space for bar-B-Qs.

Kunihara, san sliced it open with a chain saw, to extract the contents>

Then Junior knocked it about with a hammer while senior gave it a good shove from behind.

Finally the thing went down, and ready for disposal. The bad news is that an extended mouse colony now has to find new a new home!

Bricks - OK!

2008-05-24T08:18:00.003+09:00

I checked the bricks that we produced during our last visit. they are actually very good!

I picked them up and they are solid, heavy and do not crumble. I could not find any cracks on it!

Next I checked the inside for dryness by knocking off the top: absolutely dry, no internal cracks either. Fantastic- we are ready for mass production.

Other Progress

2008-05-19T10:12:00.004+09:00

Kunihara-san has proceded with the entrance area. Instead of the large window that could not be closed, we asked for a normal sized pair glassed window.

This is how it looks from outside.

Someone came and applied a mortar finish on the northern facade...

... as well as the eastern (kitchen) side.

Blue Paint Scrub

2008-05-19T09:51:00.004+09:00

Besides making bricks, our second focus today was get started on the cleanup of the metal roof covering entrance, kitchen, toilet and bathroom.

Peter Amor and I got up on the roof and first started scraping off old paint, and going over the roof with metal brushes.

The remnants of the old paint was difficult to get off, so we only tried to clean up around the rusty spots, but even only that was a lot of work.

A great sunny day - but it was very hot on the roof!

The Kunihara's were working inside, and whenever they came out they had to laugh about our effort. We had tea together near the open window, an excellent way to enjoy such a pleasant day.

Back to work, we started putting on paint. The instructions say that you should start with the edges and seams, and then to the space between. As we were two people, Peter used a large sponge for the flat bits, after I painted every seam.

For the Moment we kept the blue colour, so that we can avoid painting the entire roof, and just to quickly finish sealing the roof before the rainy season starts. Maybe next time we will try a darker brown colour on some patches to see how it looks. Because the paint is not so expensive, we could always use a nice day to change the colour later.

We could not complete the entire roof, because there is still some scaffolding for the straw roof in place. In any case we ran out of time, as we still had to drive back to Tokyo. Perhaps next time we can tackle the lower roof, and finish the remaining bit on top.

I don't know how they did it, but for some reason Peter and Victor managed to get themselves covered with blue paint all over the place. This is particularly baffling in Victor's case, as he only spent about 30 seconds with the paint can. And for some reason his hands stayed blue even after the Hot-spring!

Mud Bricks

2008-05-19T09:34:00.004+09:00

Following last weeks experiments with the newly acquired red earth, this weekend we took the next step in trying to make bricks from mud.

Victor, a Venezuelan friend from University (and a construction manager in his normal life), gave us a hand this weekend.

To create mudbricks, we have to figure out the best combination of clay rich red earth, straw and sand, mix it and then slam it with force into a brick mould. Victor can be seen here taking measurements of the wall, before deciding what size to use for the bricks.

This Movie shows amongst other how the mould is quickly made from wood planks, and then some bricks shaped. At first, the mixture had too much water so that we could not use it for bricks. The second time we found a better mix: 1.5 parts red earth, 2 parts sand, a few handfuls of straw and 3 cups of water. Unfortunately I forgot to press the record button on the camera, so we have only very little slamming action by Peter.

Three lovely bricks! They look alright as they are, but the question is how much cracking will occur with drying.

Soilogogy - finding the right mix

2008-05-12T21:58:00.005+09:00

Having obtained the clay rich soil, it is now necessary to find the right mix to use it for our walls. We need it as both infill, but also consider it as a finish for some walls. A useful mix can be obtained by combining clay, sand, fibre and water, alas the optimum combination is difficult to find as the clay content and type varies. I therefore tried our different combinations on a spare wall.

This Video shows the mixing process:

The mixtures:

1. Sand 0 handfuls, red earth 10 handfuls

This mixture was nice and sticky but developed large cracks after drying.

2. Sand 5 handfuls, red earth 10 handfuls

This mix was also nice sticky, but cracks still occurred even though less than the previous mix.

3. Sand 10 handfuls, red earth 5 handfuls

By having double the amount of sand compared to red earth, cracking could be removed strongly. However, they are still present.

4. Straw 4 hand bushels, Sand 5 handfuls, red earth 10 handfuls

This mix hardly developed any cracks, thanks to the added straw.

Overall I think I used too much water in the mixes, and next time I will try to measure the amount of water going in. I would also like to see what will happen when I use finer sand, or use shredded paper (from the office) to add texture.

When applying the final mix to our walls, we should usually use several layers. The first one can be crude, and cracking may actually help the next layers to bind and stick better. Top and finishing layers should be smooth, so that water cannot erode the wall.

Mud Volunteers

2008-05-12T21:40:00.002+09:00

Our plan for Saturday was to secure some quantities of clay rich red soil, that was used by villagers to build their houses in the old days. Even though earth was thought of as a building material for the poor, contemporary architects do (re-)discover more and more benefits of using this natural material in modern houses.

For us, the main arguments or this material are

1. Cheap - just pick it up by yourself, no payment needed.
2. Eco-friendly: can be found nearby, so little petrol required for transportation. Can be recycled or disposed after use without any ill effect.
3. Easy to use. Simply mix up and apply to walls.

We first obtained official permission, and then went to the spot in the forrest designated by the officer to pick it up. As you can see the inakahome volunteers Peter and Thomas look more than happy to dig in the mud on a rainy day.

Even Yanagisawa-san gave a hand in the digging. The earth on this slope was really clumpy, which is evidence of a a high clay content.

We hired a little k-truck to transport soil to the house. Because the hydraulic pump could only handle small loads, we made sure not to pile the earth higher than 15 cm.

Because of this weight limit I had to drive three times to get a good quantity of soil to the house. There we dumped it on a plastic tarp, for further processing.

Surprise: Thatching already started!

2008-05-12T21:17:00.005+09:00

I received a surprise call from our carpenter. He informed me that Kobayashi-san, the thatcher had already started to work on the roof without telling us! So immediately I organised a car and drove up to the house, equipped with photo and video. Luckily I had a chance to capture some finishing steps of fixing the roof.

During the last days, he and one helper lifted up the old straw, and inserted new bushels underneath, starting from the bottom, and working their way higher up. The straw was temporarily fixed, and then the proper needling started:

1. Get up the roof. Despite his over 70 years of age and painful hip, Kobayashi-san moves easily around on the roof, using some wooden poles for support.

2. Ready your tools. Kobayashi-san has cable for fixing the straw bushels, as well as a long bamboo needle with him.

3. Thread the cable through the eye of the needle.

4. Thrust the needle through the bushels to the inside.

5. A helper inside takes out the cable, wraps it round the wood, and returns it to the needle

6. After the needle is pulled out again, the cable is cut and tied.

It was a nice warm, sunny day and so I could enjoy being up high on the roof to take photos.

The South face is nearly completed, only a few adjustments needed on the top, as well as a final trimming, and paint job on the top metal structure.

Battle with Bamboo

2008-05-12T20:53:00.003+09:00

Yanagisawa-san kindly allowed me to use "as much bamboo as I want" from his little bamboo grove. I thought it could be useful for some of our construction work, and we could use it to create a lattice in the walls for applying mud mixture (using the wattle and daub technique that is common for this kind of old building) .

However, no one had cared for this grove for a long time, and as a result it was difficult to walk about. When I moved in, I was instantly attacked by nasty twigs in face height, slippery dead poles on the ground and inconveniently located dead poles barring the way. While I defended myself valiantly with a bamboo saw and a kind of Japanese axe/knife tool, I was constantly harassed by skirmishing flies and mosquitoes.

In the end both parties were able to claim victory: I succeeded in establishing an landing zone (clearing), and securing a few poles (shown in the picture) before redeploying, while the enemy inflicted heavy scratches on my arms and face and forced me to withdraw (temporarily) to regroup.

To be continued ...

Carpentry nearly finished

2008-04-30T17:02:00.004+09:00

Yesterday I inspected the house, and Kunihara-san explained to me the work he has done in the two weeks of my absence.

The main room looks essentially the same as before, however the wall in the middle is now filled with cellulose. And the flooring is covered with boards for protection.

The kitchen is now complete, and we only need to finish the walls and add the centre kitchen, furniture and fridge.

The bedrooms are also complete, with only the window frames waiting to be filled with double glazing. Please note that we only use 4 star boards, that are from sustainable forestry production.

This shows the corridor behind the kitchen, were toilet and bathroom are located. Kunihara-san, closed off the end of the corridor, so that we can add a wash basin.

And finally the exit to the Kura (store-house) was permanently sealed, to comply with building regulations. From now on we must access it from outside.

Summer already?

2008-04-30T16:49:00.003+09:00

Golden week approaches, and it feels like summer in Ueda. The town is as always ready for a party, and they organised a little festival in front of the station to celebrate golden week.

Taiko drums set the the tone, and this was followed up by Pro-Wrestling guys wearing silly masks. They also had a bouncy castle and various food stalls.

Tulips that we planted last autumn are now also in bloom, very much to the joy of my little daughter who was my assistant on this trip.

In Arisaka village, people were also in a festive mood, and decorated the river with carps for the boys (kodomo-no-hi).

Cellulose Blow-In Insulation

2008-04-30T16:15:00.002+09:00

After some forward and backward, we decided to use environmental friendly cellulose for insulation. The stuff is basically made out of recycled newspapers, with the addition of fire retarding borates, a naturally occurring salt that is harmless to human health and the environment.

In this case we do not need to put insulation material before attaching the membrane, but the other way round: The membrane is added first and sealed, and then the blow-in machine's tube is inserted into a small hole cut for this purpose. The contractor then feeds the cellulose packs into a machine that shreds it and then blows the fibres into the cavity. After the cavity is filled up, the hole is sealed with a tape.

The advantage of this approach is that even the uneven walls, beams and posts can be packed in tightly with insulation material.

This shows one of the bedrooms being prepared for the blow-in contractor.

This is the outside of the house, now including the new window frames. and a new wall segment.

The living room is regarded as relatively "cold" because of the window-front, and the bed-rooms are therefore insulated from it.

Intello Demonstration

2008-04-30T15:43:00.004+09:00

Sorry I only come to write about it a few weeks later.

A German Meister was sent by Proclima to Japan, to demonstrate the use of the Intello membrane and its installation to contractors, architects and consultants.

Kunihara-san prepared a wooden frame in the kitchen, to put some insulation material.

For the purpose of the demonstration we used wool/synthetic mix fleeces. Later on we actually replaced them with a more suitable material.

The insulation material is then covered with the Intello membrane which is stapled on about every 10cm.

The edges are fixed airtight with a special glue that is applied like silicone, but unlike the latter does not dry out. The membrane is installed overlapping, and this edge is then sealed with special tape. The glue only works on porous surfaces like wood, so the tape is also used for window frames out of aluminum, or other non-absorbing materials.

It was a very short two days, but I learned a lot about insulation and air-tightness in buildings. When actually applying the membrane its easy to notice that it must already be considered at the design stage, to avoid too many protruding fixtures, that have to be taped off in a time consuming manner. Great care must be taken, even with electricity cables, for which very special tapes sealers exist.

once in place, the room can be sealed totally air-tight and so offers the best insulation possible, while the natural insulation materials covered by it are kept rot and mildew free.

German Meister in Arisaka

2008-04-07T21:24:00.005+09:00

In a previous post I already mentioned the eco membrane "intello" from the German "Proclima". We now had a German Meister for two days at our house, to give instruction on how to use and install the membrane properly.

He was able to stay with a Yanagisawa-san, a very kind local who together with his wife agreed to put up with him for two nights.

I will write more about the demonstration later, but it was very enjoyable for everyone to talk about each other's customs and way of living. Of course we also introduced Thomas (the Meister) to Japanese Hotspring, and he particularly enjoyed the massage/torture chair. However, he could not be pursuaded to eat sashimi, and other lovely fish products.

As he was from Weinheim, I was able to coomunicate with him in our native "Badisch", so I actually ended up interpreting Badisch and Japanese!

Flooring preparation

2008-04-07T20:58:00.003+09:00

After the weak beams and post have been replaced, Kunihara-san put up some speed and is now working towards the flooring preparation.

First let's look at the repair work of last time from a bit closer. The view is much better after the scaffolding is removed, and you can see the four beautiful wood pieces fitting together neatly.

This photo shows an extension joint - two wood pieces have been put together without any kind of nail or other metal piece.

This shows how the concrete bases work: at the time they were poured, it was ensured that they are level, and now it is much easier to place the framework for the flooring on top.

This shows again the main room with all bases, and framework complete.

Here a floor insulation panel is cut to size and ready to be inserted into the framework.

Kunihara Junior, follows up by taping the seams of the panels, so that the floor becomes airtight, a precondition for heating and cooling efficiency.

Website enhanced

2008-04-07T20:53:00.005+09:00

Our website (http://www.inakahome.com) was greatly improved by the addition of several sections. Of course, regular readers of our blog will not find any specifically new information, but it makes a better impression to first time visitors. We will next add a Japanese version within the following weeks. Please be patient with the "make reservation NOW" button - we must finish the house first ;-)

A meeting of minds in Yushi Cafe

2008-03-21T20:39:00.003+09:00

On the way back from visiting the house I found a nice looking Cafe along the route 142, called "Yushi Cafe"

View Larger Map

Maybe it aroused my interest because it was in an old house - of course much younger than inaka home's, but maybe Showa period. Upon entering, I found it was filled with so many old Showa era goods: old kerosene heaters, radio, books, ...

The inside was lovingly restored, but using purely basics. Actually very similar to what I originally had in mind with Inaka Home. Clean up beams and wood, put in wooden flooring, simple paint jobs. As it turns out, our house will be a much more luxurious affair, but then people don't sleep in a cafe.

What I also found great, was that the owner is a young guy, perhaps a bit younger than myself. He repaired the house - his father's place - by himself and started a good business. This raises my hope that there are more people like that out here, who can take a risk and create something new - real entrepreneurs!

I and Takakuwa-san from Eco Transfer Japan (shown on this photo enjoying a cafe au lait), will definitely come back.

Termite's Dinner

2008-03-21T10:59:00.003+09:00

Kunihara-san made a shocking discovery - most of the beams we well chewed through by termites, and retained hardly any tensile strength. He was truly worried about the roof coming down.

Kunihara-san, pointing out termite damage.

Buggers!

Not exactly sound...

There are plenty of left overs, but they didn't ask for a doggy bag.

Carpenter magic

2008-03-21T10:10:00.003+09:00

Kunihara-san did an excellent Job last week. When I visited there yesterday, I found all the dodgy wooden beams and posts replaced with shiny new ones. He also poured concrete to create many small bases all over the ground. They are leveled so that he can place new supporting beams for the flooring, without touching the potentially moist ground. At that time, he also already finished the concrete floor in the kitchen.

After replacing the beams and posts, only simple scaffolding remains.

The entire structure was secured with temporary bracing, to ensure the house won't crush our heads:

The replaced beams and posts in their full glory. On the left near the window a vertical post, carrying all the weight. Also two horizontal beams running along the window front. Also of course the main beam going from left to right through the room. Finally, beams resting on the new concrete bases on the ground, had to be put in place.

The window view. Please note the new beam on the top, already has all the grooves needed for Shoji sliding doors.

Centre of the room.

Kitchen floor is already cured. The things sticking out are outlets for hot & cold water, waste water, gas and electricity. This may be the last view of the kitchen as it was. Next window in the back will removed and closed up, and the doors to the left replaced by a wall.

Floorboards cleared

2008-03-10T14:47:00.002+09:00

The mission this weekend was to clean up the place to allow Kunihara-san (Carpenter) and his fellows to work freely. When I arrived, I found that they had already started, by removing all floorboards and old pieces of wood, that supported them.

The Main room really looks nice and large now. The fire places are clearly visible too.

This shows the future bedrooms in the north:

A hint of spring

2008-03-10T10:10:00.004+09:00

As I arrived in Ueda, I felt quite comfortable wearing a short sleeved shirt, because it was sunny and temperatures hovered around 14 degrees C. In front of the house, the snow has largely disappeared except for a few patches in the shade.

The results of our first cultivation effort finally bore fruit: Tulips raise their head carefully and tentatively out of the ground.

In another part of the garden I found some other signs of life (sorry I am botanically challenged so cannot offer a name for these).

It was lovely to work outside thanks to the mild air and warm sunshine!

Eco Membrane for the house

2008-03-02T09:37:00.003+09:00

Inaka Home is to become a model house to demonstrate a new ecological high tech membrane, that is used to finish off building insulation on the inside. The name of the product is "intello" manufactured by a company called "proclima" in Germany (see pdf file at bottom of this page). It is a kind of membrane that regulates humidity exchange between the inside and the outside of the house, thereby not only preventing condensation and related mould issues, but also keeping warm in winter (no loss of heat) and cool in summer (reduced air conditioning cost). This product is new in Japan, and is now being actively promoted by Eco Transfer Japan to architects and other builders.

Our home, is of course not completely air tight due to its traditional Japanese construction method, but nevertheless it will help to conserve heating and cooling energy, and demonstrate how such a high tech component greatly enhances other natural building materials, like breathing insulation (wool/recycled cellulose/wood chips) and mud walls.

Contractor Selected

2008-02-27T15:39:00.003+09:00

We finally have selected the contractor to perform the more difficult jobs in our house!

We met Kurihara-san the Carpenter of Arisaka village, together with his son. Kurihara-san was introduced to me by the friend mentioned in my previous post. He has essentially repaired most of the houses in the neighbourhood, and by the looks of them has done a good job. He is also an active member of the community, and helps to prepare the floats for the famous shinto festival that is held here every January around the 14th (I missed it this year because I was waiting for my son to be born).

Together we went through the house this weekend, and checked the works that need to be done based on Tomo's drawings. One of the major tasks will be the replacement of one structural post and about three beams that hold up the roof. They have been affected by past ant infestation and therefore neither look good, nor are they very strong. Kurihara-san, already measured me up (176cm) so that he can place the new centre beam a few cm higher, and therefore allow me to cross the room without bowing my head (or hitting it).

I think it will be quite spectacular, as the roof must be supported by temporary beams, and jacked up to allow the replacement. I hope to be able to film or photograph this work. He will also insulate and add (pair glass) windows to the northern bedrooms, and prepare them for plastering, then continue by insulating the kitchen and prepare the extended concrete Doma.

To create a nice natural feeling, we have opted for big wooden flooring, that he will install to replace tatami mats.

On our side, there are still many things to do. We have decided to fill the wall separating bedrooms and main living space by ourself, using mud wall mixture. So we need to fill out the frames that Kurihara-san will install. Because this will be a labour intensive job, I think we will need a few volunteers to help us out.

We also have opted to do all finishes - that means plastering walls, and staining the flooring and other wooden parts. Again, volunteers should apply to me - they will be needed!

Even though we are awaiting the final schedule from Kurihara-san, soon, we are aiming at completing the House by May this year.

Skiing in Inaka

2008-02-12T11:17:00.001+09:00

This weekend we tried out the skiing in Inaka. There are various Ski resorts in the area, but we tried the closest one, called "Blache Takayama"(Official resort homepage, Snow-Japan information in English .

We got there after a 25 minute drive up the 152 just after lunch time. It was snowing continuously, so that by the end of the day, our car was covered by 10 cm of snow.

Thomas hired his skis, boots and poles at station two (higher up), while I brought my own skis.

Station 2 is equiped with a fast 4 people chair lift, that allows skiing without too much delay. Station 1 is further down, and is mainly for beginners, and children. So you would need to take a long lift up to station 2 first, before serious skiing can commence.

The resort is not big, but not small either. It makes for a nice weekend of skiing with a variety of slope types. There are no difficult slopes, the maximum could perhaps be graded as red (European scale). I found they have one special area called "Mogul & Air Park", which included special practice moguls, and two large ramps for jumping (looked fun). The upper slopes were enjoyable given the good snow conditions, without posing any major difficulty. Off-piste does not seem possible.

We skied on firmly prepared slopes, with a nice layer of soft fresh snow, so that even despite the snowing we greatly enjoyed the feeling of the powder.

I was particular impressed by the children area. They have a tiny standing lift (looks like a conveyor belt) so that even tiny humans can go up, and use the sledges to go down. They also had a truck tire slope, that looked incredibly fun. Of course there is a ski-park for the small ones too, as well as an indoor care centre, if parents want to go off on their own. According to the rental guy, they have skis and boots for rent, fitting children starting from age 3.

On sunday the weather was improved, so that we also had a nice view of the mountain panorama, and we could see the other ski resorts around us.

Next time we will try one of the other resorts nearby, it will be fun to explore them one by one.

What you can work in Winter

2008-02-12T10:21:00.000+09:00

Did I post something about there is little work that can be done in Winter? I think I must correct myself. In fact I popped round with my friend Thomas on Sunday, and conscripted him to help for a few hours.

When we arrived at the house, we found our parking space occupied by a little snowman, probably build by the neighbours grand child. I tried to move it carefully out of the way, but unfortunately the snow broke. To compensate the little girl we made our best effort in restoring it. In my opinion it actually looks better than before.

Today's job was to remove Tatami from the two main rooms. Please see the picture before:

This is a few liters of sweat and buckets of dust later:

Now all tatami mats from the main building are removed.

Lazy New Year?

2008-02-07T22:30:00.000+09:00

Happy New Year! Maybe you worry about the break in reporting on this blog - don't worry! We are still here!

Fact is however, that Winter is a lousy time to do any kind of construction work. Cement cracks, and so does mortar. There are only a few jobs that can be done during this season.

We do not rest however, instead we do less glamorous jobs: Sending drawings to contractors, checking out legal details, getting quotes and meeting other companies and peoples that are interested in co-operating with us. We are now at a crucial stage in deciding contractors, and finalising our plans, and hope that the heavy work can finally start in March.

Unfortunately, interior works must wait until we have replaced a bunch of beams and posts. This job can of course only be done by an expert carpenter, and definitely requires some time: The entire house must be stabilised with temporary poles first, and is than jacked up to allow replacement of individual beams. Following that we can envisage doing flooring, insulation and internal walls. When it gets warmer in Ueda again, work on the roof will start. And of course, we need to care for permits, license and other matters before opening up.

With all this work, we would like to utilise only ecological materials as much as possible, and try to source the building expertise and carpentry from the local community. Inaka Home will only succeed if the community is involved.

Another reason for the temporary lull in blog posts is that my family has been boosted by one fresh arrival. A little baby boy was born, wo can enjoy natural life in our house soon!

Tatami removal & cleaning

2007-12-25T10:30:00.000+09:00

Because of the snow, mixing earth plaster didn't seem such a good prospect, so I concentrated on cleaning and cleaning out.

I removed the extremely old tatami mats of the entrance room, as well as the two northerly bedrooms. I also sweeped floors, walls and beams of those rooms with the vacuum cleaner, to remove some of the dust that still lingers.

Again I found two irori hidden under the mats. It seems every room now has an irori except the north western bedroom. This one is in the small room near the entrance. According to the thatcher who I met a few weeks ago, this was used to put in hot coal for a kotatsu, and people would use the room as an everyday living/dining.

Christmas Surprise

2007-12-25T10:17:00.000+09:00

Just before Christmas, I used the long weekend to get some work done at the house. Heading out on Saturday afternoon, I visited one of the locals for tea, and fresh mochi, which his wife prepared in an interesting machine. The next stop was the nearby hot spring, which helped me to recover from the previous night's year end party. Warmed up and relaxed like that, I fell asleep easily.

When I woke up the next morning, a surprise awaited me. The entire landscape has been covered by a 5 cm carpet of fresh white snow!

New Web Front for Inaka Home

2007-12-21T19:06:00.000+09:00

Now that the cold winter prevents more of the hands-on activities, and as we wait for quotes from contractors to be delivered, I used the time to add a new web page as a front for inaka home.

If you followed this blog from the start or know us personally, perhaps you will find nothing new on the page. However, from now on we will try to add more structured content on this site, and of course add the reservation system once the house is complete.

Please let me know how you like the design and content - your feedback will help to make our site better!

You can find it at http://www.inakahome.com

Have some nice holidays!

A weekend of little work

2007-12-10T18:34:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I could not manage to come before late Saturday evening, as I was part of a panel at the Tsukuba University Open Day. I arrived after dark, so only had time to buy some supplies for breakfast and head to the Onsen.

I met the local carpenter on Sunday, and Tomo managed to pop round at the same time. Before that, I used the fresh morning air to dig a trench in front of the house. I plan to put a drainage pipe to carry the run-off water from the roof clear from the woodwork of the house.

I placed a few large pebbles where the water normally drips down, to break the fall and avoid the splashing.

So overall not much (physical)work this weekend.

Doing business in Inaka

2007-12-10T18:03:00.000+09:00

Several weeks before I made friends with one local gentleman, whom I explained about our ideas of fixing the house. Besides helping me to understand the village better, as well as receive more background about my neighbours, and the previous owner's history, it was very useful in finding craftsmen for the job at hand.

Thanks to his great effort, I was introduced to a local thatcher who is going to make us a new roof, and this weekend I was being introduced to the village's carpenter.

Business in the countryside is quite different than in the city. You first sit down near the irori. Then you drink tea/cofee and maybe eat a mikan orange or sweet. You are introduced to each other, including school history, and great achievements, plans for the future, and keep chatting about various things. Finally the issue at hand is tackled, and its decided what needs to be done. In a simple case its decided, and agreed straight away.

Because everyone knows everyone in the village, trust is the most important thing to maintain. No trades men can cheat any villager, otherwise everyone will know and stop doing business. Therefore locally better price can be obtained, than using outside companies. In fact, local people highly distrust outsiders who offer service, particularly if its competing with local service.

For Inaka Home, we must be careful to also respect this trust and honour based system. We have received courtesy and trust already, so we must show ourselves worthy of it. Of course, at the same time we must be wary, that we do not have a conflict with our mission.

Birds of Prey and Moonrise

2007-11-26T11:36:00.000+09:00

Living in the country side is a very nice experience. Waiting at the traffic light running and errant, I saw this fellow scanning the fields for tasty mice and other snacks:

On our way home, we saw an incredible moon rise. Its difficult to capture with a compact camera. A large round moon came up from the hills to the east:

It was even more enjoyable to watch the moon from the hot bath of the local onsen!

Starting Cultivation

2007-11-26T11:32:00.000+09:00

I also made a start on our fields. We need to plant a crop that does not require a lot of attention, and can easily be harvested. Ideally we can use it in the kitchen during our stays. Therefore I planted three Rosemary plants in front of the entrance.

My wife and daughter also became active by planting a set of tulips, to welcome visitors in spring and summer.

Patching up cracks

2007-11-26T11:08:00.001+09:00

As mentioned before the house has many openings which allows both wasps and wind to enter the house. Most of the problem seems to be caused by shrinkage in the wall's mortar mix. According to my study on the subject, either clay or water content was too high. Some of the shrinkage is up to 2cm.

This photo shows the sky seen through the gaps in the wall from the inside.

I bought some sand at a local DIY shop, and mixed it with the soil sample I took from the forest earlier. Than I added some straw from my September weed-battle.

Sand:

Soil with high clay content:

Mixed together:

I added the straw from the back to make it stickier.

As the mixture was ready, I deployed it in the North Eastern bed room to seal the cracks. With a small trowel, I pushed and pressed the mix into the gaps, smoothing it at the end.

Its not pretty at this stage, but it does the job, and later on a beautiful surface layer will be apllied over this rough layer anyway.

Searching the Forest

2007-11-26T09:29:00.000+09:00

This is a late post of the previous weekend. I headed out early Saturday, and arrived around 8 o' clock the ground and fields were covered by morning frost, which provided a nice contrast to the clear blue sky.

Tired from driving, I headed out into the forest to search for possible building materials. The little stream going past our house leads up into to the forest, and on its banks I found a patch of strong bamboo poles growing. I went deeper into forest, and checked out the earth on the steeper river banks. At one place I spotted some slightly red coloured earth. After scratching off the top layer of decaying leaves, insects and other organic matter, I grabbed a handful of slightly moist dirt, an shaped it into a ball. It had excellent cohesive properties, which led me to believe that the soil has a high clay content.

When walking here you have to be careful, and better stay on the path. Farmers have marked off some areas with plastic ribbons, where they cultivate mushrooms (matsutake or something like that). They won't be happy if heavy boots would crush their crop.

Near the path I found some kind of grass that looked long and solid enough to be used , for example inside walls, as insulating infill or to provide a lattice for mud and plaster to stick on. I cut a few stalks as sample and took them with me to dry them out in the sun. Later I found out they were actually kind of baby bamboo sticks.

Later I went back and picked up another sample of earth from a different place. It didn't look quite as suitable as the previous one, but I tried out a mix all the same.

Fighting the cold

2007-11-13T16:02:00.000+09:00

With the coming of autumn, the temperature inside and outside the house has dropped considerably. Presently we have neither insulation, nor adequate heating system in place, but yet sleep in the house during our work weekends. How can we survive?

We activated one of the fire places in the main room, called irori that I mentioned previously in "Hidden Secrets revealed". While it looks cozy and burns pretty good, it doesn't actually give off much heat and most of that goes up into the air. But as our only heatsource, we can survive by sitting close enough to it.

We also used a table bar-b-q called conro, both for additional heat and for cooking. A tasty cheese and ham omlette in the morning gives enough energy for a days work!

Not all work is physical. Here Tomo enters details of our discussions with contractors, while sitting close for warmth. We use the conro to heat the water in the kettle, so we can also drink hot cofee. I admit its not exactly Starbucks, but very vitalising nonetheless.

Danger ! - Wasp Hives

2007-11-13T15:19:00.000+09:00

At the moment the many cracks and holes in the wall makes it easy for unwelcome guests to enter the house. Besides smaller (2cm) hives, we also found to massive ones made by "Suzume-batchi" (info page: Japanese original | English Translation by Google).

Considering that this kind of wasp has an extremely strong poison, we were very reluctant to approach them - however, after some time of observation we concluded that both are deserted, and hence proceded to remove them.

Unfortunately the location of them was rather awkwardly located above the bathroom and toilet, in the eastern (lower roof) part of the house. Because the ceiling is made only by thin veneer sheets, it does not carry weight. A further annoyance was the large amount of dust on top the ceiling...

Nevertheless, Tomo and I tackled this challenge too. After putting on dust mask and googles, I climbed up and balanced on the structural beams to get close. I then shifted a plastic sheet below the hive with attached rope. Tomo handed me various sharp implements, and I sawed off the nest at its based, upon which it fell onto the sheet. By pulling the rope we closed the sheet and pulled it back to the ladder.

On this photo I just nudge the nest with a bamboo pole after making an incision at the top.

The reward of the hard work, the heroes of an epic battle:

Looking closer at the hives, reveals amazing and fascinating construction:

Kitchen Stripping part 2

2007-11-13T09:52:00.000+09:00

If you remember the previous post "Naked Kitchen" , we want to lower the kitchen to ground level and have polished concrete or tile flooring.

This time I used the second pair of hands to move the kitchen sink out temporarily. Tomo checked the beam structure holding up the bathroom and toilet, and advised which could be cut.

So first we ripped out remaining floor boards and wooden wall frames, then I attacked the beams with the Chainsaw.

One beam extended far into the room and held up the bathroom. So before sawing it off, I supported it with the jack from the rental car, then slipped in a piece of wood that I cut to 16.5 cm. After lowering the thus supported beam again, it was safe to remove the protruding bit. On the very right of this photo you can see the new piece of wood.

Did I mention rubbish? Yes I did. I removed another two large bags of rubbish and polluted soil together with Mori-san.

Job well done. All beams and posts removed, we can now contemplate working on the kitchen for real. The sliding doors at the back will be replaced with a structural wall. The window at the rear of the room may be removed, and all walls need fixing. For the moment we put the sink back so that we can use indoors water during the construction period. The fireplace can also be left for a while, maybe we can use it for warming our fingers during winter reconstruction.

Autumn has arrived

2007-11-12T17:15:00.000+09:00

Even though according to the Japanese traditional calendar its is already winter, It looks more like Autumn in Ueda and surrounding area. Trees wear their colours proudly, and if it was not for the rain showers this would be a brilliant weekend for enjoying nature.

On the other hand we did not come for pleasure, but to work on the house. Tomo brought one of his staff, Mori-san, who kindly volunteered to help us.

The straw roof is very beautiful in rain, and this time I even spotted a patch of green vegetation growing on it.

This weekend several constructors were scheduled to visit the house, inspect the situation and prepare quotations. Even though we want to do the repairs as much as possible on our own, some jobs need expert attention. We had an interesting selection of local tradesmen, ranging from a company specialising on repairing temples and shrines, to some who deal with Minka and one who do eco-friendly/natural building. We also had a guy over to check whether we can install a modern wood stove to heat the main room. One of them remains strongly in memory, thanks to his fantastic business card:

It looks exactly like him!

Mud-wall recycling experiment

2007-10-08T14:19:00.000+09:00

Oh whats that? A palm sized hole in the kitchen wall!

We aim to use mostly natural building materials, both to be sustainable and also to save cost. So from last weekend works efforts there remains a pile of mud wall, ready mixed:

I put a few shovel ful into a bucket and added water. it took a little experimenting to get the right relation of water vs mud straw mixture. The key point is that the small shovel should remain standing on its own when stabbed into the mix. At first I had too much water - the thing kept standing but when applied the mixture just ran away. Add more mud.

This is the wall from the outside after completing the inside patch. Before slamming on the mud mix, I placed two bamboo sticks and chicken wire in the middle.

This is how it looks from the inside:

It worked so well that I took on huge gaps above the windows in the south wall. Again placed some chicken wire and then scooped on th mud-mix. Wasps, hornets and spiders - fare well!

Nice work:

Naked kitchen

2007-10-08T14:00:00.000+09:00

Tackling the kitchen required some of the same skills and techniques used on the other rooms to remove the ceiling. Because it was relatively low, I had no problem getting it out.

However, in this room walls were wood paneled and covered with disgusting layers of cooking fat, oil and grease. There was no other way, they had to go too. Because the kitchen had a very low ceiling, we want to put it down onto ground level, and just finish the floor with concrete, like the entrance area. So I also had to remove the (ugly) wooden flooring.

The kitchen stripped (nearly) naked:

It appeared that the walls to the outside were made up of the the thinnest possible material, then an empty space, then the paneling. Because the outside is riddled with many cracks and holes, those cavities provide excellent habitats for bees and wasps... definetly have to do something about them! An internal wall was made with a gypsum plate.

Removing the floor paneling revealed another fire place. A second layer of weight carrying boards was revealed. Below those, a collection of old beams and provided a fixing place. I couldn't move the sink on my own, so it has to go some other time. In the mean time I used the CHAINSAW, to reveal the ground just in front of it. Getting the floor boards up is quite a job because so many nails are used.

The previous owner left a surprise for me: Below the floor boards - a load of rubbish!

As I took this photo I already filled two garbage bags with the thrash. I found some evidence of small mamal habitation, but judging by tiny skelletons and absence of food, they are long gone.

There is still some rubbish to be cleared next time:

Follow Up Photos

2007-10-08T12:20:00.000+09:00

This is just a follow up to last time's videos. It was not really easy to see the result of the hammering, so here two pictures. Before taking them, I spent some time cleaning up the dirt (three big rice sacks full), and making a start with the dust. Unfortunately its difficult to get rid of the dust, because its so light, and floats around the room. Maybe next time I will take a humidifyer with me and an air purifier with minus ion. Once they are clumped up together they will get heavy enough to stay on the ground and can then be hoovered up.

From the West side:

From the East side:

What remains to be done in this room, is to scrape off the coloured coating on the lower walls, remove some unnecessary wooden planks, clean all beams and remove as much dust as possible and finally add new walls in northern side (instead of the sliding doors).

The great wall

2007-09-26T22:06:00.000+09:00

The next task which I started in the evening and continued the entire next day was to remove the dividing wall of the two main (living-) rooms under the thatched roof. We want to see the beams that hold together the house, and allow guests to look up and enjoy a sense space when staying in the house. Another point why this wall had to go, was the air circulation of the future heating system. We are now thinking of using a wooden stove, to provide warmth in winter. For hot air from that stove to reach both rooms we need to get convection circle going.

The way this wall is constructed is pretty simple, but yet clever:

The space between the beams is filled out with a thin bamboo latice, that is interweaved and tied together with straw rope. Some bigger splinters are under tension and thus hold the thing in place. Then both sides are covered with a mixture of soil and straw. The lower parts of the wall - reaching up to the ceiling that I removed previously - were also covered with some sort of ugly mineral finish.

To my surprise, these walls were incredibly tough, and you could not for example just kick them out. I guess particularly the bamboo is responsible for this kind of resitance.

This time I had better equipment: a helmet, a gasmask style of breathing mask, protective goggles, leather gloves, a 4 pound hammer, a scraper and a ladder. At the highest point the room is roughly 5 meters high, and it was actually quite fun to sit on the huge beam that goes through the house.

The technique was pretty simple: hammer off the earth from both sides to reveal the lattice. After that cut the straw ropes and pull out the fibers and sticks. With some improving technique I was able to knock out both sides at once. The lower panels were the most difficult as they had the mineral finish on top, and some of the bamboos were also nailed into some crossing boards. At the top I just hammered out the lower parts and sawed off the bigger bamboo sticks, then hammered on strategic bigger bamboos that held the whole triangular lattice up. Finally it own weight pulled it down.

I cleared out the dirt from the house, and maybe we can recycle it for fixing smaller wholes in other walls. Apparently they had already the right mixture of clay, sand and hay, so maybe just need to add water.

After this weekend's job I was truly knackered and aching all over, swinging that hammer and doing the garden are excellent exercises. Fortunately the hot spring is only 10 minutes walk away, to offer relaxation and soothing.