41. Buy Cheap Homes in Japan
Plus multi-market ambient music.
A MAN FROM CARVER
In June 2024, William Horridge of Carver, Oregon, read somewhere online that due to the precipitous decline in national birth rate, a vast swath of cheap homes in Japan were coming onto the market. A home in a rural Japanese town for $20,000 American sounded dreamlike in its appeal, even if that home would require a significant amount of repair and renovation.
For several subsequent months, William spent his evenings after work — he had a job as an ombudsman for the county — poring over online real estate listings, clicking through photo after photo of Japanese houses in varied stages of decay, their maintenance having been neglected by their aging owners.
At first, there were too many homes for him to choose from, in too many areas, too many municipalities, their differences all too nuanced. The more he researched Japan, gaining knowledge mediated through Wikipedia articles and Google Maps and articles on travel websites, the more he became attached to the notion of moving.
Finally, in September, having no strong ties to his community, his home, his country, William decided to make the move.
He bought a country house through an online Japanese broker. He couldn’t really articulate why he chose that specific home rather than another; in the end, it was probably because the bushes in the yard reminded him of the bushes outside the elementary school he had attended as a child.
By the end of the month, William had arranged to continue his government job remotely, and packed up all his stuff, said goodbye to his family and acquaintances, and left the country.
On October 1, he arrived in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
By the morning of October 3, he was standing in the doorway of his new home, looking at the water-damaged carpet, the yellowed bamboo folding screens, the ceiling with faint mildew in its corners, the window looking out upon the distant rise of a noble mountain peak.
AMBIENT MUSIC
I’ve recently been releasing music aimed at different language markets. All of it quiet, calm, designed for low-level listening. Here’s a podcast gathering the last month or so’s work:
If you like this newsletter, please do tell a friend. And if you want more, may I humbly recommend to you my first novel, The Forest Museum.
very beautiful. ! is this based on what is actually happening?