My Life in a 140 Year old Japanese house

Welcome everyone. As most of you might know, I live in a traditional Japanese house, which is over 140 years old. It is an absolute blessing being able to call this place my home, but it also comes with some small difficulties. So after living here for a while, I would like to share my experiences and some impressions of my daily life with you. I hope you enjoy. Seven months ago, I got the chance to move into this old but wonderfully renovated machiya, which has been a long-term dream of mine. There are so many things that inspire me to be more mindful in this house. The delicate doors that make me handle them carefully. The natural materials like wood and tatami that seem to be breathing with me. And it's old age that teaches me Japanese culture like no one else could. I'm so thankful to be here and that I'm able to share its beauty with you, too. Hey everyone, as you can see, I have some packages here that I received recently. Actually, I don't have that much furniture in this house yet, partially because I'm a little bit broke from moving in here. I tried to make it a little bit more cozy now and thought I'm gonna tell you a little bit how it is to live in such an old house while opening the packages. So first thing about living in a machiya is that it's kind of hard to find furniture. Because everything is very unique and I'm very happy that this place was very nicely renovated. But for example, you guys can all see I have this huge pole of wood in my living room. So there's no carpet that fits in here. So that's why I bought a little bit cheaper one to check what the sizing looks like. I feel so so lucky to be able to live here. But one of the things is that it's moldy. It's moldy. Nomi actually is very good at trying to figure out if it's mold somewhere. And she came in the tea room and she was like, something's not right here. And I couldn't believe her first because I thought it's the smell of the tatami. Because that also has a very certain smell actually, which I love. But then we investigated a little bit and this room behind me here is a proper tea room. So there's a little square in the middle where you can put a pot of tea. I think the previous owner might have spilled some water or I don't know how it happened, but it's molding in there. So now we have to figure out how to even reach where it is because we cannot see anything. Well, I guess I'm pretty sure it's there. So we might have to hire a company which is also kind of expensive. So that's one of the thing living in a Japanese old house. I heard it comes also into apartments because it's very humid here, especially in summer. So it's almost like impossible to avoid the mold to come. For those of you living in Japan, maybe you have some tips for me how I can prevent the mold from coming. We will see. I will keep you guys updated on this. There are also of course so many positive things about living here. I choose to live in a machi in the first place because it really inspires me to be more mindful. It's really inspiring just to live here and it's also very magical because it's such an old house and you can I don't know feel the spirit somehow. It looks like a bathing mat. Like a picnic blanket. Yeah, I think maybe it's gonna be used as a picnic blanket. What is this? This is very strange. Um, but it's okay. We know now what size we don't want and we can see how we feel about having a wall here. In this place. Okay, I hope next one is better. Is there an anleitung? Instructions. In Japanese. It looks like a big pepermuller. The Germans know pepermuller. In Italian restaurants sometimes they have the very big one. Almost done. Now he's nice and big enough. He is nice. You have a name for him? Woody? Yes, perfect and actually there's another um mirror coming for here. This is very nice. I'm excited to introduce today's sponsor Bottle Bottle. They make these amazing bottles that I've been using for quite a while now. As I like to reduce my plastic waste as much as possible, I've been trying to take these everywhere I go. This one has a capacity of 600 milliliters while being very lightweight. As you saw earlier, I put a matcha latte in it today because it has dual purpose lids. So you can put a straw in it or drink straight out of the bottle. It also keeps the temperature of hot and cold drinks for 12 hours, which is amazing on hot summer days like this. I'm, very excited to take these along with me on my hikes and walk through the city. And I hope you guys check them out too with my exclusive promotion code that is linked down below. I never lived in a city that was so full of culture and nature. It was only possible to remain like this because people treat their surroundings and traditions with a lot of respect. I'm, very thankful to be able to live here. And I hope I can contribute something to this community in the future. A few days later, we received the news that a typhoon will hit Kyoto in a few days. So we had to make some preparations. It would be my first typhoon in this house. So I was a little nervous and I was very glad not to spend this time alone. Germany doesn't have any big natural disasters. So all of this was really overwhelming when I first came to Japan. Of course, I hope that nobody gets injured or loses their home. But I also think it's a reminder to see how small and powerless we are in comparison to nature. In our modern world, we live so separated from nature that we often forget the importance of remaining humble before mother earth. My first time using the curry peas. Which one is the right one? Even though I love this house very much, in the end home was never a place for me. It was a feeling that I got being surrounded by people with who I can be my true self with. Places I call home will most likely always change. But memories with loved ones I will treasure forever. Cheers! Luckily the typhoon took a turn and didn't pass us by. So we just spent a cozy rainy evening at home. Thank you for taking the time to have a glimpse into my life. This is only the beginning. I'm looking forward sharing more little adventures like planting a vegetable garden, learning more about Japanese culture and my existence on this earth with you. I hope to see you really soon. Goodbye!