What It's Like as a Foreign Family in Japan

Have you ever wanted to just leave it all behind and move to the other side of the world? That's what we did. Now we've landed in Japan and we're trying to make sense of our 400 square foot apartment. What have we got ourselves into and why would we do this? We've made it to the big city Osaka, Japan. We've got 400 square feet of apartment to call our own. It's a big shift from our single detached home, but slowly we're turning this space into our minimalist home. There's a lot to love about a small space. We don't need very much furniture for one thing. It's easy to keep tidy. There's almost no maintenance to speak of and it's just cozy. But of all the places, why leave what we've worked so hard to establish and why Japan? For one thing, the cost of living. Financial minimalism is a topic that has really intrigued me over the past few years. The hustle culture celebrating status and wealth has never sat well with me. If anything, I'd rather work less and make less too. Time for me, it's the ultimate luxury, especially when I get to spend it with this crew. We come from an extremely high cost of living area back home, with most properties starting near the $1 million mark. This isn't a humble brag, rather it's an admission of defeat. The burden of a large mortgage and a lifetime of payments towards it, that was a reality for us. But moving here has significantly reduced our monthly expenses. And with the prospect of buying an akiya or an abandoned home in the countryside here for less than 30 grand, well that would mean a serious reduction in our cost of living. And that's something that's worth exploring. Good morning! It's time to transform our apartment into daytime mode. This channel is called Slow Steading after all, so more slow mornings with a cup of coffee and hikes with the family and less time doing work, well that's my kind of style. And then there's the culture. Japan's rich culture of traditional methods, it's so appealing to me for reasons I just can't put my finger on. I love learning, and in the same way that keeping livestock and building animal structures is such a transformative learning experience, I'm looking forward to doing the same with traditional Japanese methods and techniques. There's a whole new world of learning just waiting to happen here, and I'm ready to dive in. What we're really seeking are new experiences. I give props to those people who feel the urge to settle down and put down roots and build the rest of their lives in one place. But good or bad, that's not us. Maybe when we're older the wanderlust will fade away, but for now the expanse and the possibility of the world, well, it's calling our name. Since landing in Japan, we found that novelty. The abundance of delicious food, stunning visuals, and just sensory stimuli, it's been a real treat. And something as simple as the ability to ride our bicycles literally anywhere, it's felt incredibly freeing. And for our children, I believe that nothing is a better teacher than hands-on experience. It's one thing to learn from a book in a classroom surrounded by four walls, but it's really another thing completely to experience it firsthand. To be honest, it's been a big adjustment moving to the city. I forget how busy it is and how noisy it is. It really takes a lot out of you. But coming back to nature and getting back into the forest, this feels right. We're going to start making some moves, looking for a place outside of the city. This is more what we're after. From our home base in the city, we plan to set off to smaller towns in the countryside to see if they hold the possibility of a future life for us. We're picturing lush green valleys and clear running streams, ancient temples, and zen-like atmospheres. Will the reality meet the expectation? We'll see.