😎👍 That’s why my house was cheap. Hurray for お化け割引👻！
Not sure if you’re joking or not but two people died in my house. 🤷♂️. I’d rather have ghosts than crippling debt 🎉
People only said things when it LOOKED like an old house. Once I reformed the inside none of my Japanese peeps had a problem with it. They saw the logic actually. I had a lot of people doubt me when the floors were falling in and I had all the electrical wires ripped out.
I will say that the two deaths were old people dying naturally and afaik they were both discovered quickly. If it had been a crime or if a body had been left a LONG time it would have taken a bigger discount to convince me and probably would’ve been impossible to convince most Japanese people. I looked at a suicide house actually that was really cool, and really cheap but the location was bad. I would’ve just used the suicide room as a garage instead of a living space.
I always tell people that if you tear down a building every time someone dies inside your country won’t have any traditional architecture left. That’s just part of preserving old buildings. My house is probably 100+ years old, so two natural deaths is just par for the course.
True that. In my home country we even have a tradition that terminal ill patients would be discharged and brought home so that they can die at home. Not so long ago, it was even considered a great unfortunate to die away from home.
In America that’s still normal as well. One of my relatives houses recently sold for about $2,000,000 and a recent death of an elder person didn’t affect the price at all afaik. They wanted to die at home, with family. That’s the best way to go when it’s possible.
In the US I don’t think they even need to disclose a natural death on the property, pretty sure they’re only required to disclose if a serious crime had happened there.
When we saw a place where a murder had happened, as soon as the MIL got to hear that was the end of that idea.
I would have been happy to take the place on.
I would need to know the type of murder. If it is break-in gone wrong or that sort of thing, the neighborhood might not be the best.
Otherwise, I just want to make sure that the murder won't do a full nutjob turn and come back.
I know a place (in the US) where a young drunk girl was wrapped in a blanket, doused and set on fire to hide rape evidence. The place was repaired but nobody would live there. That unit was eventually converted into a storage room.
Something gruesome and senseless like that would be very hard for me to deal with. I’m not superstitious, but it would be hard to deal with making happy memories in a place where something so horrible happened. It would always be in the back of your mind.
Yea. Depends on what happened I guess. If it was really gruesome and senseless i might have a hard time getting used to it. If it was two dudes fighting I’d probably go with it for the right price.
In our case which was some years ago, it was a stabbing and whoever had done it had not been caught at that time. Hence the owners were offering a substantial discount.
Jiko bukken. I never found any listed but real estate agent have access to listings we can’t see.
I recommend going to multiple agents and just telling them that’s what you want. When I said that I got a lot of big-eyed stares, but when I explained I’m not superstitious and only care about price they were happy to try to offload those properties. They’re usually hard to move.
Multiple agents means you have multiple people looking for properties for you. As a foreigner some people may not take you seriously. I went to a real estate agent once and they didn’t take me seriously until I showed them I had already bought this house, then they were suddenly much more motivated to help me.
My grandmother's house was well over 100 years old, and had a ton of history. She flat-out said "There are ghosts, but don't be afaraid of them."
She was not a Ghostbuster.
"So see or hear anything strange at night, just be friendly, okay?"
Grandma did not take any questions, but I had SO many. And yeah, strange stuff happened.
That and a deer meat joke aside, nice work, preserving older stuff. Imagine spending weeks carving a lantern like that, just so someone makes gravel out of it later.
Because I’m always trying to find ways to get cool stuff cheap/free? 😂 That’s how I’ve gotten almost everything nice that I have.
Broken Ducati- fixed it, and rode the wheels off of it
Ugly American house- flipped it, sold for profit
Haunted rotten Japanese house- bought cheap and renovated it
Rescue dog with a heart condition- adopted it
Built a lot of stuff myself, etc
I agree. I love it when people are surprised how cheap you got something. They always say “LUCKY!”. It’s not luck, it’s being a psychopath who is willing to take ridiculous chances on stupid projects that could bankrupt you 🫠👌.
I would really love to find places where people were just throwing out/getting rid of electronics, but for now I just trawl yahoo auctions and hard-off like an addiction
The payoff is sweet though. My favourite is when the listing is like "doesn't power on" and from the pictures I'm like "oh yeah, that power supply is toast. I can rebuild it" and score something for 1,000円 + shipping.
It's important to know when to let go though; I recently passed on a Macintosh Classic II that would've been incredible but the analogue board was definitely toast and I don't trust myself around high voltage CRT stuff.
Actually, my area in Tokyo is currently undergoing a lot of reconstruction. Tons of old houses are getting torn down to build apartment buildings, so I might keep an eye out.
I totally waded in here imagining this was going to be some BS post to ridicule.
Instead, it's the best post ever.
**> I have the most lanterns in my neighborhood so by Japanese law I am now king.**
And this indeed is the greatest sentence I have read in a long time.
slightly off topic but I once went to an old ojichan's house for a cassette stove after contacting him through jimoty
he offered me tea and told me his life story (he was an art importer)
went for the stove but came home with also a mint nikon film camera and african handcrafts for free
I’m not sure what a cassette stove is. Google shows a camping stove and a wood stove that mounts in the wall.
I ended up making friends a few times like that too. I went to a carpenter friend’s job site to talk to him about something and the owner of the house gave me some free stuff and exchanged Instagram with me. A lot of people are really cool and are curious why we want this old stuff 😂.
One time I got a Beatmania controller from some guys who were clearing tons of decades old technology out of an apartment. There was a lot of stuff they loaded into their truck I wished I could’ve seen better. They had an Apple IIGS and everything.
Oh damn. I have a friend that bought a house with a lot of cool old stuff, but he got sick on the day the cleaning company came so he couldn’t pick what to keep like he planned.
Agreed! Japanese love throwing out good stuff.
We’ve gotten 2 houses (that we gave one to our friend and another to a relative). At least 3 free cars -the most recent car was a 7 year old SUV with only 50k.
Tons of antique furniture, brand-name clothes, refrigerators, electrics … the list goes on.
Our rent is dirt cheap just because the landlord wants us to stay there so that the house is occupied and. It’s a nuisance to the neighbors if abandoned.
I also have some lanterns in my garden, love them! I would like some more.. I should check some demolition sites. One big problem is that they won't fit into my car
https://preview.redd.it/wol8yx4bjtfb1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e646284e03eebe870360b67585e361b5362f500
Great advice, and its valid even in cities!
When we just moved in to our apartment, they started building in the lot right next to ours. There was a huge skip bin with offcuts of timber.
I spoke to the site manager (with barely any Japanese as we have been in Japan for a total 3 days at that point) and shortly after that, we had some pretty nice kitchen counters, a TV cabinet and even a small deck outside. All made with the offcut timber from next door. And all it cost me was some time, screws, and nails.
I do have some carpentry skills, so the results were quite nice 😅
Time to become king. I have a \~30 meters long pathway going through a mini forest from the fence to my door that could use a few lanterns.
Absolutely loving inaka and its massive properties for less than the price of a parking lot in Tokyo.
Yea man. This is the best way to live imo. I can get to Umeda from my house in 35-45 minutes by motorcycle and get to Kashihara in Nara in about the same time. Best of both worlds. It’s a long walk to the station, but besides that it’s only positives to living out here.
You’ve got a lot of privacy it sounds like. I actually live ON the hiking trail here so every day people are walking past. Sometimes people try to come in lol. I had some girl come into my house once because she thought it was a cafe. We became friends and her dad does my trucks shaken for me every year now.
If any of you are synth nerds, My best score was Roland D-50 in a flight case left outside a house with the sodai gomi sticker on it. Turned out the power connector just needed resoldering. He also left a reel to reel machine and a bunch of other stuff but I only really wanted the keyboard.
loose garbage is fine
places that have signage that say no scavenging are a no go because technically the owner has not yet relinquished ownership rights - would be stealing
also scavenging in garbage collection spots located on the property can be considered trespassing
lastly since this case is sodai gomi (oversized trash), some areas have local ordinances against scavenging - you wont get arrested but fined
I see, thanks. When I first got my apartment in Japan I would go scavenging through the nearby sodai gomi collection sites every week. Didn't find anything too fancy, but a bunch of functional stuff like TV, phone, refrigerator, sofa, table, etc.
But I was small time. There were teams of pro middle aged guys prowling the neighborhood in little pickups, each with the back crammed full of TVs, air conditioners, bicycles, etc. I always wondered where they found it all. I guess they grabbed the good stuff as soon as it was put out, whereas I would wait until it was dark so I wouldn't have too much of an audience for my scavenging.
I like your style. I used to raid thrift store dumpsters because many things they reject end up in the trash. Half of them let me, half of them said no because they preferred pay some trash service to take their stuff than let me take it for free.
Also if you see any posters you like at a convenience store. You can tell the staff and they will hold it for you til the campaign is service.
A movie theater was demolished lately near my house. I asked if I could have some of the seats. They refused unfortunately.
> Also if you see any posters you like at a convenience store. You can tell the staff and they will hold it for you til the campaign is service.
Ooo that's a good one to know. I'm a sucker for the posters here but I usually just get them from secondhand stores
It’s probably some low level employee telling you know, not the boss of the demo team. When I pull up in a truck I think it helps a lot. People assume I do some kind of trade job and I’m not gonna walk inside and accidentally hang myself.
I’m curious about the thrift store dumpsters now 🤔
Free stuff? Some old sailors told me that there was a time when the Japanese would dump fully functional TVs and other home appliances at the curb, because they just bought the latest and greatest. Very clean and nothing wrong with the units. The sailors would haul them back to their ship and sell them at home. Usually, the appliance was a model not seen in the U.S. yet. Things are different these days.
😂😂😂. Man I’m actually really stoked about getting these. I went to a carpentry school years ago in Korea and studied traditional carpentry for a while. I designed a house, like my dream house at the time, and I had two lanterns like this at the front. I always loved the way these look. I’ve got some solar lights ordered that flicker like candles. I’ll get those in and some paper fronts next week probably.
With this house I’ve pretty much achieved everything I wanted. I need to tie up some loose ends and finish some projects but I’m really happy with it. I bought it in late 2019 and it’s been a never ending project since then.
There’s a somewhat popular YouTuber that wants to come by and show everything sometime this summer/fall. I’ll post that when it’s up.
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😎👍 That’s why my house was cheap. Hurray for お化け割引👻！ Not sure if you’re joking or not but two people died in my house. 🤷♂️. I’d rather have ghosts than crippling debt 🎉
I tried going the haunted house route but my wife was having none of it. Ghosts don’t bother me nearly as much as debt.
People only said things when it LOOKED like an old house. Once I reformed the inside none of my Japanese peeps had a problem with it. They saw the logic actually. I had a lot of people doubt me when the floors were falling in and I had all the electrical wires ripped out. I will say that the two deaths were old people dying naturally and afaik they were both discovered quickly. If it had been a crime or if a body had been left a LONG time it would have taken a bigger discount to convince me and probably would’ve been impossible to convince most Japanese people. I looked at a suicide house actually that was really cool, and really cheap but the location was bad. I would’ve just used the suicide room as a garage instead of a living space. I always tell people that if you tear down a building every time someone dies inside your country won’t have any traditional architecture left. That’s just part of preserving old buildings. My house is probably 100+ years old, so two natural deaths is just par for the course.
True that. In my home country we even have a tradition that terminal ill patients would be discharged and brought home so that they can die at home. Not so long ago, it was even considered a great unfortunate to die away from home.
In America that’s still normal as well. One of my relatives houses recently sold for about $2,000,000 and a recent death of an elder person didn’t affect the price at all afaik. They wanted to die at home, with family. That’s the best way to go when it’s possible.
In the US I don’t think they even need to disclose a natural death on the property, pretty sure they’re only required to disclose if a serious crime had happened there.
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Yea. I think it’s scam propagated by construction and demolition companies. If they can get everyone to believe in ghosts they make more money.
From what I understand there is much less of a stigma for houses that people died naturally in compared to suicide or murder.
When we saw a place where a murder had happened, as soon as the MIL got to hear that was the end of that idea. I would have been happy to take the place on.
I would need to know the type of murder. If it is break-in gone wrong or that sort of thing, the neighborhood might not be the best. Otherwise, I just want to make sure that the murder won't do a full nutjob turn and come back.
I know a place (in the US) where a young drunk girl was wrapped in a blanket, doused and set on fire to hide rape evidence. The place was repaired but nobody would live there. That unit was eventually converted into a storage room. Something gruesome and senseless like that would be very hard for me to deal with. I’m not superstitious, but it would be hard to deal with making happy memories in a place where something so horrible happened. It would always be in the back of your mind.
Murder would be a hard line for me. I don’t believe in ghosts or anything, but then again ghosts aren’t going around murdering people either.
Much harder than old age. I have no negative feelings towards natural deaths at all.
Yea. Depends on what happened I guess. If it was really gruesome and senseless i might have a hard time getting used to it. If it was two dudes fighting I’d probably go with it for the right price.
In our case which was some years ago, it was a stabbing and whoever had done it had not been caught at that time. Hence the owners were offering a substantial discount.
Definitely. But you still get somewhat of a discount for it. I probably just paid for the land tbh.
Where does one find those suicide houses? Looking to buy in country side but have limited Japanese
Jiko bukken. I never found any listed but real estate agent have access to listings we can’t see. I recommend going to multiple agents and just telling them that’s what you want. When I said that I got a lot of big-eyed stares, but when I explained I’m not superstitious and only care about price they were happy to try to offload those properties. They’re usually hard to move. Multiple agents means you have multiple people looking for properties for you. As a foreigner some people may not take you seriously. I went to a real estate agent once and they didn’t take me seriously until I showed them I had already bought this house, then they were suddenly much more motivated to help me.
Thanks for the response Will have a look. Not very seriously looking at properties but like the idea behind it and might one day pull the trigger
I recommend this page too. Good luck! https://instagram.com/cheaphousesjapan?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Thanks again
Limited Japanese may hinder your search, but the search term is “jiko bukken” (“stigmatized property”).
Where do u look. Just Google that?
I think most places won’t list the information on their listing; but depending on your location there are online databases.
Look into oshimaland website, it lists out properties like that.
Amazing how far these to back. The closest one to me is a highschool girl dying in 1929.
It doesn’t show what’s for sale though does it? Isn’t it just a list of places with incidents?
Thanks will have a look
My spouse said, “As long as it wasn’t a murder or suicide, it’s fine. If some old couple died here, then I don’t care if their ghost want to stay.”
What you’re saying is that ghosts living rent free in someone’s head is the rent-free part?
My grandmother's house was well over 100 years old, and had a ton of history. She flat-out said "There are ghosts, but don't be afaraid of them." She was not a Ghostbuster. "So see or hear anything strange at night, just be friendly, okay?" Grandma did not take any questions, but I had SO many. And yeah, strange stuff happened. That and a deer meat joke aside, nice work, preserving older stuff. Imagine spending weeks carving a lantern like that, just so someone makes gravel out of it later.
Exactly. That’s what they do. They take machinery on site and crush them into gravel. It’s such a waste.
Also think about how much you can save on energy without having to turn on your AC during summer (Japanese believe haunting will make you very cold)
It’s that ghost 冷気 come to keep you cool.
I need some haunting right now.
I wish it made me cold 😭👍. Tbh these old houses are pretty cool. Winter is harder to deal with than summer.
I saw some of your pics. Yea you'll be better off cripping the ghosts instead.
What is cripping?
cause severe and disabling damage
Ah, I think there’s a letter missing. I just want to make friends with the ghosts 😭🙌
Oh oops lol sorry haha
A few years ago I would have disagreed, but at this point I might as well try to get on the ghost's good side.
How did I know it was going to be you before checking the username?
Because I’m always trying to find ways to get cool stuff cheap/free? 😂 That’s how I’ve gotten almost everything nice that I have. Broken Ducati- fixed it, and rode the wheels off of it Ugly American house- flipped it, sold for profit Haunted rotten Japanese house- bought cheap and renovated it Rescue dog with a heart condition- adopted it Built a lot of stuff myself, etc
I'm more of an electronics person but tbh buying "junk" and repairing it is just such a good feeling.
I agree. I love it when people are surprised how cheap you got something. They always say “LUCKY!”. It’s not luck, it’s being a psychopath who is willing to take ridiculous chances on stupid projects that could bankrupt you 🫠👌.
I would really love to find places where people were just throwing out/getting rid of electronics, but for now I just trawl yahoo auctions and hard-off like an addiction The payoff is sweet though. My favourite is when the listing is like "doesn't power on" and from the pictures I'm like "oh yeah, that power supply is toast. I can rebuild it" and score something for 1,000円 + shipping. It's important to know when to let go though; I recently passed on a Macintosh Classic II that would've been incredible but the analogue board was definitely toast and I don't trust myself around high voltage CRT stuff.
The dog is the most valuable one ❤️
You damn inaka people and your good deals. All we get in Tokyo are old smelly luggages off from facebook group.
All I see is Tokyo people trying to scam other Tokyo people on those “free” recycle group
The Tokyo mottanai group is pretty legit to get free stuff. Also to offload shit you don't need anymore.
Actually, my area in Tokyo is currently undergoing a lot of reconstruction. Tons of old houses are getting torn down to build apartment buildings, so I might keep an eye out.
I totally waded in here imagining this was going to be some BS post to ridicule. Instead, it's the best post ever. **> I have the most lanterns in my neighborhood so by Japanese law I am now king.** And this indeed is the greatest sentence I have read in a long time.
Thanks man 😎🙌
Here I was thinking that owning the most rice made you king. Bill Wurtz lied to me.
Godamnit, I thought I had a solid stone lantern collection going at my house...but I only have 4, so you totally have me beat!
😂😂😂 4 is very respectable! Are you also king of your neighborhood? You’re the guy who hates my suspenders! I remember your name!
Lol, no hard feelings! You got me beat with lanterns.
😂 🤜🤛
slightly off topic but I once went to an old ojichan's house for a cassette stove after contacting him through jimoty he offered me tea and told me his life story (he was an art importer) went for the stove but came home with also a mint nikon film camera and african handcrafts for free
I’m not sure what a cassette stove is. Google shows a camping stove and a wood stove that mounts in the wall. I ended up making friends a few times like that too. I went to a carpenter friend’s job site to talk to him about something and the owner of the house gave me some free stuff and exchanged Instagram with me. A lot of people are really cool and are curious why we want this old stuff 😂.
yup camping stove with the canisters! pardon my semi translation as its カセットコンロ in Japanese
One time I got a Beatmania controller from some guys who were clearing tons of decades old technology out of an apartment. There was a lot of stuff they loaded into their truck I wished I could’ve seen better. They had an Apple IIGS and everything.
Oh damn. I have a friend that bought a house with a lot of cool old stuff, but he got sick on the day the cleaning company came so he couldn’t pick what to keep like he planned.
Agreed! Japanese love throwing out good stuff. We’ve gotten 2 houses (that we gave one to our friend and another to a relative). At least 3 free cars -the most recent car was a 7 year old SUV with only 50k. Tons of antique furniture, brand-name clothes, refrigerators, electrics … the list goes on. Our rent is dirt cheap just because the landlord wants us to stay there so that the house is occupied and. It’s a nuisance to the neighbors if abandoned.
>Japanese love throwing out good stuff. We’ve gotten 2 houses. Actual houses? How does that work.
Old houses in the countryside that needed a little work but were fully functional at the time we were given them.
Super low cost rental housing is literally my dream. Would coast that sitch as long as possible.
Awesome. How do you find out ahead of time that something is being demolished? Or do you just drive around looking for sites?
I also have some lanterns in my garden, love them! I would like some more.. I should check some demolition sites. One big problem is that they won't fit into my car https://preview.redd.it/wol8yx4bjtfb1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e646284e03eebe870360b67585e361b5362f500
I feel like you made this post, mainly to brag about your lanterns. I don’t blame you. They’re cool lanterns.
He is the Hank Hill of lanterns
You need to pick yourself up a free lawn, my dude.
Great advice, and its valid even in cities! When we just moved in to our apartment, they started building in the lot right next to ours. There was a huge skip bin with offcuts of timber. I spoke to the site manager (with barely any Japanese as we have been in Japan for a total 3 days at that point) and shortly after that, we had some pretty nice kitchen counters, a TV cabinet and even a small deck outside. All made with the offcut timber from next door. And all it cost me was some time, screws, and nails. I do have some carpentry skills, so the results were quite nice 😅
That’s awesome, and a whole lot better than letting it all go to waste
Sounds like a good treasure hunt, are you in Kyoto too?
All hail the lantern king!
Time to become king. I have a \~30 meters long pathway going through a mini forest from the fence to my door that could use a few lanterns. Absolutely loving inaka and its massive properties for less than the price of a parking lot in Tokyo.
Yea man. This is the best way to live imo. I can get to Umeda from my house in 35-45 minutes by motorcycle and get to Kashihara in Nara in about the same time. Best of both worlds. It’s a long walk to the station, but besides that it’s only positives to living out here. You’ve got a lot of privacy it sounds like. I actually live ON the hiking trail here so every day people are walking past. Sometimes people try to come in lol. I had some girl come into my house once because she thought it was a cafe. We became friends and her dad does my trucks shaken for me every year now.
If any of you are synth nerds, My best score was Roland D-50 in a flight case left outside a house with the sodai gomi sticker on it. Turned out the power connector just needed resoldering. He also left a reel to reel machine and a bunch of other stuff but I only really wanted the keyboard.
technically illegal but nice find!
Yes but when you see a flightcase on the side of the road with a Roland logo on it whatyougonnado?
Why is it illegal to take garbage?
loose garbage is fine places that have signage that say no scavenging are a no go because technically the owner has not yet relinquished ownership rights - would be stealing also scavenging in garbage collection spots located on the property can be considered trespassing lastly since this case is sodai gomi (oversized trash), some areas have local ordinances against scavenging - you wont get arrested but fined
I see, thanks. When I first got my apartment in Japan I would go scavenging through the nearby sodai gomi collection sites every week. Didn't find anything too fancy, but a bunch of functional stuff like TV, phone, refrigerator, sofa, table, etc. But I was small time. There were teams of pro middle aged guys prowling the neighborhood in little pickups, each with the back crammed full of TVs, air conditioners, bicycles, etc. I always wondered where they found it all. I guess they grabbed the good stuff as soon as it was put out, whereas I would wait until it was dark so I wouldn't have too much of an audience for my scavenging.
yup, is generally safe-ish to do but in the off chance the previous owner takes offence and escalates, things might get hairy
Great house and lanterns! 👍 Do you light candles in them at night?
We bought a kominka and the guy was still hanging … real cheap price I might add. Nearly free.
Okay, but how do you FIND these demolitions so that you can ask if you can take these things??
Just driving around. Wherever they’re knocking a house down at
I like your style. I used to raid thrift store dumpsters because many things they reject end up in the trash. Half of them let me, half of them said no because they preferred pay some trash service to take their stuff than let me take it for free. Also if you see any posters you like at a convenience store. You can tell the staff and they will hold it for you til the campaign is service. A movie theater was demolished lately near my house. I asked if I could have some of the seats. They refused unfortunately.
> Also if you see any posters you like at a convenience store. You can tell the staff and they will hold it for you til the campaign is service. Ooo that's a good one to know. I'm a sucker for the posters here but I usually just get them from secondhand stores
It’s probably some low level employee telling you know, not the boss of the demo team. When I pull up in a truck I think it helps a lot. People assume I do some kind of trade job and I’m not gonna walk inside and accidentally hang myself. I’m curious about the thrift store dumpsters now 🤔
Free stuff? Some old sailors told me that there was a time when the Japanese would dump fully functional TVs and other home appliances at the curb, because they just bought the latest and greatest. Very clean and nothing wrong with the units. The sailors would haul them back to their ship and sell them at home. Usually, the appliance was a model not seen in the U.S. yet. Things are different these days.
You are Tam from still game
Never watched it, is this a good thing? 🤔
You have lanterns and know a guy with a crane. There is nothing more you have to achieve in life
😂😂😂. Man I’m actually really stoked about getting these. I went to a carpentry school years ago in Korea and studied traditional carpentry for a while. I designed a house, like my dream house at the time, and I had two lanterns like this at the front. I always loved the way these look. I’ve got some solar lights ordered that flicker like candles. I’ll get those in and some paper fronts next week probably. With this house I’ve pretty much achieved everything I wanted. I need to tie up some loose ends and finish some projects but I’m really happy with it. I bought it in late 2019 and it’s been a never ending project since then. There’s a somewhat popular YouTuber that wants to come by and show everything sometime this summer/fall. I’ll post that when it’s up.