Joe McConnell
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After spending years backpacking around the world, Japanese traveler Daisuke Kajiyama was finally ready to return home to pursue his longtime dream. I dream of opening a guesthouse.
In 2011, Kajiyama returned to Japan with his Israeli partner Hila, whom he met in Nepal, and the pair began searching for the perfect location for their future venture.
However, there were a couple of major obstacles in their way. For starters, Kajiyama had very little money to speak of after years of traveling the world to destinations like Korea, Taiwan, India, Nepal, Guatemala, Cuba, and Canada.
He had also decided to buy a traditional Japanese house, usually called a kominka., which are usually passed down from generation to generation.
“I wanted to have a traditional house in the countryside,” Kajiyama tells CNN Travel, explaining that he was determined to find two houses close together, so he and Hila could live in one, while the other would be a guesthouse they would run together. “I had a vision.”
Unable to find anything that met his needs, Kajiyama decided to shift his search to the growing number of abandoned homes across the country.
As young people abandon rural areas to seek work in the cities, Japan’s countryside is filling up with “ghost” houses, or “akiya.”
According to the Japan Policy Forum, there were 61 million homes and 52 million households in Japan in 2013, and as the country’s population is expected to grow from 127 million to around 88 million by 2065, this number is likely to increase.
Kajiyama was driving near Tamatori, a small village located in Shizuoka Prefecture, between Kyoto and Tokyo, surrounded by green tea plantations and rice fields, when he met an elderly peasant woman and decided to approach her.
“I asked, ‘Do you know if there are any empty houses around here?’ And she just pointed,” he recalls.
He looked at the area she was pointing to and noticed two abandoned houses next to each other: a former green tea factory and an old farmer’s house, located near a river.
Both properties had been vacant for at least seven years and needed a tremendous amount of work. Kajiyama asked the woman to contact the owner to find out if he was interested in selling.
“The owner said no one could live there because it was abandoned,” she says. “But he didn’t say ‘no.’ Everyone always said ‘no.’ But he didn’t say that. So I thought there was a small chance.”
Kajiyama returned to visit the houses about five times before going to the owner himself to negotiate a deal that would include using the old green tree factory as his home and transforming the farmer’s house into the guesthouse he had always envisioned.
Although he was eager to purchase both homes, he explains that Japanese traditions surrounding real estate prevent him from doing so until the property has been passed down to the current owner’s son.
“They said, ‘If you take full responsibility, you can do it.’ So we made an agreement on paper,” he says.
Both he and Hila knew they had a lot of work to do, but the couple, who married in 2013, were thrilled to be one step closer to having their own guesthouse in an ideal location.
“It’s a very nice location,” Kajiyama says. “It’s close to the city, but it’s really countryside. Plus, people still live here and go to work. [in the city].
“The house is also facing the river, so when you go to sleep you can hear the sound of the water.”
According to Kajiyama, the process of clearing out the house, which is about 90 years old, before starting the renovation was one of the most difficult parts of the process, simply because there was so much stuff to sort through. However, he managed to reuse some of the items.
During the first year, he spent a lot of time interacting with the locals, gaining information about the house and helping local farmers with their farming activities for about the first year.
Although he didn’t have much experience with renovation work, he had spent some time farming and completing construction work during his backpacking trips, and had also done odd jobs repairing people’s homes.
He completed much of the work on the guesthouse himself, replacing floors and adding a bathroom, which he says was a wedding gift from his parents, at a cost of about $10,000.
“I’m not really a professional,” he says. “I like to do woodwork and I like to make things, but I have no experience in my field.
“In my many years of backpacking, I’ve seen so many interesting buildings, so many interestingly shaped houses, and I’ve started to collect them in my mind.”
Kajiyama was determined to keep the house as authentic as possible, using traditional materials.
He saved money by collecting traditional timber from construction companies engaged in the demolition of traditional houses.
“They have to spend money to throw it away,” he explains. “But for me, some things are like treasure. So I would go and get the material I wanted.
“The house is very, very old,” she says. “So it wouldn’t be nice if I brought in more modern materials. It’s totally authentic.”
He explains that very little work had previously been done on the house, which is quite unusual for a house built so many years ago.
“It’s totally authentic,” he says. “Usually, in traditional houses, they do some renovations to the walls because the insulation isn’t that strong. So you lose the style.”
He says he has received some financial support from the government, which has allowed him to hire a carpenter and also benefit from Japan’s Working Holiday program, which allows travellers to work in exchange for room and board when they need extra help.
After doing some research on Japanese guesthouse permits, he discovered that one of the easiest ways to obtain one would be to register the property as an agricultural guesthouse.
Since the area is rich in bamboo forests, the decision seemed obvious and Kajiyama decided to learn everything he could about bamboo farming, so he could combine the two activities.
“That’s how I got into farming,” he says.
In 2014, two years after the renovation of the house began, the couple was finally able to welcome their first guests.
“It was a great feeling,” Kajiyama says. “Of course, this was my dream. But people really appreciate that it was abandoned and I brought it back to life.”
He says hosting people from all over the world has helped him stay in touch with his former backpacking life.
“I stay in one place, but people come to me and I feel like I’m traveling,” she says. “Today it’s Australia, tomorrow it’s the UK, and next week it’s South Africa and India.
“People come from different places and invite me to dinner with them, so sometimes I join in on someone’s family life.”
Sadly, Hila passed away from cancer in 2022. Kajiyama emphasizes that his beloved wife played a pivotal role in helping him realize his dream of owning a guesthouse and says he couldn’t have done it without her.
“We were really together,” he adds. “She created this place with me. Without her, it wouldn’t be like this.”
Although the three-bedroom guesthouse, which measures about 80 square meters, has been open for about eight years, Kajiyama is still working on it and says he has no idea when it will be finished.
“It’s never finished,” he admits. “I feel like I’m halfway there. It’s already beautiful. But it started out in a haphazard way, so it needs more detail. And I’m getting better at creating, so I need time to do it.”
He explains that he is unable to complete work on the house while there are guests. And while the property is closed during the winter, he spends two months as a bamboo farmer and usually spends a month traveling, which doesn’t leave him much time for renovations.
“Sometimes I do nothing,” he admits.
The Yui Valley, which offers activities such as bamboo weaving workshops, has helped attract many travelers to Tamatori village over the years.
“Most of the guests come from Tokyo, and it’s such a contrast,” she says. “They are really happy to share nature and tradition in our home.
“Most people have been dreaming of coming to Japan for a long time and have very little time to stay.
“They have such a beautiful energy. I am happy to host in this way and join in their holiday season. It is very special. [for me].”
Kajiyama estimates he’s spent about $40,000 on the renovations so far, and judging by feedback from guests and locals, it appears to have been money well spent.
“People appreciate what I’ve done,” he adds. “So that makes me feel special.”
As for Hiroko, the woman who directed him to the house more than a decade ago, Kajiyama says she is amazed by the transformation and amazed by the number of international travelers who come to Tamatori to stay in Yui Valley.
“He can’t believe how much more beautiful it is 1722935738,” he says. “He didn’t think it would be like this. So he really appreciates it. He says ‘thank you’ a lot.”
Yui Valley1170 Okabecho Tamatori, Fujieda, Shizuoka 421-1101, Japan
