RetireJapan

Is that an electric dryer? I heard those are huge energy consumers, so I am wondering if you are using it much. It's a gas dryer. We run it 3 or 4 times a week, and it barely seems to use up any gas. We have a gas cooktop, oven, dryer and a gas/electric hybrid water heater, and currently our monthl...

My understanding is that in this situation you can still submit the nenmatsu chosei documents to your employer as normal. However, in the first year you cannot get the deduction for the housing loan as part of the nenmatsu chosei because you do not yet have the necessary documents, so you have to o...

Would you be willing to share how much this build cost? I'm happy to be fairly open about it. It was about 40mil for the house (not including the land). How long did the construction part take? Construction started in October last year, and we moved in at the end of May this year. There were some s...

After taking out a home loan and building a new house, I've got to file my taxes myself this year to get the tax break for the loan, next year it should be back to filling out a form easy levels.

captainspoke wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 2:44 am (but the railings on the upper balcony do not look to be kid safe)

The architect wanted to prioritize the view. When/if we have kids, we'll install a netting or something!

Thanks. I wanted an open living/dining/kitchen, so that why I opted for it to be on the 2nd floor, and thought it would be nice to have it open onto a balcony. I actually wanted the balcony doors to fully open, but no where in Japan could make those kinds of doors to the spec we wanted (thermal rati...

I never did get around to writing a blog of our building process, sure I could probably do it now, and might have better insights looking back, but I just procrastinate too much! A design/building youtube channel came and did a room tour of our house with our architect, and thought you guys might en...

In practice this might work, but in the letter of the law is that you need a reason to leave Japan temporarily on a re-entry permit. Basically leaving Japan and coming back every five years to renew is not the intended use of the permit. For now it might be okay, but immigration could choose to cha...

My wife and I were rejected from Rakuten after passing the initial screening, but they refused to give me a reason when I pressed them. I have PR and am a tenured teacher, and my wife is Japanese with a large Japanese company. Our architect said it was the first time he had someone get rejected afte...

Especially as it’s a Danchi, so government run. Off topic: I guess the word danchi has different meanings in different areas of Japan. In Hiroshima at least, it refers to a residential area (mostly standalone houses) especially on a hillside or hilltop, nothing to do with the government. Danchi gen...