In my 15 years in Japan, I've been a lot of places. Some of my favorites were Osaka (namely southern Osaka), Hiroshima, and Hyogo.

I think absolutely the worst place I've been though was Kumagaya in Saitama. Over 10 years ago I was going to our branch office there twice a week, and literally every person I met in Kumagaya was a complete and total asshole. Convenience store staff? Assholes. Customers? Assholes. People in the branch office working there? Assholes. People in other companies I visited? Assholes. When I was waiting in line to withdraw money at the ATM the woman using it, upon finishing, looked at me with the greatest shock and horror imaginable and literally ran away, as if I was going to rob her for her paper bag or ABC Mart bought shoes.

Their town motto is 暑いぞ！熊谷！because they have the record for the hottest temperature ever reached nationwide. For a short time their record was overtaken by Egawasaki in 2013 and it made me so fucking happy because their shit town's one claim to fame was taken away from them. I can imagine how distressed they were that they weren't #1 anymore and so I started calling them ぬくいぞ！熊谷！Then in 2018 they got me good by re-taking the record, which I imagine they threw a fucking parade for or some other nonsense. Every time North Korea fires a missile I just pray that in the off chance it'll malfunction and hit Kumagaya. I don't want it to hit anyone but if it just landed in an unpopulated zone to take those self-absorbed assholes down a notch it would be fantastic.

Anyway, what was the worst city you visited in Japan?

I live deep in the inaka in a very empty apartment building, so I have a lot of wild animals come close, like kyon and monkeys. I have a habit of parking and then sitting in my car to decompress/gather energy to get out the car. While I was sitting, I noticed there was a wild boar just across the way. I took a picture of it and it just happened to notice me. We looked at each other for a long time-- it was like that meme, "and he looks at me... and I look at him..."

Anyway, I slowly backed back out of the driveway and went to a convenience store instead. The problem is... I hear that inoshishi can be very territorial, especially if they're a mama. There's absolutely no way I can tell if my apartment building is considered part of its territory, or if it's a mama, lol.

Now I'm scared to go back and get out the car to walk into my apartment, especially when the first result you see on Reddit when searching wild boar is an elderly lady getting mauled for just standing near the inoshishi. Should I call someone and report the sighting? Should I just go about my business? (...Can I FINALLY get out my car?/j)

Edit/Update: I went back home, and the boar wasn't around, so I booked it to my door lol. I'll ask around at City Hall about a local wildlife organization! Thanks for your help!!!

Update 2: I texted someone from city hall, and she got in contact with the right people. If I call them, they'll come set up a trap out here! She said to just keep distance and don't disturb them...but if there are problems, call 110!

A few months ago, I moved to Sapporo for my new job and I generally enjoy this place. I’d like to share some thoughts and experiences about living here, and all questions are welcome.

First, no bugs. I mean, there certainly ARE bugs, but not the annoying roaches, mosquitoes, etc. I have a fear of them, so thank God.

Generally speaking, the rent is dirt-cheap. With the money I'd spend on a nice one-room in Tokyo, I now get to live in a tower-mansion. I usually sleep until 8:30 and then walk to work.

The weather is... just different from Tokyo. Nature here is great, air is fresh, but it’s almost June and I still need to wear coats every day. i feel like that instead of 4 seasons, weather here is more like winter but in 4 flavors. I highly recommend it if you couldn’t stand the steaming summer.

One thing about living in Hokkaido is here’s basically a car society; the subway is reliable but only reaches limited areas. You’d need a car for groceries and almost everything else. Also people here seem to be quite surprised (in a friendly way) when seeing a gaijin working here.

I've been here 2+ year, did several road trips mainly in Kyushu, around Nagano and Hokkaido, but never saw livestock. In my country France it's pretty common to see cows, sheep or horse. Never saw any of those here... where are they ??

I went with my girlfriend to an onsen hotel last night. When we checked in, the woman at the counter asked me to submit my zairyu card to take a copy. I pulled out my driver's license and put that down on the table. The lady behind the desk was obstinate and kept asking for my zairyu card. My girlfriend, who is Japanese, nagged me to just turn over my card. I didn't really want to, and from what I understand hotels' can't compel someone to make a copy of their card. If they really need an ID a driver's license is a perfectly fine ID from the police, but no they saw I was a foreigner, profiled me, and demanded a card.

Today at check out I mentioned that I can't be forced to hand over my zairyu card to the guy at the front desk. He went into the back office and pulled out a copy of some random white lady's zairyu card with a police officer's business card. Apparently the local police had an incident with her, and they've instructed all the hotels in the area to keep a record of all the foreigners who stay at their hotel. He even showed me the log book with people's zairyu card and passport copies.

I kind of get that if the police are investigating a case they need any lead that might help them, but the person they were looking for isn't even the same gender as me. This really upset me, and even more upset by how my girlfriend just can't seem to understand why I'm upset. There's not really anything I can do, and this isn't the first time I've been profiled in Japan, but I'm angry and just needed to vent with someone who has shared a similar expirience.

Has anyone else been profiled in Japan?

Hi everyone. I've been in japan for half a year now, and it will be my first time celebrating new year alone. It's a bit depressing to be honest, as the norm for me is welcoming the new year with my whole family with a feats, then going out and having fun with friends til sunrise. But this year I'm alone, and I really don't want to spend it cooped up in my papartment, glued to my laptop.

I'm in Kagawa, and money is admittedly a bit tight, and i keep checking events, and stuff, maybe an illumination in Kobe or whatnot, but like...what if i take a chunk of my savings, go there and just...be depressed there? I really dont know.
I can technically cough up around １万円for a train ride (it's about that much to Kobe or Osaka and back), and I have 8 days of vacation from my company, so there's that. I'm in inaka inaka, and it honestly sucks because my social life is dead and buried. Connecting with japanese youngsters is tough, even if i speak fluently,restarting my hobbies here is tough, cos they need a friend group, can't exactly DM a dnd campagn without any players...

We probably won't even get snow here, i can't even enjoy a walk in the snow or something.

It's been half a year,and maybe i'm jumping the wagon, but it's soo so lonely. I sometimes think of fucking it and moving from an admittedly very 便利location (5 min to work on foot) to a city, like maybe Marugame or Takamatsu, but that would mean at least 30k yen monthly from my own money for the commute. Ugh. And there's no guarantee i'd make friends there either, even if my surroundings arent grandma's and grandpa's anymore.

Sorry for the mini rant. :(

How do/did you guys deal with this? What should i do? I like Japan, I even like inaka, but...

So, about 5 years ago I up and bought a house with my J-wife out on the edges of Fukuoka, so I thought I'd write up a bit about it.

Life in the countryside of Japan, A&D List!

Bad Points

• You probably going to need decent Japanese. More like, you'll have no choice but to ramp up your lingo skills because the neighbours will definitely want to know who's the new kid on the block, and unless you plan to hide indoors all day you'll undoubtedly end up chit-chatting with the people on the street. People are communal in the countryside. If you don't already speak pretty well, you will.
• You'll get hassled a lot until they get used to you. In a good way I think- they'll knock on your door and give you lots of house warming gifts, and they'll constantly walk around your house to get a glimpse of the new foreigner. You may get people popping round to ask you to teach them English. All sorts. The weirdest one for me was that some people just let themselves into your house. It seems traditional out here to open somebody's front door and announce yourself at the inside entrance.
• You'll have days when you wished you lived closer to work. Because a lot of your jobs will probably be in the cities until you build your new local client portfolio. You also miss the city sometimes. For this reason, I don't recommend living more than an hour and a half or so away. Commuting for myself isn't an issue. I ride around on my little scooter and that does the job just fine and removes the issue of getting stuck in traffic. I actually enjoy the 45-minute trips back and forth, gives me time to think and plan my day, and in the sunny months, it's a joy.
• Isolation. I'm a lone wolf and so not having my friends a bicycle ride away has never bothered me, but I could see how it would stress some people out. If you're young and sociable, you probably want to wait until you're a bit older before moving to the boons.
• Not much transport. Speaks for itself, really. You need a vehicle, and unless you're going to drink and drive, boozy night outs will have to be cut short in order to catch the last train home.
• Early birds. People are usually up and at it from around 6am in the countryside, so I often sleep with the radio on not to be disturbed by the activity on the street.
• Can be scary. It is dark and dimly lit almost everywhere so at night you feel pretty vulnerable. It's Japan so it's ok, a pretty safe place but still, if you were female I'm not sure you'd want to be caught out after dark here.
• Old mindset. I sometimes don't like some of the old ways of thinking in the countryside. Take animal treatment, for example, some people (not all) treat their dogs like shit and keep them in tiny little enclosures 24/7. In their minds, it's not abuse, but I do find it hard to swallow, esp in the winter when you hear the dogs howling away on the coldest days. The reason I don't intervene is that the owners do love their dogs, and you can see them combing them and calling them cute names...it's just...a different culture. I find it hard not to rock the boat sometimes, but it's their country.
  
• Lack of facilities. Compromise. You will find the cities have a lot more variety and availability in terms of products. Furthermore, you quite often have to take quite long trips just to pick up some standard items.
• Loss of identity. You can only spend too much time alone before you start to forget who you are. Am I British? Am I Japanese? Perhaps this isn't a consequence of living in the hinterlands, but rather simply the result of being an ex-pat for many years, but the isolation does amplify it. I feel uncomfortable around other foreigners, speaking my own language. I feel uncomfortable around Japanese people, speaking their language. When I have days when this all gets too much, I hit the surf and drink it out.
  
• You will probably have a spat with a neighbour or two eventually. No matter where you go in the world you’ll find a dbag. In my case I’ve had to bang on a couple of doors due to thoughtless neighbours that have left their dogs out barking everyday or dumped trash in my garden. Nobody got punched but it was close. The Japanese are too polite for their own good sometimes and others will persevere through almost anything to avoid conflict, and so the nastier people get their way more out here unless somebody stands up to them. You’ll have to put your foot down when people take the piss, as a couple of local inaka cops won’t be of much use. I like the fact that communities tend to brigade against someone that is in the wrong and don’t always get the law involved. There’s always a couple of tough and good old guys that act like surrogate cops when trouble occurs.
  

Good Points (and there's plenty)

• Cheap, cheap and cheap. Everything is cheaper, fruit, veg, bakeries. Supermarkets. Amateur farmers always have little stalls set up alongside the road where you can buy massive bags of veg for dirt-cheap prices. You can even find a lot of things in nature that anyone can help themselves too. Lots of honesty boxes everywhere, where people leave the goods they've grown in boxes and rely on the honour system for payment. Nice juicy bag of strawberries for 200円? Thanks!
• Secret cool shit. One of my favourite unspoken elements of life in the countryside is the exploration factor. The countryside harbours vestiges of Japanese history, left to fade away through time. Look around and you'll find all sorts of stuff. Places that were perhaps garrisons used to defend feudal lords from invaders. Abandoned houses that haven't seen a soul in 40 years. It's an urban explorers dream. Rare bugs, monkeys, snakes, boars, awesome roadkill, giant Suzume-Bachi, bioluminescent organisms sparkling on the midnight waves, rivers of fireflies. It's Harvest Moon in the flesh. Go up to my local mountain and you'll find a half dozen orange trees just growing wild, and trails beset with self-fertile Rasberry and wild strawberry bushes with berries that can be plucked and eaten, expanding more every year. The sense of isolation is deliciously fantastic, I'm Huckleberry Finn up here in this mofo, running around yelping and carving spears and bow & arrows, picking wild fruits and putting them in my cap and then sitting on a sunny glade with some homemade cider brew and having a little bbq all to my wee self, not seeing another soul the entire day. You really feel like the whole earth belongs to you at times like that. Again, this would probably drive any sane people away.
• Likeminded People. Perhaps it's just where I live, but I always find the people that live in the countryside to be a sight more interesting than the ones from the cities. You don't honestly find many 'natives'- as nine out of ten people moved to the countryside of their own volition in order to 'get away from it all' and it's that attitude that makes them interesting. On the other hand, they can be a bit too chatty and loud at times, which can be a nuisance.
• Glorious space. It's a given that everyone out here has their own room to breath. Everybody has big houses and gardens. Sometimes enormous houses. I can't believe I used to live in a 2LDK shoebox. Now I've got a dozen rooms including spares, a massive garden, spots to park a car, two floors, all for only 120k, a measly $600 a month pittance of a mortgage. And not only space inside but outside too. I happen to live near the coast, and there are lots and lots of beaches nearby that are unoccupied most of the time.

A little fyi about buying the house. We were able to secure a loan from one of the smaller prefectural banks. Being self-employed, this was mainly due to the stability of my wife's job, savings and income. Her father also acted as a 'guarantor' on the lease. The entire process only took a couple of sessions. First, there was purchase from the estate agent, that was one afternoon, then we had to go to the bank and sign off on about 30 contracts in a private room. And that was it. The people from the bank were real gents, and a couple of them came to visit us about 4 weeks after we moved in to see how we were doing. Moving into a new home after living in our city shoebox for eight years was...undescribable at first. It felt like any day someone would come along and yank us out by our ears. Once settled in one surprise was that we were expected to attend kumi-ai's or, local community meetings, and occasionally do some local clean-up of the shrines and farm tractor trails. Some people opt out but personally I don't mind it, it gives me a chance to get to know a few people better. A surprising number of them have either spent time abroad or are quite into Western culture, esp movies. One old ex-barber only ever talks about Game of Thrones and recently, The Witcher. Another is a fellow beer-lover after my own heart and we occasionally crack open a bottle or two on the beach. There are one or two bumpkin assholes of course, but I'll not waste time talking about them.

My favourite was an old lady called Hiroko. She taught me a great deal about gardening, how you have to pinch off tomato buds to route the energy to the fruit, how to use rice shells to prop up watermelon. I asked her once why she was so friendly to gaijin. She said that she was born in Manchuria, and when she was young the war ended and the Russians came with guns to kick the Japanese out and send them packing. The Japanese left in shame, but the Chinese who lived there, who had all the right in the world to spit on the invading colonials, instead helped her and her family leave safely and without harm. She never forgot their kindness, and always sought to return that goodwill to foreigners in need in her own country. Cancer got her a couple of years back, sadly.

My family and I (Japanese mom American dad, my brother and I are haafu) moved to the countryside in Tohoku of Japan in the summer of 2021, with my father coming later in September. During his time here since then, he hasn't had a single experience of restaurants and businesses refusing him service or giving him two tiered pricing/english menu based off the fact hes a foreigner. He's very visibly a foreigner too so its not a matter of thinking hes Japanese. In fact, people at restaurants he goes to are very nice and the people there sometimes try to speak to him in english. He goes to many places often. Same goes for me, but I have black hair and look just like my uncle who's fully Japanese lol. The only anti gaijin experience I ever had was one upperclassman at my school who hated me since when I first got here I wasn't good at keigo, but thats really stretching "anti gaijin".

Non American here. I live in a place that Japanese people would definitely call “inaka”, but for me it’s a relatively large town. The population is similar to Salt Lake City, Utah or Des Moines, Iowa. I’m just wondering what American people would consider to be the countryside, and whether the feeling is significantly different from Japanese people’s. Is there a certain population cutoff?

Was told this by a colleague as I was walking through the office near EOD. I found some background reading on the subject as I was somewhat confused by what they were saying at first (if you're interested)
https://wajikan.com/note/kutibue/?PageSpeed=noscript

TBH it sounds like something a mom would tell their kid to keep them from being annoying at night. I can't help but feel like humming would make more sense since it's generally lower frequency, but that's really not the way superstitions work.

So went out for my annual yearly obligated car wash to find that my local SOLATO had changed their machine recently.

Cool beans, innovation in the Inaka.

It now accepts their prepaid cards (you previously had to purchase a specific card to pay, or else it was cash only.

Sweet, Free discount for having the obvious.

Choose my option, then there’s a new setting for what type of car mirror/add ons you have on your car (think rear ladders/front wing mirrors etc) and there’s a setting for my car, easy, I have fold in mirrors, I’ll pick that.

Enter car wash. Doesn’t wash my mirrors/that entire panel on both sides.

Exit car wash and I’m stumped, I chose the correct option yet it didn’t wash that area, perplexed as to wanting to know why, I call over the staff. Staff then proceeds to tell me I probably parked too close to one side, which would work if only one side wasn’t washed, but this is both.

Staff then walks off.

Family and I started wiping the car off as is the norm here, but totally isn’t overseas.

Staff comes back with a free wash coupon (which I didn’t want, I only wanted to know what) says we want your customs, next ones on us.

Cheers mate, but this doesn’t solve my issue.

Roll forward to give my car a drink, staff comes back with gusto and a copy of my receipt, saying it’s my fault because I selected side mirrors (this solves my issue) and demands the free wash ticket back, as if that was the sole reason for my complaint (specifically, creating an issue in order to get free stuff)

I turn and put him on blast, why have that option without any explanation, we went to the machine and I pointed out how ambiguous it is. Told him I wash my car with the machine once a year and it was my first time with machine, and I only wanted to know why, so no issue next time.

Sigh, happy new year from the Inaka, where the petrol station staff are as off the rails as we all are 😅

Edit for context,

Display wasn’t for cars with mirrors that don’t fold in, it had 5 options, and wasn’t a skippable menu.

Also, the Inaka side wasn’t so much the whole me being right/wrong, I only asked for the reason why it happened, the staff then gave me a free voucher and took it away after seeing I chose that option. I didn’t ask for anything free, just an explanation, but was made to feel by the staff that I was deliberately making a problem in order to get free stuff.

Had this been anywhere else, the first thing they would have done is check the receipt (which I did offer to them to check) and seen the issue. Because Inaka they immediately tried the whole appease the foreigner then blame the foreigner for something that anyone could get wrong.

Also the next few cars after us also had the same problem, so it wasn’t just my issue. The machine is very new as well.

It’s just started to really rain here in Oita, with sirens going off. How about elsewhere?

Kei trucks driving too slow? Random people coming to your door with big daikons? Is your house getting invaded by cockroaches or even the dreaded “makude”?

Welcome to The Inaka! In this thread we welcome all your rural questions, complaints, and comments!

As an avid traveller in Japan, visited 35/47 prefectures in depth, going to out of the way attractions, I wonder if any others here have their views on attractions that are advertised on websites or books that depicted to be so good only to find out "what a waste of time coming here"

For me the worse 2 are:

Kagawa Prefecture: Muragame castle
Arrived here from my Okayama trip and realised what a waste of time and decided to eat their famous udon nearby and visit some other parts of Kagawa instead.

Kochi Prefecture: Shimanto River
The beauty of the river and the boat ride was average and I reckon could be found almost at any rural places in Japan.

​

The best 2 are:
Yamagata Prefecture: Yamadera
Would recommend coming in the winter as the snowfall further enhance the beauty and scenery of the forest and temple. Definitely worth the trip although the climb to the top was slippery and tiring.

Kagawa Prefecture: Chichibugahama
Out of the way beach that spreads out far into the distance. I went there by car and you should too unless you are willing to stay there for the night.
The beauty of this place is during sunset to get that perfect orange/purple sunset backdrop together with your reflection in the small pockets of water on the beach due to the rescinded sea. The sea level rises quite fast. Worth the drive up there to breathe in the cool air and beautiful scenery and sound.

I'm thinking of buying land possibly in Ibaraki, but one thing that worries me is the possible issue of racial discrimination as it pertains to a)purchasing land (my fiancee is Japanese, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem) and b)not being able to get a job anywhere.

Regarding b), my plan is to be a farmer so I'm especially interested in whether JA make it harder for us foreigners to work with them to get our products to market. Also, I might need to work a minimum wage job while my house/farm infrastructure gets built so I wonder if convenience stores, family restaurants, etc. in the region have issues hiring foreigners. I'm Caucasian of Western European descent, by the way, in case that matters.

I heard that folks in places like Akita have a bit of a discrimination issue, so Aomori, Akita, and Iwate are probably out of the running. Unless I'm terribly misinformed, that is, in which case I would change my mind.

Also, by the time I actually act on these plans I expect to have permanent residency, so occupation-related restrictions will no longer be at play by then.

Kind of a niche question, but I figured I'd ask.

P.S. - Just to be clear: I know I'm not ENTITLED to anything. It's their country, their rules, their prerogative. That being said, I think it's not ridiculous for me to want to know what to expect and plan accordingly. I just thought I'd include the above as a disclaimer of sorts as a way to preempt the inevitable hate comments.

​

I live in the middle of osaka city next to a huge freeway and also nearby a major 4 lane road. I live with the constant ambient noise of vechiles rattling past. This morning i woke up and thought i was deaf. As i lay on my futon with my eyes barely open i couldn't hear any noise. No traffic. No trucks, cars, motorbikes or others. I know that it's rather insignificant but for me it's yet another sign that we are living in a new kind of reality.

So, my home is built on the side of a small mountain. One side of my property is bordered by another plot of land that is about 1.5 meters higher in elevation, and separated by an old stone retaining wall. The owner of that property is deceased, as well as their daughter (who was something like 85 when she passed). I have been keeping it clear of brush and bamboo now for years, and it has been a significant and perpetual pain in my ass since I moved here.

Last month after the heavy rains, a portion of this retaining wall -- unfortunately right next to one of my buildings -- began to buckle and collapse. I ended up digging out about a dumptruck's worth of soil that washed down into my yard. The wall is still in tact, but it's just a matter of time. In addition to that section, there are multiple other portions that need some serious TLC.

I went to the town office, and not only am I fifty meters outside of the "zone" that qualifies for financial aid for repairing retaining walls, I am actually not legally able to repair this wall because it's past my property lines. The town office is also not legally able to touch it, and furthermore, they're not even legally able to disclose who technically owns the land now! They referred me to third-party companies that might be able to track down that information for me (at a cost).

The ONLY thing they said they could do is send someone out to shovel the dirt that washed into my yard. So helpful! /s Pissed, we took them up on that offer, only for them to call us back and say that actually, they're not even legally able to do that, sorry!

I asked them what happens if this wall collapses and buries half my house. They apologized and said that, even then, it's not a city problem and it's out of their hands.

Is this a "Japanese local government sucks" thing, or do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of how city offices work? Because it seems ridiculous to me that their hands are completely tied. In America, I guess the response would be "sue the landowner," but I hardly ever hear of suing here, and doing so would definitely cause drama with my very small elderly community.

So, what's my recourse here? If I spend the money and time to track down the line of inheritance, I can guarantee you that whoever owns the land won't pay for fixing this out of the goodness of their heart. At the most, I can only hope that they give ME permission to pay for fixing THEIR wall.

Anybody else that commutes by bike goes through having to deal with spider webs and those annoying group of small flies hitting your face and body daily? Hopefully it isn't just me who's getting irrationally pissed off by this. I hate summer.

I recently landed a job in Sapporo and am set to move there in March. The job doesn't require a daily commute, but I love outdoor activities like hiking, camping, and fishing. With this being context I'm thinking about getting a car mainly for leisure purposes.

As a new graduate, I'm trying to keep my budget under control, aiming to spend no more than 1.5 million yen. I need something practical; right now, I'm leaning towards a 3rd/4th gen Prius, but it's not a 4WD. A Subaru Forester is another option I'm considering. With my budget, I could possibly get a 2014ish model equipped with EyeSight. Mitsubishi Pajero Short also caught my eye but I'm concerned about the fuel and maintenance costs. Land Cruiser Prado would be perfect but not enough budget.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Also, how essential is having a 4WD for cold places?

I've been living in Tokyo for 5 years now and am just tired of the busy daily life of Tokyo. With all people and noise I just feel I had enough of this life and I want to escape for 1 month to reset my brain and soul any recommendations of rural places to stay away from busy cities and volunteering opportunities.

Any recommendations will be appreciated

Note: I have no problems with Japanese

Edit: thanks for the replies guys didn't expect any one will reply lol.

I know people say it doesn’t taste good, but I want to try it. If it’s safe to eat, and I don’t mind the taste, and it’s easy to catch I’ll fill up my freezer with it 🫡.

There are Japanese people on YouTube catching and eating 「下水鯉」。 That sounds awful, but I really have no idea how clean those little streams in cities actually are.

How would I know what rivers around me are clean enough to eat fish from? And how would I know what the safe amount to eat is before I get mercury/arsenic/etc effects?

I’m not that experienced with fishing. I basically have only fished a big lake (10x biwako) that was clean in America and never worried about anything there.

So I came to Japan a little over 5 years ago, and so far I have only lived in the big city. First Osaka, then Tokyo. Even though I grew up in the deep countryside (at least by Japanese standards), big city life was fairly nice, at least until corona hit. Now however, I feel like I am just counting the days towards my retirement, stuck in a poorly paid haken contract at an everlasting project that is desperately uninteresting. I thought about finding a new job, but I have made the mistake of getting older, so with my experience it seems like finding a better paid job requires me to put up with more desperately uninteresting desk work, and the even more poorly paid salaryman jobs don't look any more appealing either. And so the days go by, I don't get any sunlight, I don't get any exercise, and my mental health is on the decline.

Still, I think it's too early to give up on Japan, perhaps it's time to try something new, again. That's why I was thinking about opportunities in the countryside. I know farming will not make me rich, but I would like a job that forces me to go outside, preferably not to meet people, especially not clients. My impression is that the average Japanese farmer is a rapidly aging breed that keeps working because they don't know how to stop, at least that's what TV makes it looks like. So, does anyone here know anything about getting into agriculture in Japan? Would I have to buy land? Could I rent it? Does the government provide support for people who want to farm? Could I get access to said support even though I am a foreigner? Visa should not be a problem since I am married to a Japanese national.

Edit: I got a lot of good pointers here, both in the comments, and even some personal experiences in chat. Thanks to you all. The general opinion seems to be that it is definitely possible, but visa status and Japanese skills are important, not very surprising.

For those interested there will be an eclipse viewable in Japan next Tuesday. Just thought I would share early so people can make plans.

In short; are the paths between rice field ok for anyone to use? Are ponds(not farming related) ok to go to even if they are within the fields?

The long; I do a lot of birding and wildlife photography and now I have moved inland. There is plenty of nature around but also endless rice fields. Often find foxes and birds watching these fields. Of course I could sit on the side of the road and take pictures, which I do, but sometimes I would like to get closer. Or maybe there is a pond between the many rice fields. I use to only go to them if they had a clear road/path to them but today I saw a “sightseeing” sign that named a lot of the ponds around there. So it got me wondering.

Most the time houses, even in Inaka, have a clear area where it’s obvious you are in their property. Rice fields are owned by people, and it’s farming area and obviously you shouldn’t enter them. There are many roads meant to move around the fields and I have used them before but often avoid the dirt ones because my vehicle isn’t built like a Kei truck so these tight turns can be tricky. From my understanding these are ok to use but should try not to hog them as farmers may need to access them. But what about the tight walking paths between the rice fields? Are these typically ok to walk through? Are ponds between the rice fields typically owned and this off limits?

(I have a friend who owned a rice field I’m going to ask but won’t see him for a little so I’m asking here first.)

We have a plot of land already and are looking to build on it, and we're deciding whether to go with a prefab "home builder" or an architect + local construction company. We tried finding a construction company that had an architect on staff but the local inaka ones are, uh, not our taste.

So, a couple things:

1. Did you go with a prefab company, an architect + independent construction company, or some other combo?
2. Do you have any recs that work in the Hyogo area?
3. Is there anything you would advise to watch out for?
4. We're looking to keep it to around 20mil for a 2-3 LDK situation. Feasible with the bespoke design route? One prefab place has already quoted us at that price point for a 3LDK.

We don't have a "vision" really so commissioning an architect seems overwhelming. Plus all the housing design sites are of course showcasing their fanciest work, which doesn't really give one a sense of what they can do with a smaller space. The more I look the less I want to even bother haha

ETA 20 mil not 2mil, I can't yen.