A Canadian's Real Take on Rural Hokkaido, ft. AMD Consultant Lukas

Lucas, I know you are saving money, uh, maybe for Nokia sometime in the near future.

Like, let's just say you have that money right now.

Where would you come from?

Check under your seat, Lucas.

Oh my god, no way.

Okay.

You know, I'm a big proponent of Hokkaido.

Very beautiful part of the country.

I love it up there.

But at the same time, I really fell in love with Kanagawa Prefecture.

It's like, very close to Tokyo.

But at the same time, you get that very traditional Japanese feel there.

It was like I was in the streets of Kyoto again.

Welcome back to the buying a house in Japan podcast.

How are you doing, Joey?

Doing good day three of our trip here.

It's been an eventful day and we've been hanging out with our good buddy Lucas

who we have on the show today.

Lucas, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

It's been, you know, I've watched a lot of podcast episodes.

So it's cool to be honest.

Appreciate that.

We challenge you.

We're like, Lucas, watch every single one of these episodes.

I'm close to catching up.

Oh, cool.

Okay.

So before we get started, let's go and crack the beers.

Honorary live podcast.

There you go.

Yes, some are.

Yeah, we go.

Come by, come by, come by.

All right.

Me and Joey rocking the non-ales because we're healthy boys now.

That's a shot.

That's a low key shot.

No, you keep doing what you want to do.

Thank you.

Lucas is one of our Akiah Mart consultants.

So high likelihood or 30% likelihood when you book on our site

and book a consultation, it will go to Lucas.

So we're excited to have you on the show today, Lucas.

We want to dive into your background.

Talk about your experience here in Japan.

You've done probably like 100 consultations with people who want to buy homes in Japan.

So we'd love to pick your brain a little bit on that.

Yeah.

But to get us started off, just give us a quick intro of yourself.

Yeah, I mean, 24.

I'm originally from Alberta, Canada.

So shout out to the Western part of Canada.

I've been living in Japan now with my girlfriend for almost nine months.

We moved here to July 1st.

We live in Hokkaido.

So the Canada of Japan, I couldn't escape the cold this time.

But yeah, I don't know.

I got started with you guys doing content.

Then kind of moved into the more like consultation role.

But Japan's pretty sick.

If you haven't been to Japan, it's about time you come for sure.

Why Hokkaido?

And you're not just in like, you're not in Sapporo, right?

You're in a smaller town in Hokkaido.

How'd you guys end up there?

We visited Japan in like 2023.

We fell in love with the country.

So the biggest thing was we tried to find a more semi-permanent way to get out here.

So we were looking online at jobs and trying to figure out what to go for.

And then it just so happened that my girlfriend's like hometown,

they have like a sister city in Hokkaido.

So then she ended up, we both applied for the position.

She ended up getting it.

And then I ended up just getting a work holiday visa.

That's kind of why we are, where we are.

What's her hometown, it's not Edmonton?

No, it's a little bit outside of Edmonton.

It's called with Taskwind.

So yeah.

Shout out with Taskwind.

Yeah, if anybody knows where that is, you know?

We're talking about in the car.

Like so, I don't know Canada very well,

but you live up there where it's freezing, freezing, right?

I mean, Edmonton's not super far north.

I was born in Fort McMurray, which is like, you know,

it's not in the territories, but it's pretty cold up there.

We're talking about polar bears and grizzly bears and stuff.

Like Lucas said Hokkaido was a warm winter for him.

Yeah.

Hokkaido, a warm winter, everybody.

So Tokyo is chill for you.

Oh, this is super easy.

Yeah, I think the coldest it got for us in Hokkaido this year was maybe minus 20,

something Celsius.

So I was like looking on my weather app

and just laughing at the people in minus 40.

So let's hear about the town mascot.

Where are you living?

Yeah.

So our town mascot is a foot.

His name is Yumi Chen.

Yumi Chen the foot.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you'll see him everywhere.

Sometimes he's frowning in the pictures.

That's like my biggest gripe.

Like, why is he frowning?

He should be smiling.

It's pretty nice little town.

I didn't get to see it in the car.

Could you describe the character for me?

Like, how does a foot become like a character?

Well, he's got legs.

He has legs and arms.

And usually he's like walking around

carrying this like big leaf.

I looked at it on the car ride over here.

I just like, what?

That can't be for real.

Yeah.

Oh, better believe it.

Yeah.

Okay, so you're from,

are you currently living in Obihiro?

Or like?

No, it's a smaller town called Akashoro.

Akashoro, this way.

Yeah, the closest like notable city is Obihiro

or even Otifuke.

When you found out the news you were running

in Japan, were you stoked or like?

Oh, yeah, like we were super stoked.

I mean, we applied for the job in like September,

I want to say, maybe August.

And then we didn't hear about whether or not we were actually like,

either of us kind of got the job into like December.

So then yeah, we got the news in December.

And then we were like, all right, like let's do this.

And then we kind of got our stuff in order.

So what kind of visa you are?

And if I'm not mistaken,

the working holiday visa is that correct?

Yeah, working holiday visa.

So what came first, the job or the visa or how does that work?

She's on a work visa.

So when she got the job, then this was our plan was like,

whoever ended up getting the position would take obviously the work visa.

And then the other person would just go for the working holiday visa.

Which really lucked out for us because right when we've got the news,

they actually changed the laws on how that visa works.

So it went from being one year only to now you can do either two one year stays

or one two year stay.

Oh, they changed it for the better.

Yeah, yeah, they added an extra year onto it.

Which like that was literally perfect timing.

It couldn't have been a better sign, I think.

So you've been here for a little under a year at this point, right?

Yeah.

Has Japan kind of matched what you thought it was going to be like?

Or was it way different?

I guess Hokkaido is like just a different piece in itself too.

You know, I did the regular trip,

like the Tokyo Kyoto Sakunata.

So I knew moving to a rural town was going to be like very different.

But I kind of was excited for that experience as well because like Tokyo is cool.

I love Tokyo, but it's a lot.

Like anybody who's been there can probably agree.

It's it's a lot.

So I would say Japan has like met if not like exceeded my expectations.

I had high expectations coming here for sure.

I mean, the people are great.

The food's maybe even better, I don't know.

But yeah, Japan's great overall.

As a kid, did you grow up with Japanese culture?

Like what started it for you?

I mean, yeah, I think a lot of people's first introduction is obviously like anime.

And like growing up, I watched Goku fighting Frieza.

And yeah, it was always like, oh man, Japan's so cool.

Like, you know, the eating world.

Vegeta, right?

Vegeta?

No, no.

You're rage-baiting, bro.

Joey, okay, yeah.

For context, Joey does not watch anime manga.

And it doesn't play video games in the world.

Constantly like try to like throw things out and be like, come on.

To get a reaction, come on.

But yeah, so like growing up, you know, you watch anime and then in school,

you know, we learn pretty in depth about, I forget what grade it was,

but we went over like Japanese culture,

my in culture, et cetera, et cetera.

So I did a few big projects on Japan.

I did a few years in college, so I did like a couple film classes.

Any chance that I had, I would try to like tie that back to,

you know, I did a project on animation.

And of course, a big part of that was like anime coming over to the west and stuff like that.

So I've always been interested in Japan for sure.

Right on. Okay.

Top three favorite anime of all time.

One piece.

Let's go. Number one.

Easy.

Easy. Number one.

Easy. Genius.

Odeosensis is a genius, right?

I'd go one piece, one piece, one piece.

Oh, my man, my man.

Okay.

I'd say attack on Titans pretty close.

Okay. All right.

That's pretty good.

So one piece, attack on Titan.

What's the third, third pick?

Third.

What's the plot of attack on Titan?

You have to watch it.

Yeah.

You kind of have to have to have aliens or something.

No, but like,

it's a I couldn't explain it in a 10-hour podcast.

I don't know what's number three.

It's called Parasite.

Parasite the Max.

Parasite. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I watched Parasite.

Parasite the maximum.

Maxim.

I think.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's been a while.

There's a couple of twists in Parasite.

I was just like,

Oh, okay.

Holy shit.

It was really good.

Yeah.

Watch that when I was younger.

Probably like, scarred me.

I don't know.

It seems like anime and manga is like a honestly a pretty big gateway to Japan.

Like, obviously once you get here that first time you're like

in your head on your flight over,

you already kind of know like, okay,

there's going to be anime references.

But when you got here, how?

You get off the plane and

and I read an airport and there's like Pokemon murals all over.

You know what I mean?

So it very much is like,

they love anime here.

It's a huge part of the culture.

So it's very inviting to people that come here

with that like,

I guess like want to see more of it.

What do you mean you're on the plane and you're like,

all right, Takay, like prepare yourself.

Like, there's going to be a pretty bad event.

It's like, it is.

What do you mean?

So for me, when I was a kid,

like every time I came back,

there was a lot of Pokemon references.

But like going into the combinis and seeing the shown

and jump of like the manga,

you're like,

you're like waiting and frothing every day

to get the translation online.

But then you're there and you see the real like,

manga paper out everywhere and everyone's reading.

I'm like, holy shit, I'm not a weirdo anymore.

When we first came here,

I spent some time in Tokyo

by myself.

Well, my girlfriend was getting situated with her job.

Now just go to book off and just like check out

all of the manga everywhere.

They have like all the manga books for sale.

And like the group set for really cheap.

I'm like, oh shit, do I try to buy this and learn?

They like put the tape on so you can't touch you.

Yeah, exactly.

If you're always kind of like sneaking

or trying to look into it.

Cool, man.

Kind of just given a little context of how we met you,

I think we had originally seen your stuff on Instagram.

You had been posting and like,

I think we had really liked,

I think you were pretty early on then.

And we just seen a lot of stuff you're posting.

We're like, okay, we need this guy to do some,

work some content.

So for the audience, Lucas is the reason

a lot of our Instagram has been popping off lately

with a lot of reals.

So thank you, Lucas.

But how did you kind of get into that?

You just decided one day, hey, I'm in Hokkaido.

Let's.

I mean, I'm 24.

I think anybody that's like around my age grew up with YouTube.

And that's like huge inspiration.

Like just growing up, watching people my age,

make videos, make a living out of making content.

Like doing what they love to do was always just like,

super cool to see.

And I mean, like back home, you know,

I did like construction, I did sales,

like I did a lot of jobs and always,

my main thing was like, I always wanted to pursue content

but I always had that like excuse of like,

I'm too busy with work to like fully pursue it.

So when we like made the jump,

like my girlfriend is awesome, she's great.

She like fully supported me because like,

she knew I had the skills that I could kind of figure,

figure my way out doing it.

So that was kind of the goal for me,

like as I didn't have like,

work lined up or anything right.

So I was like, I might as well put my time into something I want to do.

And you know, hopefully it can evolve into something

that I can eventually make a career out of.

And now I've kind of, you know,

I'm not, you know, making a ton of money.

But like, I can, you know,

I can kind of hold my own in the content world now.

So it's a rabbit hole, right?

Like you can just keep going down and further.

And it's like, it get the numbers,

the gamification, the, you know, like,

what have you like broad strokes?

What have you kind of taken away?

Or what have you learned about the content game

since kind of doing working with us?

I think the main thing is there's always room to improve, obviously.

But the main takeaway is consistency is key.

So I mean, like if you can't post consistently,

you're probably not going to be able to do it.

And like the more you post, the more you're going to learn.

And then eventually, once you get your,

your stuff figured out,

then you can kind of dial it back and just up,

up your quality.

But yeah, I think content is very much a quantity game,

especially to start out.

It's interesting, the Japanese Instagram algorithm,

like once you watch one,

Akiya real or like Japanese lifestyle real,

like they really, like,

I don't know if the sector has just blown up.

Or maybe our algorithm is more like,

hey, these guys like Japanese.

I feel like it's the algorithm.

There's like a few other things like from,

yeah, I guess on my algorithm,

yeah, it's like Japanese real estate content.

And then there's like maybe some other things like gym stuff.

And it's like here certain things that you watch,

like the algorithm just takes it and runs with it.

I feel like, yeah, it was really weird

because when we visited in 2023 for like the first time,

it seemed like literally right

when we were visiting like a month after,

all of my friends were going to Japan.

Everybody I knew was going to Japan,

and it just like blew up in the media

and became probably like,

I don't know if I'm wrong about this,

but I feel like Japan in the last like three years

has been like a number one, number two,

tourist destination in the world.

Since COVID for sure,

I feel like it was probably gaining popularity

than COVID and they closed the border.

And then like as soon as it opened up again,

combined with the weekend.

There's, I feel like people are coming to Japan

to make content.

Like content creators are just like,

I'm going to go take a trip to Japan

and make these cinematic reels.

And like, I feel like it's just crazy now.

We've seen it with content creators

that we've been talking to too.

Like a lot of people,

they want to tour the Akias.

Seems to be like the big kind of things.

Like people want to come here

and they want to tour the Akias.

And that there's some difficulties

in actually scheduling that.

But yeah, people want to come here and make content.

I was with one of my friends.

This is his first time here.

And every back alley,

he wanted to stop and take a photo shoot.

And I like, I was like, man,

let's keep going.

We're going to go to like the main spot and take photos.

But then I realized like,

I did the same thing on my first trip

because everything is so aesthetically pleasing.

That like,

do it for the grand.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do it for the grand.

Do you take more photos?

Does your girlfriend take more photos?

I take videos all the time.

Like I'm always like fixing my camera roll

because it's just so full of like b-roll.

So I don't really take photos.

I take like b-roll videos and like that.

So you're here for at least another year

or what's kind of the plan for you

in next foreseeable future?

Yeah, so I have to renew my visa probably next month.

And then my girlfriend's on contract for another year at least.

And then you ever just kind of plan it by what happens.

You know, like if we can land longer visas,

whatever, I think like one of the goals is eventually

like if I can pursue like a work visa or something

then she'll just go on her work holiday visa.

Do her two years or whatever.

Do you want to go back to Canada

or do you think Japan's kind of the move at this point?

I love Japan.

I definitely want to spend a good portion of my life

and lay down some roots here.

But you know, I'm very young

so I still want to see the rest of the world

so I want to explore.

That said, like, you know, I'll miss my family a lot.

Like I definitely want to go back to Canada

but I don't mind Japan being like base one or base two for me.

And always having that option to come here

and just spend a good amount of time in the country.

Okay, time to buy an Akiya bro.

Yeah, that's how you do it.

That's how you come back every year.

Yeah, then you're like, you're almost contracted

by the country to come back.

Yeah.

So again, Lucas is one of our consultants for Akiya Mart.

We have a program called Akiya Mart Direct

in which we help people purchase stuff.

You're interested in buying an Akiya

or any house in Japan.

Let us know.

You will talk directly, hopefully, to Lucas

or one of our other consultants.

But Lucas has been doing consults for us for the past three months

or some days.

Yeah, some like that.

Felt longer.

But what's your been your experience

so far talking to hundreds of people?

That's been a very nice change

as a lot of people that are interested in homes in Japan

are obviously very excited about the prospect

of coming here and owning property here.

So a lot of the people you talk to are very good people.

But at the same time,

I feel like some people are a little bit like not jaded

but they don't fully understand

what they'd be getting into, like buying a home here.

And that's definitely part of what I do

when I do consultants or consultations

is just grounding people a little bit.

And that home looks like it's $2,000, but there's taxes.

It's like anything.

You buy a car.

It's not just a $20,000 car.

You're going to pay a little bit after that.

You buy a home in Canada.

It's not just a $150,000 home, not that those exist.

But yeah.

What's the number one question

that people seem to ask you over and over again?

One of the bigger questions is definitely

how do I get a visa here?

And like with Accumar,

like we talk to people from all over the world

so like I can never really fully give somebody

any kind of advice on that.

You know, it depends on the country.

There's circumstance.

Yeah, exactly.

Even with my content,

like for example, I had a dude from Nigeria asking me

how we could move here.

I'm like, I have no clue in the world

how you could do that man.

Like I hate to be the guy to tell you I have no clue,

but I don't know.

Speak to an immigration attorney.

That's like the best advice we can give you

because everybody's situation is going to be different.

Yeah.

I think another thing too is like

how fast, how fast can I buy this?

How is how long will it take?

How long will that home be on the market?

That's a big thing too.

And you know, that's very much like,

I don't really have an answer for you, you know what I mean?

Like closing in Japan takes a while,

homes like could be up there for 800 days

and then boom, it's gone.

Like I can't really tell you why that happened.

It just does.

Think of like the best consultations you've done

and like what traits do the best people come

into the consultations have do you think?

One of them is definitely going to be like

a respect and actually tie to the country.

You talk to a lot of people who maybe have only visited

like Tokyo or maybe haven't even been here before

where they see like these really cheap homes

and they want to buy them because they don't have

property back home or something like that.

And it's like, all right man,

like you should probably come here

and actually know where you're going to be walking

before you buy a house here.

Yeah.

So that's definitely a big thing that I think everybody,

everybody at Accumart like really looks for

as like trying to make sure that the people we do help buy,

they have a good enough, not not like good enough reason,

but like they have a good reason to do so.

The next thing would also be like

being understanding of budget and knowing that like

these homes sometimes have been abandoned for,

you know, a year, even two years.

So, you know, the pictures could be a little bit outdated

or maybe not up to snuff.

And when you actually go in the home,

you know, your floors are very, you know, squishy

or there's termite damage, things like that.

So those are two big qualifiers for me for sure.

Right on, yeah, I totally agree with you.

I think having a pre-existing tie

or like some longer term relationship

with Japan really helps solidify that.

If you've never been to Japan before

and you just want to buy,

we have to probably push you away

and say, hey, go check it out, know the areas

because it's, it's tiring working with people

who really have not had that ramp up

to knowing what Japan is and why they want to be there.

Especially a lot of the homes

that people are interested in,

especially the cheaper ones, they're not in a city.

They're hours outside of a city sometimes, you know,

you're going to need a lot more than just the home.

You don't even know how to get there.

Right before this we toured in Akia in Hachioji.

About $50,000 built in 1971.

It was pretty dope.

What were your thoughts, Lucas,

after checking it out?

I'd buy it, yeah.

I would definitely, yeah, I'd pursue that house.

Other than the road up to it was a little crazy.

Yeah, but I mean, other than that,

it's pretty close, I think, to a train station

if I'm not mistaken.

So I mean, I wouldn't buy a car if I was there,

but the overall shape of the house was stellar.

It was crazy that we were showing a client of ours,

the house, and the photos just had the interior,

but they completely missed looking

at the freaking view of Mount Fuji.

They had it and it was like, what are you guys doing?

We got out of the car today,

and like, we all mentioned the view,

like immediately, like holy moly.

This is an incredible view.

You see the Tokyo, western Tokyo city skyline,

you see these mountains with snow-peaked mountains,

and then you see Mount Fuji behind it.

Like, it was an incredible view,

and the real estate agent just did not include that

in the description and not even photos of it.

So, you know.

We'll put that in the listing.

If you are interested, actually,

it's real sleeper by, I think,

that place was renovated, yeah.

Place was renovated?

I gave it a A minus.

Yeah, I gave it a B plus, I think.

Now, the floors are clean.

It was a really nice house.

Okay, let's go on the flip side of Japan here.

You've been here for, again, close to a year.

It's been a lot of fun.

What are some things that kind of frustrate you

or you surprised you in this past year?

The bureaucracy of Japan is a beast.

I know, like, it took, you know,

my girlfriend needed to get her phone set up for work

and things like that.

And just getting a phone plan,

you have to go and actually sit in the office

for like almost two hours, it seemed like,

and just get that sorted out.

So that is a huge pain, I think, especially

if you don't have a translator

and you don't speak Japanese,

even if you do speak a little bit,

like, you're not gonna know the specific terms

and it'll take a whole different level of fluency

to understand those kind of conversations.

I think that's probably one of the more frustrating parts

about Japan.

What was rent in your apartment, like?

Oh, it was really easy, just because it's subsidized

by her company.

Oh, through the company?

Yeah, yeah.

Because that's also getting a phone plan.

I'm like two weeks in, no phone plan still, you know,

working on it, writing an apartment

was a difficult bureaucratic process.

So I was just wondering if you had similar issues.

I didn't even realize like the tax representation stuff

and like getting bills.

I didn't know that that was a problem for foreigners

because we came on visas.

And then once I started, you know, doing consultation,

I learned about tax representation,

like that would also be a pretty big hassle,

like if you're buying in Japan

and you don't understand things like that,

like just knowing that you need to have a representative

who is Japanese or has a visa or some sort of residency

to actually get that on your behalf.

Now, the plug for the Aki-Mart Direct Program,

we help you pass through a lot of that bureaucracy

and paperwork and again, we specialize

with working with foreigners.

So I think that was something Joey and I felt

in our first couple transactions that were like,

okay, there's got to be a better way.

And so I think that's what we found with that program.

I think the Japanese bureaucracy frustrates everybody.

Like a very common thread that runs through a lot of frustrates.

Like you have frustrates Japanese people

even like to a degree.

But they grew up kind of used to it, I think.

So it's good for them, but shocking to us.

Shocking, yeah.

The kind of like, I do feel like in the West,

we come and come from like a can-do attitude.

Like if someone wants something to happen

and the other person is selling that service,

like even if it doesn't like meet,

I initially like you find a way to make it work

whereas I feel like Japan kind of shuts down.

Like if you're not following exactly within these,

you know, guard rails like no.

Yeah, they don't really try to find another way to the outcome.

It's just like we've done this road a million times.

We're gonna do this road again.

Yeah.

Okay, rural Hokkaido.

Can't imagine there's too many foreigners.

Like how has it been like culturally kind of fitting in

or immersing yourself?

I mean, I think where we are is very unique solely

because it is a sister city to somewhere in Canada.

And obviously like, you know,

we're not the first foreigners to come there

on the similar program.

So they're very, very welcoming to us.

You know, I've met some people there

that I'm very close with now.

They're also like the town that we're from

is trying to grow into like a more English

Japanese society.

So they're very welcoming to it.

It's a very old population though.

That was like a very big thing.

You know, like the younger people are like in their mid 30s.

And I'm like, damn, like you're your uncle bro.

Yeah, you're uncle bro.

Yeah, okay.

So how many foreigners are in the neighborhood

or like in the city itself?

Me and my girlfriend and then her coworker.

And then like sometimes at the gym,

like I'll meet another guy from like a close town

and he's also like an English teacher.

Okay.

But yeah, I think in the nine months of being there,

I could probably count on one hand the amount of like white

people I've seen.

Any other kind of things that shocked you

or confused you when you first got to your town

as you've been here for a little bit?

Like what advice would you give someone

kind of like following in your footsteps?

I would say you have to come with a very open mind,

which is like pretty obvious to say,

but like different than you would think, you know what I mean?

Like even just in how like people hang out

is totally different.

Like back home, like I was so used to seeing

my friends on a regular basis and things like that.

So even when I hang out with my friends there,

I remember we were meant to have dinner

and then we were meant to like go out on the weekend

with one of our friends and they were like,

are you sure?

Like I don't wanna bother you and it's like,

that doesn't bother me.

Like I like hanging out with people.

I like being around my friends.

So that's a very big thing.

You have to be able to kind of be on your own a bit,

which is something I kind of struggled with,

especially when we got here,

just because like I'm very extroverted.

I like being around people.

So learning how to be in your own world

and kind of be okay with like hanging out at home

a bit more or you know, not going out as much.

As well too, when you move to Japan,

it's totally different than being on vacation.

Yeah, it's very affordable I think to live here,

especially if you're used to the Western world.

But that said like, you know,

you can't be going out and doing tourist things

every single day because very quickly your budget

will disappear.

Absolutely.

How much would you say like cost wise

is a way cheaper than Canada living where you are in hour?

I think so.

I think so like Japanese wages are, you know,

they fit the Japanese culture.

So I think what the average like Japanese citizen makes,

you know, they're, they're going to think like,

all right, I can live like whatever.

I mean, if you're coming over here and, you know,

if you work remote or something like that,

like yes, it's like, I think you're, you're chilling.

But in terms of, you know, Canada are prices.

Any Canadian watching this definitely knows.

Like our prices have been going crazy over the last few years.

Yeah.

Even food like all that kind of stuff

is just getting a little bit ridiculous.

Have you used a health care system here or like any,

any thoughts there?

Yeah, I ended up having to go see a urologist

and the one best thing about Japan, obviously, like,

so I pay health insurance every month.

And for me, it's really cheap.

I pay like, I don't know, like 50 bucks a month

or something like that, I don't remember.

I don't really like pay attention

because it's a negligible bill.

But yeah, so I went to the hospital in our town.

Cost me like 10 bucks to see a doctor,

10 Canadian, I don't know, whatever that is in freedom dollars.

But then they referred me to a urologist

and I was like, oh, like shit,

like I don't want to go and pay a bunch of money to do this.

But we had to go and do it.

And then we went, got some tests done,

sat with the doctor, whatever.

And they're like, all right, your bill is 15 or 1,500 yen.

I'm like, whoa, let's go.

That's crazy.

Like, all right.

And then say, yeah, I think it's very affordable.

I even talked to an older guy in Oeno when I was in Tokyo.

And he had to go for an MRI and it was like a couple hundred bucks.

Did you find the doctor spoke English?

The one in our town was not very fluent.

So that was kind of awkward.

Like I'm using like Google Translate.

Like, hey man, like, please don't let me die.

Like, yeah.

But then when we went to like the closed city, like over here,

oh, yeah, the doctor was pretty fluent.

Compared to Canada, I know Joe, you'd tell me like,

it's tough to see a doctor in Canada or like systems.

Yeah, every province is different.

But Nova Scotia was quite difficult.

There's like a wait list out.

And I was on the wait list for three years to get

a family doctor.

Yeah.

And I just before I came to Japan, I got to email like,

hey, are you still looking for a doctor?

Like we don't have one, but we just want to double check

you're on the list three years.

What if you need to see a doctor like too bad?

Too bad either emergency room or like a walk in clinic.

But even the walking clinics are not walking clinic emergency room

is like going sit for four hours.

Well, like 17 sometimes.

Unless you're like coming in like on desk bed,

you're probably not seeing a doctor for a couple hours.

How I compared to Japan, I didn't, again,

did you just kind of walk in?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, it was a lot simpler.

Didn't even make, yeah, I don't even think

I made an appointment.

Oh, I might have, I might have.

I don't remember.

It was a few months ago, but if I did, it was the day before.

Yeah.

So Alberta sounds bad to, I heard like Toronto,

like my brother doesn't seem to have problems,

like doctors or anything like that.

But maybe Alberta's, Alberta's pretty bad.

I mean, like Edminton, I had to go,

I had like a really bad ear infection.

And like felt like my ear was about to explode.

So I just had to go in and get something to fix that.

And the waiting room was like packed.

There was too many people for seats in the waiting room.

And I sat there for like three hours

in like the middle of the night.

Like I think we went there at like two in the morning.

Is it ER?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we left it two in the morning

to go to the doctor and it was packed that full.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, kind of bad.

Although I do feel like somehow my parents were able

to jump this queue.

I don't know, maybe they moved there a few years before me.

So maybe like eventually you do get to see a doctor

or you do get a doctor.

Three years are the same.

But yeah.

Could you like brute force it with money?

If I had to guess, I feel like you can't even like,

hey, I'll pay you more.

Maybe if you went to the States, yeah.

That's a big thing people do.

Like if they have money and they need immediate care,

they'll go to the States and just put the bill.

Okay, okay.

So Japan's health care system is pretty good.

Yeah, it's pretty efficient, I would say.

I think it's cool that even just me seeing a urologist,

I can just go to the urologist's office.

I don't have to like go through the system

and like have them, you know, whatever.

Oh, I didn't know.

You don't have to get referred to a specialist.

But I just called up and said, hey, I need to see you, man.

Yeah, and it's like a 30% co-pay in Japan.

I think maybe like system seems to be working.

And they even have a lot of old people here too,

which is like the common reason I hear

that oh, health care systems are overburdened

because you know, the baby boomer generation

is clogging up the works.

But like, I don't know, maybe Japan's

is working better here with the co-pay.

You're kind of mentioned that your town is quite old.

And most people only think of Japan,

they think of Tokyo, we obviously have to do like,

hey, when you're buying Naki a lot of times,

they're in very rural towns that are gonna look

very different over time.

Like, how do you think your town

will look like 10 years from now?

We went to a summer festival and they shoot a firework off

for every baby that was born that year.

Within like the prefecture or whatever it's called.

There was two fireworks that went off for the whole year.

And I was like, this is crazy.

Like two, just like lonely firework.

My girlfriend, like she goes to all the schools

in the area, there's a school there with like less than 10 kids.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah.

So rural Japan is, you know,

there's not a lot of people out there.

Okay.

Not a lot of young people specifically too.

Yeah.

I remember like when we were in this town

in Tokushima, Kaifu somewhere,

and I remember walking through the town

was like really deserted and then I was trying to imagine

like, what was this town like in its heyday?

Like when do you think your town was like at like,

how many years ago do you feel like it was probably peaking?

Probably not long after Hokkaido like became a part of Japan,

I would say.

Like 1890.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Definitely a long time ago.

Okay, a long time ago.

Longer than I've been around for sure.

Lucas, you're one of our Gen Z kind of peers

that we work with here.

And I'm curious from like a Gen Z perspective,

like, you know, we would talk about it

this a little bit in the car of like buying a home.

Like from your perspective was buying a home in Canada ever

really even a thought or?

Yeah, like I'm optimistic about my future.

I think eventually, you know, I'll be successful.

But that said, I think, yeah,

the average like selling price for a home

was like 650,000 Canadian, which is like double

what my parents home costs.

And like, I don't even think I could buy a home like that

right now or like in the next like few years.

So I know like a lot of my friends and myself included,

it's very much like a dream.

You know, like it's not like,

you can definitely work towards.

I have people that I know that are my age that

that was their goal.

Now they have a house, which is awesome.

Like I'm really happy for them proud of them.

But, you know, if you want to travel

or if you go to school right out of high school

and things like that, it just keeps building on like

how much harder it's going to be

unless you like lock in as soon as you get out of school

and maybe join the trades and just kind of sit back

and make your money.

But most of the people I know that have bought homes.

They also like, you know, we're living with their parents

and working or some kind of scenario like that.

So they weren't paying the same rent.

Yeah, I mean, Jerry as millennials kind of

are saying the same thing that we were like really told

that if you, you know, you went to good school,

you graduated, you worked, you could afford a home.

But like we get back in 2023 when we started this business

where we're just like, there's like no way.

So I was originally in school.

I was going to be a high school teacher.

I got about halfway through and I just realized like,

I don't enjoy what this career would look like enough

for me to like warrant making that wage.

Yeah.

Your girlfriend's a teacher here in Japan.

Would you recommend that for someone else

knowing, you know, what you know now?

I think it depends on the program and who you're with.

Our program is very unique.

But definitely, yeah, I think it takes a certain type of person

to be able to make it work.

Like I think if I was to do it alone,

it definitely would have been a much harder choice.

And same with her.

Because very much is like you're going in blind, you know?

You don't know, you kind of get stationed at a community

you probably have never been to or in our case,

we didn't even hear about it.

So going there and not knowing anybody, not knowing,

you know, the day to day where the grocery store is,

that kind of stuff, not knowing fluent English,

or I mean fluent Japanese, is a very scary thought.

So like we were very lucky in the fact that like we could go

together and kind of, you know,

trudge through it and you know,

we can come home and speak English

and feel like it's home still.

Yeah.

But I think a lot of people, you know,

if you're on online, a lot of people make those posts

and it's like what working in Japan really is like

and they very much like talk down on it.

And I've seen a lot of people say like not to do it.

I don't agree with that.

Like I think like, you know, life experience is the best

experience and you know, even if it is hard

and maybe you don't fully enjoy it,

there's got to be some parts of it that like

are definitely worth doing.

Totally agree with you on like coming to Japan with someone else.

Joey and I could not have done this.

Buddy, sis.

Yeah, there's no way we could have done this whole

akia journey individually.

And like it's just, it changes like the,

the shitty situations become like more.

You're like, in this together.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, fuck, this is bad.

This is a bad.

This is gnarly.

Yeah, like, but yeah, it makes it fun.

Every crappy situation like you know that it's going to end up

like someone you can laugh at later.

If I miss the train, at least like we miss the train.

Like, oh shit, we'll catch the next one together, man.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, I think that's a big, big advice.

Maybe the biggest advice I give would want to give to someone

who's looking at buying a house in Japan is like

doing it yourself is tough if you are going to have to put

in a lot of work for like a cheaper property.

Like if you are just looking to invest something 100K plus US,

like, I think you can buy and not worry too much.

But if you're looking at something like a little more

dilapidated, unless you like really just individually

love to just like lock in and do DIY,

I think it's always good to do it with someone else,

a partner, you know, a girlfriend, a boyfriend or whatever,

because it makes it an adventure.

It saves it from becoming a chore.

Yeah, absolutely.

Lucas, I know you are saving money.

Maybe for Nokia sometime in the near future.

Like, let's just say you had that money right now.

Where would you come from?

Check under your seat, Lucas.

Oh my God, no way.

Okay.

You know, I'm a big proponent of Hokkaido.

You know, I spent a good time out there.

Anybody that goes to Hokkaido,

I highly recommend checking out Otaru.

I know it's like very popular,

but I feel like not a lot of people know where that is.

Either way, Otaru has some very affordable homes

from what I've seen online.

Very beautiful part of the country.

I love it up there, but at the same time, you know,

one day I would like to escape the snow in the cold.

So I'm kind of in between like the Osaka area

or even I went and visited Kanagawa Prefecture

for a good amount of time very recently.

And yeah, it's like.

Bro, keep going to South.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I gotta go further south.

I gotta go further south to fully make sure

that, you know, I could make the right decision,

but yeah,

I really fell in love with Kanagawa Prefecture.

It's like very close to Tokyo,

but at the same time, you get that very traditional

Japanese feel there.

It was like I was in the streets of Kyoto again,

and, you know, but at the same time, I could see,

like, I couldn't see Mount Fuji,

but, you know, it was there.

I could feel the presence.

Okay.

Kanagawa's great.

And then continuing down to like,

Shizuoka and the Izu Peninsula,

I think if you like Kanagawa,

you also like that peninsula there too.

So you're looking at Bayon Kanagawa.

Let's, yeah, let's say you have the cash on hand,

you're ready to fire.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I'd have to confide in my,

you know, my girlfriend,

but I think she'd back it, yeah.

Cool.

Yeah, my like best friend up in Hokkaido there,

he's from Kanagawa, so he's always like,

I'll go check it out, go check it out.

Yeah.

Yeah, he was right on the money.

Check out Kamakura for sure.

Kamakura's awesome.

Yeah.

A little expensive there.

A little bit, very touristy.

When I was there, very, very touristy,

but I think if you go to like the,

a little bit outside of Kamakura,

maybe the surrounding towns.

Very, very nice.

We went to the worst McDonald's in the world.

In the wild.

In fact, we bailed halfway.

We're like, we can't do this.

Yeah, can't do this.

All right, Lucas, final question for you here.

Favorite one piece character.

Marshall D. Teach.

Yeah, Blackbeard.

Black, Dary Deska.

Blackbeard, and sorry for spoilers,

cover years or stop listening,

if you are watching one piece right now,

is Blackbeard's like the main antagonist, I'd say.

For most of the,

between him and Emu, I think right now.

But it's just gonna be Blackbeard.

They make him, yeah, they make him a better character.

Okay, so Blackbeard's your top pick.

Blackbeard, Dough Flamingo.

Dough Flamingo?

Trafalgar Law.

Those are my top three.

Yeah, there's a big villain guy, bro.

They're very well written.

These are all the top villains.

First two are top villains in the one piece.

Trafalgar Law is just cool as hell.

Joey doesn't believe in one piece,

but someday, Joey, we're gonna look back on this episode

and you'll be like, dang, I really missed out

on reading or watching one piece.

Can I go to you to and be like,

all one piece story, like 10 minutes.

Speedrunner.

I see one piece.

One piece will like skip a lot of the like,

what's one piece?

They cut out all of like the timing problems

and the pacing problems.

So like, just get the main plot right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, instead of like watching

Luffy walk up to the villain for like five minutes straight.

You okay?

Yeah, so like if anybody wants to speedrun it,

I mean, I don't recommend it

because by the end of it, you're gonna feel like shit.

Like I wish I had 120 more episodes to watch, but.

Yep, the best piece of fiction.

I think in the world.

Yeah, it's an epic.

Yeah, I mean, better than the best, you know,

Steinbeck, Shakespeare, all them, all them boys.

Yeah, for sure.

So if you are one piece fan,

coming to Japan actually will fulfill a lot of your...

100%.

I like it.

I went to the Mugiwara store in, I think Shinjuku.

Yeah.

The picture with Shanks putting the hat on my head.

Of course.

Okay, okay.

There we go.

Here we go.

Any last thoughts or questions from you, Joy,

before we let our guy Lucas go on one piece?

Anything for the question.

No, do another hour long podcast on one piece.

All right, we'll have another anime fan podcast soon,

but Lucas, thanks for coming out, man.

Really, really excited to have you.

We're gonna be hanging out a little bit more next couple days.

For anyone, again, who books a consultation,

Lucas could be your guy.

We'll send you this podcast,

so you can kind of prep for the conversation.

Actually, very last question.

If someone's booked a consultation with you, Lucas,

like, what do you want them to prep before the call?

Yeah, one of the biggest things is actually knowing

where you're looking.

I've talked to a lot of people that are like,

I'm open to anywhere in Japan,

and Japan is a small country compared to a lot,

but you go one prefecture over,

and it's like a whole different area, you know what I mean?

Like everywhere is very, very different in Japan.

Some areas have different things that you have to deal with,

tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides,

susumabachi, massive wasps.

Yeah, so just different stuff like that is a big thing.

So knowing the area of where you actually want to go

is a very big help.

Right on, totally agree.

Lucas, thanks for being on the podcast,

and we hope to have you back soon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode

of Buying a House in Japan.

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