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Buying a house in Tokyo

We have been thinking about buying our own place for a while, just wasn't sure where. It could be when we move back to New Zealand, or, perhaps some other country (a few offers have popped up), and maybe Tokyo itself. We have lived in an apartment in Tokyo for about 13 years, and that has been great. But it would be nice if it was *ours*.

I have been keeping an eye out on the realestate search pages, just to see what is available. We were looking for something around 4LDK, so that the boys can have separate rooms. A stand-alone house would of course be very nice, but also checked a few apartments and mansions. (Japanese mansions are not mansions!)

In March 2015 we asked to see a couple of houses, one in particular stood out to us. I had seen it on the market for a while (over a year at least), it has 131m^2 land, and 220m^s inside, so you know it is expensive! Quite a bit outside our budget, maybe if it was half price! It was full of furniture and garbage, apparently the previous owner had not managed to keep up with the payments, and the bank foreclosed the house. But that is an interesting thing, almost all places we looked at to buy, were "not clean". "Would it have killed you guys to at least vacuum?". Talking about the places that were empty. It seems the Japanese always "remodel" after they move in, so cleaning isn't paramount?

One interesting thing that popped up when discussing the financials of the very expensive property, is that they mentioned the realtors fee, and the fee to the bank, and then "you will need to give a couple of million gift to the previous owner". Wait, what? Clearly I feel for the previous owner, but that is peculiar? I, the buyer, have to give a gift of money, to the guy who could not pay his mortgage and it was foreclosed? Clearly, I know nothing about realestate.

It is also common for the realestate staff to want to pick us up in a car, to take us to the property, even if it is just in our area. I understand that the "customer is king" is important, and so that is part of the service. But sometimes, it was much more convenient for us to cycle over to the property. I also found I enjoyed the challenge of finding the Internet listed properties in an area, by just going on the images and other clues. Good way to get out in the weekends. We were quite lucky that the realtor had someone who spoke in English, this was a great benefit to our understanding.

After seeing a (incredibly cluttered) house, which apparently had to pay a fine every month for being over-sized (so you can purposely build too big and just pay a little more?), the realtor popped in to show a bit of land on the way back home...

The land

We had not really thought about looking at land at all, so initially I was not really looking seriously at it. But it had some interesting potential. Off the main road, still near the Odakyu line (as we are already used to), in the same area so the school does not change for the kids. Corner lot. Had the typical blue tarp covering it, of course, this is Japan after all. 87m^2 land for ~60M yen. This is shibuya-ku so, yeah, expensive.

One thing that is interesting is the new rule about having a 4m access road to new houses. (For emergency vehicles). Since the road to this lot (or rather, the house that used to stand there) does not, there is a 2m "setback" on the land where you are not allowed to build. You own the land, but can't place any permanent buildings on the part which is for the 4m access road. So, it feels like you are buying 68m^2 for ~60M yen.

But not really. In Japan, the land comes with two percentages. With this land, those values are 60% and 300%. This means that you can build (foot print) on 60% of your land area, which is from the original 87m^2. Ie, about ~54m^2 can occupy the land area. Which is smaller than the 68m^2 (setback included). So it is more about *where* on the land you can place your building, in our case, toward the west corner (bottom left on the image). This leaves the setback area for parking our bikes and similar.

The second number, 300%, is the total size you are allowed to build. Ie, when adding floors. As it happens, 3 floors at about 54m^2 is only about half that, so that has not yet been an issue. There is also a sunlight rule, but I'll bring that up later.

When talking financials with the realtor, they explained that if I got an average mortgage for the 60M yen land, the monthly payment would be about 16man yen. (160,000) But, while there is no house on the land, you can pay just the interest on the mortgage, about 4.6man a month. Until the day you move in. You get a second "part" to the mortgage that pays for the house building, and start paying the full amount once you move in. So the system is not completely against you, if you consider buying land and building a home.

At one point we took some sticks, to make a 5m long pole, put a camera at the end of it to get a 360 of the view from 3F. A drone would have been easier, maybe.

Very much a roller-coaster ride this whole adventure, some days we are all for-buying, and others days against. A fair bit of stress involved, and you are quite aware that the easiest thing to do, is to do nothing. (not buy)

Design

I looked around for a way to design a house, and there are many tools on the Internet. Some for browsers, some free apps, others to buy etc. But the foreign tools did not really work out. It became clear that I needed to use a Japanese made design program, to get the "standard" sizes of things, like the set bathrooms, stairs, genkan, and all that. Clearly there is a monopoly going on here, as it seems there is just one software, and it was quite expensive (for my hobby level interests). So I went a bit more oldskool, and started measuring things at home to get an idea of how much space are needed. Typical Japanese apartment bath/shower room seems to fit in 2m x 2m, and so on.

Eventually, I sent a sketch to the realtor that I had made of what I thought could work on the land we were looking at. Features 2 bedrooms, bath/shower, toilet on 1F, 3 bedrooms and toilet on 2F, the LDK on 3F with small balcony, and rooftop balcony above that.

A couple of days later I received a proper (Japanese style) floorplan based on my initial sketch. Some interesting differences showed up. I figured that the top floor (3F in our case) would be the LDK area, ie, any "awake hours" we would spend here, so it should have the better "view" and sunlight. Since the bedrooms are generally only for sleeping, it would seem a waste to have those on the top floor. This doesn't appear to be the mindset here, both designer companies initially put the LDK in the middle, and bedrooms at the top. Perhaps there is a reason for it which we will learn one day...

Anyway, we arranged a meeting with the first design company. We had no idea what to expect of course. So the realtor is not really connected with the house design, and eventual, building of the house. The realtors just assist with connecting us with those companies, so we can hash out ideas. It was quite interesting and productive. We could explain the reason behind some of our ideas, and they could explain why certain things could not be done. Usually load-bearing walls required, but also, emergency access - like that of the 3F balcony - has to have room for access.

They also showed that the rooftop balcony was "too tall", and that 3F had to be made narrower. We just assumed we had reached some height limit, and could not have a rooftop balcony.

It was actually a few days later that we finally had it explained to us. There is a sunlight rule in Japan, were you draw a line from the centre of the road(s), at some angle I have yet to learn, up into the sky. Everyone using the road(s) are entitled to sunlight. This is why the North and East side of the house (since the roads are North and East) has to have angled roofs, and "come back" in a little in the design. I had placed the rooftop balcony stairs in the east corner which is the worst place for it. Had the stairs been on the South, or West sides, there would have been no issues.

We got a quick estimate at about 20M to build the house, going up to 25M including all the extras, insurance, realtor fees, and stamps. Interestingly, you have to pay a few man yen for a stamp for the land, stamp for the house, stamp for registering the land, stamp for registering the house. Just think of it as lots of small taxes.

After this, we also met with (one of?) the biggest house builders in Japan, and they showed us their design, and floorplan. Quite different to to my initial sketch, but also some neat ideas. They too placed LDK in 2F, but had no issues moving it to 3F. They had rooftop balcony already, so this is where we learnt it was possible to have one. We had a chance to visit friends, who very recently bought land, and built a house - very similar to what we had in mind. Got lots of measurements out of it, so we could better "see" what our designs would be like. Also to practise climbing 2m x 2m stairs. We really loved their rooftop balcony, which is why we started thinking that we want one too.

The second design was estimated at closer to 30M, but their pricing is based on the building area. In our case, 120m^2. So we can change anything inside and the price is the same. In Japan list the "penthouse" separately, as well as rooftop balcony as extras and are not counted towards the 300% limit. The penthouse is the "stairs and door" part that opens to the rooftop balcony.

Both (rough) house estimates, they made sure to say "before discounts". Unsure what sort of discounts we are talking about here, if it's just a few man, or something serious.

It took at least 2 meetings with the first designer before they reluctantly suggested that having the kitchen in the low-ceiling area is probably not the best. Seriously, I'm here for your advice, just tell it to me straight.

We sent back revisions to both companies, for the different floorplans. Apparently, the floorplans and companies have to be kept separate, no sharing between them.

Mortgage

We filled in the paper work for 2 of the bigger banks in Japan, it is more of a pre-application to see if they want to talk to you, and what sort of numbers we could get. There is no commitment yet. They insisted that I write my name (katakana) and address (kanji) by myself, by hand. I softly suggested that they could write the address and I just do my personal details and sign (hanko) it. That was a big nono, had to be me, writing my address. Took forever, but got there eventually. Luckily, I had practised writing my address when I applied for my Permanent Residency.

4 days later we get the news that neither bank wanted to help with a mortgage. With no reason given. I got the impression that if the banks were not happy with me, or my situation, they would give reason(s). But in this case, it seemed to be about the seller, or something external. Then the banks can not give reason(s). (liability?) At least, that was the gist of my understanding of the situation. The realtor may simply have been sparing my feelings. Who knows, we filled in another set of mortgage application forms (again, I had to write) and fired those off.

This time it went better, in that we got an offer, and lots of numbers, and stats with it.

The next step was to fill in the "purchase approval" for the land, and hanko it. This is not binding either, we can decide not to buy it without any penalty. At this point they want a 3M yen down-payment, which we get back if the mortgage fails to come through, or we decline to purchase. It has a deadline a month in the future. The realtor is now negotiating with the seller of the land, and dealing with the bank.

Land inspection

The realtor asked to meet us at the land today, they said it would be easier to explain in person. We went and found the land markers for the spot, and was surprised just how far into the road "our" land would be. It was explained that only the North side has a setback of about 30cm. The East side is not to do with the emergency access, but rather an agreement made with all the neighbours on the street. This was done before it was put on the market, and is part of the purchase contract. They wanted us aware of that. There is also a slight issue with the South-West corner house. Apparently it is built right on the edge of the land, so the roof, drain and drain pipe is "over sized". This means we have to have a survey made, and possibly shift our plans, and/or change the floor plan to accommodate it. I find it rather peculiar that is becomes the problem of the new buyers, and not the oversized house.

We received revised floorplan designs today as well, we have indicated we were interested in a shower stall on 2F and weren't sure if those could be done in Japan (since it is always shower/bath units). But that seemed to have been no issue.

I was asked if I take any medicine, or have some kind of health issue. This stems from that with a bank mortgage, you will get health insurance with it automatically. Japan is still lagging a little with gender equality, but in this case, if I happen to die, the mortgage is written off, as the wife "doesn't have any income". So that is all...uhh "good". I guess? Wait

Hanko

We met with the builders again. Just to talk about some changes, and they had a few questions for us. Our bathroom was slightly non-standard size (+15cm) and that would cost extra. They asked if we would be happy with the bath standard unit size. We already live in a Japanese apartment which has the standard unit size, so that is fine by us. We also learnt that we do not fully know what options there are out there. For example, the balcony doors. At our current apartment, the balcony doors are glass, and one slides behind the other. So the biggest you can ever make it, is 50% open. Either the left side is open, or the right side. The we saw a model house with a folding glass door. Folded up like a "W" and since it "sticks out" when opened, you can have close to 90% of the door completely open. So we wanted that, talked to the builders about it and hashed out a plan. Then during the same meeting, we saw another model house, which featured balcony doors where one door hides behind the other, and both slide open. Leaving a complete 100% open way. Now we wanted this door instead. Clearly we need to know what is out there, but that is why we are going to model houses I suppose.

As for the day we sign off on the land, I need to have "Identification of certification of a seal impression", for my hanko. For this I had to go to Shibuya cityhall to apply. It is a card (like credit card size) with my hanko registration on it. I want to the cityhall, guessed the application form and filled it in. Once my number was up, I was told that before I can apply for "Identification", I have to actually have my hanko registered. So a slightly different queue. I made my hanko many years ago when I first opened my bank account. At the time, I felt Hiragana looked nicer than Katakana. Today I found out that I could not register my hanko, because it is in Hiragana. Off to Tokyu Hands, and had a new hanko made, this time in Katakana. Then back to the cityhall, get the new one registered, then apply for Identification, and receive my hanko ID card.

In addition to this, I need resident card (including certificate from cityhall listing all people in my household). Record of withholding (tax) for 2 years. That other tax form thing, and proof of funds. (Our deposit funds, bank printout). I was told it is normal to just bring cash, in normal bank envelope. One million yen is apparently 1cm thick. So 3 million will be about 3 cm thick.

Quasi

We had another meeting with the house builders, they explained the 3F balcony doors need to have outside roller shutters installed. We don't have to use them but they have to be there. They don't cost us any extra so that is no big deal. When we asked what they were for, the translation comes out as "Quasi Fire Hazard". So uh what. Clearly something to do with fire prevention, but only the balcony doors on 3F. Not the windows, not 1F ground level doors. It sounded like if a neighbours house was on fire, you can close the shutters, but who knows.

In preparation of the land purchase, we are preparing for the down payment, and mortgage loan meetings. Now we know what 3 million yen in cash looks like and apparently nobody bats an eye withdrawing that from the bank. I have been practising my kanji as well, since I have to write all my details in Japanese.

Purchase

We met at the realtor's office to go through the purchase. Started at 14:00 and at first, it is the reading of the contract. The reader introduced himself and showed his ID to confirm he is qualified to read the contract to us. We had both a Japanese version as well as a version translated into English. Done in typical Japanese fashion, he reads the item number then the whole clause, out loud. One at a time. At anytime that the contract referred to anything, we were shown, and given a copy, of the official document. Started with the seller's company, then we were shown the official company registry, from the seller's cityhall. Complete with official stamps. When talking about the borders, we were shown both the 1970 geographical map, as well as the 2005 version. Followed by official Shibuya-ku water pipe maps, sewage pipes, tsunami flood area map and so on. Everything official, and stamped. Also talked about the special points about the property. That the neighbour's house is too close to our land, the setback for 4m road, the agreement with the neighbourhood that the road that leads to their houses will be left as a road. We were taught were the rubbish goes, and which owner is the community leader. The rubbish area needs to be cleaned every week and that is on a roster for the neighbourhood.

We were shown the map of the work we need to do for the water pipe, it is just from in front of the neighbour, not from the main road. The contract also listed that there are old, not used, pipes under the land. All very detailed.

After that, the representative for the seller showed up, and we could work on filling out the contracts. Mostly name, and address, leaving the hanko work to last which you do at the same time. You also hanko the backside of the contract booklet, over the spine - presumably to prevent tampering. Once that was done, we handed over the 3 million yen downpayment, in the envelope. The seller counted it, and then handed us a receipt (also hankoed and with an official post stamp). All paperwork, maps, contracts, photos showing the border-posts, was all filed into a dossier which was handed to us. Bowing and thanking the seller, that part was done.

There was a large section about OCG activity and how that was illegal. Took us a while before we worked out it meant Organised Criminal Group, ie, the yakuza and those sort of activities. We skipped over most of it, cos, I guess, they felt we were probably not connected to the "OCG".

We had a short 5 minute break, then the representative of the Bank arrived, and we could start on the mortgage paperwork. Since the preliminary had been filled out, it was relatively straight forward. Just going over the numbers and the various options for the type of loan we preferred. This also included the life insurance. The everything-is-paid-off-if-I-die is included for free, but there were optional extras. For example, option 1 included a list of 50 different kinds of cancers, should I get sick and be unable to work, the loan is payed off. Option 2 was for heart attack, or stroke, same deal, or option 3 which included all. The difference was maybe 5,000 yen a month or so. So you can guess what will get you, and pick that option I guess. The best outlook is to get cancer and then recover, and you have no more mortgage. Not sure that is worth having cancer though.

The whole ordeal took 4 hours and was quite draining. It is official paperwork, and in Japanese, talking about finance related topics, which is plenty hard enough to follow in English. On the way home we stopped by the land again. Sense of accomplishment follows.

Bank account

I went in on Monday to open a new bank account with the bank that we are getting the loan. Overall it went as expected, standard paperwork and options. At one point the teller called the bank representative that we dealt with on Saturday. During this conversation, she called me over and handed me the phone. The representative asked me if I could pop over once I had finished the account creation procedure. Once I received my new ATM card, and bank booklet, I walked over to the Loan Centre branch of the bank. It turns out that while filling in the forms, I had forgotten the 区 in 渋谷区 of the address. The health insurance form I had to fill in again, but the loan application it was acceptable to just correct, and hanko the correction. While I was there, they copied the new bank account details, and also my health insurance card. I will have to send in a copy of my last health insurance results as well, and one final issue. The proof of funds printout we had, was in the wife's name. This causes issues, even though we share accounts. So we will need to move the savings into an account owned by me, then do another proof of funds printout. Everything has to be exact in Japan.

The bank also asked for some more proof of funds, but since the exchange rate with NZ is so poor at the moment, we explained we did not want to send more yet. The bank said we can just show the NZ dollar bank statement, they just want to make sure we have enough money to cover the shortfall at the end. The loan was approved on Friday morning for us, just a hint under a week since we did the paper work.

Fiesta

The builders had a home-building-fiesta arranged over in Nihonbashi. It was a chance to get to see the various kinds of materials we could chose, both for outside and inside, the doors, the kitchen brand, bathroom etc. So that was very useful. There were many "options" (ie, extras if we want to pay) as well. Things like home-battery (using more night time power), solar power, security systems, new keycard door locks and so on. We also received the latest floorplans and a few freebees. We set a date to sign the contract with the home builders on July 27th. Building is set to start in Oct, and finish at the end of Feb. But before they start building there is a ceremony, with a shinto priest for good fortune of the land and house. Somewhere around September, where you also have to make sure the date is a lucky number. More on that as we approach it.

House contract

Jun 27th. Today we met at the model house with the builders to sign the contract to build the house. It is a preliminary thing that more of less specifies that they will build a house of size 124 m^2 and 3F, with basic floor plans. But the internal materials is not selected yet. We confirmed the 1F shutters, insect covers for all windows, and storage under kitchen counter. Which were our only concerns. The meeting started with showing of their ID again, that shows they are trained and licensed to read the contract to us, then going through each point one by one. Fairly standard items. After that I signed my name, and did the hanko ritual. We have one week to bank transfer the downpayment over (yay, doesn't have to hand over wads of cash!) From now it is expected that we have a meeting every week, to chose and decide each interior bit. As part of the building agreement, they agreed to start construction before Nov, and finish before Mar 23rd. (143 days). Once construction has started, they will call every week to give progress report. Although I doubt I will be able to not check it out (frequently) myself. They also checked that it would be OK for them to show the neighbours the design and plans for the house. What is interesting here is that they took the floor plans, and deleted all interior details. So just the outer walls, and floors. Not any inside walls, rooms or layout, as that is considered "private".

Transferring money wasn't quite as smooth as planned either, turns out there is a maximum furikomi limit, and the downpayment was just over it. So had to fill in paperform versions, and take a number. But in the end, that part is done.

Bank Loan Agreement

Friday 3rd we had the Bank Loan Agreement, at the Bank. It seems the previous meetings with the bank have been preliminaries and application for a loan. This meeting started at 10:00 and went for about 2 hours. Had to bring two more "Identification of certification of a seal impression" from the Cityhall, as well as the new bank account details. During this meeting we also went through the loan particulars, like fixed or floating interest, one large lump, or split the loan into two, and you can mix and match fixed vs floating. The choices of insurance was also settled, just death, or cancers, or heart related issues, or all three. The loan manager of the branch I opened the account at, also turned up to say hello. After that, all hanko stamping started. Including registering in Tokyo area and so on. It was decided that the 17th July to be the "final payment" day, at 10:00. This means the Bank will wire me the money into my account, and a fraction later, the money goes from my account to the land owner. There is a 3-man fee related to this, as well as 4-man fee of "stamps". So I need to have 7 man in the new bank account before the 17th. The first interest payment will start in August on the agreed upon date, and will start at 4man, but following months will be 6man (with health insurance). Since April next year (when there is a house there) the monthly mortgage payment will rise to the full 17-man. That is still just for the land, the house part of the loan will be settled closer to that time. We had an English translator with us from the realtor, but even with that, the whole ordeal is quite draining. We went to the pub for a pint and lunch.

1st Builders

Had our first weekly meeting with the house builders, and our first surprise. A suggested placement of ceiling lights had been made on the floormap, and we found out that lights cost extra. Not sure how you envision living in a house without any lights. So with the bedrooms, they suggested the big round lights Japan is fond of, but we should get those from biccamera or similar shops, much cheaper. They will leave the cable in the ceiling for us. The rest of the lights, hallways, bathroom, stairs, LDK and kitchen, are mostly "downlights" and cost about 7,000 yen each. They had some master bedroom head-board lights suggested, but they were closer to 2man each. So, both curtain and lights apparently does not come with building a home. The next meeting is scheduled after the final-payment day, where first they will go measure the land and test the ground. The meeting will be about power-point placements, and kitchen interior selection.

final payment

Today's meeting was at the bank to do the final payment of the land loan. Besides us, there was a representatives for; "Japan Fair Deals", the owner, and the realtor, all present, as well as our translator. At first I filled out some withdrawal slips, about 7 of them. For the various payments, fees, taxes etc. Couple of contract-like papers had to be filled in, and then hanko everything of course. Today included the realtors fee, shibuya registration certificate, but since we had already paid 3 million in down-payment, it mostly covered it all.

The JFD representative informed me that I will receive a registered courier letter, where the bottom half of the letter is folded over to hide a secret serial number. This is your proof of ownership and should never be opened. You only use it when you sell the land, so presumably the seller had his opened today. We discussed if people keep it in a bank safe deposit box, but clearly that is uncommon in Japan. They all keep theirs at home, in "the safe".

There was a little bit of a wait, while everything was sorted out. We assumed the money would move hands by electronic wire transfers, and in most part it was. But, after a short wait, the bank staff came in carrying a large case full of envelopes. Of course it's done in cash!

So, the realtor had some 2 million, the seller about 3 million, the shibuya representative somewhere under a million, all cash in envelopes. So 3 guys start counting wads of cash. Straight out of a mafia movie. While this is happened, I get all the official receipts, with tax stamps, and hanko where needed. I also got my bank book back, showing a large transfer landing in my account, and a few seconds later, being moved to the seller's account. Once the cash was counted, the business was done.

I believe this means we are now land owners.

Swedish Sounding

After we became land owners, they did a ground quality check, called Swedish Sounding (in katakana). The order of it all is a bit weird, I would expect all surveys be done before you buy it, but that is apparently not how it is done. We could tell immediately that something was up in this meeting as they were clearly hesitant and bearers of bad news. It turns out that the ground is very soft for the first 4m, after that it gets increasingly stronger. This means they have to dig down 4m for the foundation, and this is an extra cost. They guessed about 1 million yen, or so. There will always be extra costs with these things, at least this one we had heard hints about earlier. The rest of the meeting was a wash, since they had not really prepared anything else. To be considered hard enough, it has to have a rating of 4.0 or above.

Floor designs

The meeting after that, they had gone out to find quotes for the ground problem, and picked one for us. The plan is to drill (thump?) down 27 carbon fibre steel 114diameter pipes, 9.5m into the ground. The quote was for about 1.2 million yen and would take about 3 days. So that is sorted. Then we had a look at all the floor samples, and picked our preferred style. Each floor could be a different style too. Since we were doing rather well, we went ahead and also picked the doors. I also popped into Yodobashi to talk to the aircon guys. Since we have to pick where to place them, the sizes and where the outside units go. For the 18 畳(jou) it was recommended I get a 23畳 aircon. Those units were in the price range of 25-30 man yen. For the other bedrooms, I can get "pair units" for those rooms above each other.

We also asked about the possibility of simply paying for the house part of the loan with cash, instead of starting the second part of the loan, and would the bank be upset about that. It was explained to us that we can do that without any hard feelings, but since the house loan payments are actually split into 3, ie, the builders get a third at the start of building, a third in the middle, and the final third once it is done. We are better off letting the bank handle all that, and once we move in, simply pay the bank the whole loan in the first payment. Interesting.

Power points

Todays meeting was to place the power points on the floor plan. We had 25 as part of the house (based on size of building) and that does not count the toilet, fridge, aircon and power points built into units. So generally, we placed 2 in each bedroom, hallways and around the LDK. We had 10 spare at the end so added some extra for outside roof balcony, in shoe closet, under the stairs etc. So all in all, 25 was about the right number. We could ask for more, for 4,000 each.

We also added a door to the LDK area, as it was recommended by the aircon guy. Otherwise the cold air just escapes down the stairs. It was not a problem to add a door.

They had also suggested a fence between house and road, with the mailbox and door-bell camera, on a pole in front of the building. This took longer to discuss. But in the end, having the door bell far away from door and separate was a bit strange to us (but apparently, The Japanese can be uncomfortable entering the 'house' area before they have permission). We briefly looked at wall paper as well, which was a bit disappointing. Talk about endless selection of various shades of grey. The most subtle things ever, not entirely unsurprising for Japan I guess. But for 400yen per square meter more, we can get the "accented" wall papers which were definitely more what we want. One of the kids want a yellow room for example. 1 week cap in the meetings this time, and they teased us with the 1:50 map again, I think this makes it the 4th meeting the 1:50 map was mentioned :)

6th meeting

More bad news today, of sorts. They had done more thorough check of the building plan with respect to the public-road-light rule. Tomorrow evening we are supposed to hear back from Shibuya regarding our planned building, but the builders think there will be a problem. We may need to go back 25cm from the road. If the neighbours had not over-built, we could simply do that. So we were presented with 2 alternate plans, changing things around. One makes the LDK part from size 18 to 15, which is not what we want. Changes to the middle floor does not matter too much. The second option kept the LDK mostly the same but the bottom floor was then shrunk. It is somewhat annoying that these things are not sorted out much sooner. Why did we "fix" the floorplan, and sign a contract that they will build a 121sq.m house, then later change both of that. I'm sure it's in the fine print, and yet, this could have all been worked out 2 months ago. They did revise the bill for a bunch of money back.

For now, we are waiting to hear back from Shibuya-ku although most likely the out come is that we need to tweak it. Don't know if we can talk to the neighbours about cutting their roof (house is empty after all) or go with one of the revised plans. Or just drop the whole thing and sell the land. Much thought needed.

After that part, we looked at the windows, standard size for the thin windows is 02609, which is 026 / 09, ie, 26cm wide, and 090cm tall. We could also pick 036 for 36cm width, or 11 for 110cm height. Generally we like windows, so we opted for most of the small thin windows be the taller version. We asked about the 2F windows, if they can be larger, but you can not make them taller (falling out risk), but could make them slightly winder, so 16011 for those. We also chose frosted vs clear type of glass where it made the most sense. Should be noted that when they say "clear" glass, it is the glass with the small wire in it, making it grid-like (quake shatter proof).

After windows, we picked the colour of the kitchen cabinets, style of handle to open the drawers. Colour of the bathroom "vanity" unit, the bathroom walls and "accent", bathtub colour and toilet type. With toilet you can pick tankless, or with tank, if you want to wash your hands behind the toilet. But we have little hand washing sinks in the toilet rooms. And finally, the colour of my shower cabinet.

Shibuya approval

So it would seem the reply from Shibuya came on Wednesday and we received an email from builders on Thursday night. It included the Shibuya report, which is the land survey and bunch of angles and numbers. The builders also included a revised floorplan, with our proposed changes implemented. We made the 2 rooms on the ground floor be one large one, and putting in a kitchenette instead. The additional cost of that is less than the refund for making the house a bit smaller. We also picked the outside materials, as in which brick(like) style, and which wood(like) accent. It was pretty hard to chose, and the only example we had is the colour image of the house mockup we get with the floorplans. After second guessing ourselves for a while, I asked if we couldn't do the colour mockup with our selection instead. They said that is no problem and we can pick 3 selections and they will do mockups. Just.. what if I hadn't asked? Hmm, in the end, we picked 2 each and they will email us the mockups. We also don't really know the differences between the plastic and porcelain toilets. Which is better etc, and in fact, we may never even have used a plastic one. Apparently Toto's showroom has both so we will go to that and try them out. We also picked the tiles for the genkan. There was a page to sign as well, saying we are ok with the floorplan, ie, plan fixing - I guess they need one after the changes had to be done for Shibuya-ku. They also teased about the 1:50 plans for next time... again.

Showrooms

So while we were discussing the difference between a plastic or ceramic toilet with the builders, they suggested we go to the showrooms, one for Toto in Shinjuku, and Panasonic in Shinbashi. Since the Shinjuku one is a short bike ride away, we popped in to check it out. To our surprise it was really good, and fun to do even if you aren't building a house. See the different kinds of toilets, and bathrooms, showers, kitchens, cupboards, pantry, bedrooms, floor materias, doors, both outer and inner. We easily spent an hour in the first one, and decided to go pick up the kids and head out for the Shinbashi showroom as well. It gave us a chance to try out the wood we had picked out, and various kitchen colours, as well as, kitchen counter colours. Sit in the various bath tubs, and toilets to get a better feel for the size of our rooms. They had a few LDKs roughly in the size we will have, around 17, and it was encouraging that others had managed to fit kitchen, dining and living room setup in this space. The door selection was very much like Monsters Inc, slide out the door you want to look at. They had measurements everywhere, and you could move the kitchen drawers to the space your kitchen has (from 70cm gap to 160cm space between either side). We spent about 3 hours at the Shinbashi shop confirming selections, and making a few changes. It was probably the most fun we've had so far, building a house. I think we would have missed out had we not gone to the showrooms, making us wonder if perhaps we were supposed to be doing this ourselves. We sort of assumed that the builders would set this up. And to be honest, even as a tourist, if you are close to either one and have an hour spare, it is fun to see the way the Japanese houses are setup.

1:50 scale

Todays meeting we actually got the 1:50 scale floormap, which isn't really much more than the 1:100 floormaps we received that had been doubled with a photocopier. Well, a few more details I suppose, but more for the builders than us.

Each window and door, has a circular mark, like in the pictures. The floor height is considered at height 0, and since the genkan is a step down, the door in this case starts at -18, ie, 180mm down. It is a 1600mm wide, and 2000mm high from 16020. The SHS in this case means it is a sliding door/window, as opposed to SCS, which opens outward. The two kanji in the top right corner here means "clear" glass, as opposed to "frosted".

The floormaps also included "S" for smoke sensors, and "T" for thermal/heat sensors. Which apparently comes with the house. Also ventilation points, and fans. Both the fans that are always on, and those in the kitchen.

We also got to see the sample outside picks we had made, in the form of 4 print outs. Various brick and wood selections we had done. One was easy to discard (unless you like the prison look), but after that it got hard to chose. We also went over the outside again, the white rocks and so on. As well as wallpaper, but it is not easy to pick which grey version we want, so we said we would let them know next time.

Outside

It is somewhat amusing that in the last meeting, we mentioned the possibility of grass for the little strip of land before the road, and could we get a quote for it. To make sure we were talking about the same thing, we had to Google Image Search "grass" to show it. I guess it is that rare in Tokyo (well to be fair, there are many different kinds of grass, too). Today we received the quote for it, and to our surprise it was about 4万円 which is quite reasonable and cheaper than the white stones. So we will potentially have the only grass in Tokyo. We also received new printouts of the exterior selections we had made, and we made one selection in jest, which was the sun-toasted (yellow) bricks, with blue wood(-like tiles). Of course this ends up being the nicest option yet, mainly because all houses in Tokyo are essentially brown. Or some earth-tone colour, and most buildings pick the small tiles, giving it that "swimming pool" look to it. We were allowed to keep our brick selection tiles too. When it comes to the window frames, there was only aluminium, but we could pick colours. So no PVC choice or wood etc.

We went over the floorplans again, this time to make sure the light switches and power sockets are ok, especially after the change in the plan on 1F and 3F. Some minor tweaks only. They also had placed TV outlets, so I guess that means we will be in the neighbourhood cable tv network. They had made basic plans for AC placement as well, and the power sockets for them. We informed them about our wallpaper selections, and also picked the tiles for shower, bath and toilet rooms. We brought the selection of front-doors with us as well, but the one we had an eye for, is part of the optional extra set. So we are waiting to hear what the cost of that would be, or we will simply pick the second choice there. The plans also included water tap outside on 1F, as well as water-proof power sockets. We asked about getting a water tap on the rooftop balcony.

The builders also wanted to talk about the LDK big balcony door, as I have previously mentioned, we were after the sliding glass door, where you get an 100% clear opening when fully opened. But, since that door has to have the quasi-fire shutters, that means the shutters are quite large, including the section of the door that "hides", and sticks out a lot. Manual shutters. If we wanted to, we could change to the french-doors style instead, and the shutters are much smaller, and electric. If we wanted the french-door style (the "W" style), we could also go from 160cm to 180cm wide versions.

They also showed us a top-down outline of the land and house, to show the placement of the house inside the borders. Including where all access-covers, telephone-poles, neighbour's house windows. It is quite neat to have a map of all neighbours windows, on each floor, and see how the align with your own windows. The Y axis "zero ground level" is the height of the access-cover, and the house's floorline is then 130mm higher. Has the power, gas, water meters as well and their placement. Also picked the colour of the drain pipes, here we had a selection of shapes, from round, to angular, square etc. Also the trapdoors for access under the house, we picked the list colour of it, to be the closest to the floor selection.

I brought up the toilet as well, if we could go up one model. To do that would be another 15万円 per toilet. I'll have to think about this. (But thinking is done on the toilet?)

(Almost) Last Meeting

We started with confirming the power socket placements, since we moved some around when the 1F plan changed. This was just to confirm that the changes we did the previous meeting is all correct on the floor plans. After that we had to pick the colour for the list, between window and accent. So between the two brick types we had picked. Just the white,grey,black trio to pick from though. We then moved onto the wardrobe insides, how we want the hanger, vs shelves, vs drawers, in each wardrobe; since they are all of slightly different sizes. We had seen a neat fold-down writing desk style in one of the showrooms and asked if that was possible. They will check for us, and get an estimate. I brought up the LAN placements and when is a good time to do that, and showed where I thought about having LAN sockets. I thought about 5 sockets, leading to the storage area under the stairs, for the routers and wiring But apparently for one LAN cable, it costs about 1.5万円, so the total would be about 9万円. Ugh, considering the LAN cable part itself is practically free. But much harder for me to write after the house is done (inside the walls that is).

We asked again about the tap of RF, and they apologised for forgetting. I upgraded the toilet on 2F to one level up. Then it were finishing the meeting, and found out this was essentially the last meeting. heh, what? It's nice to know what are done, but also, are we sure we have done everything :) So we asked again to confirm we are getting an oven, the Finnish dishrack and all that. In the end, we made one more meeting, in two weeks, so that we can have final confirmation of our selections etc.

They pencilled in the 14th of Nov as materials arriving at the land and building to start, so the ground ceremony to be about a week before, possibly on the 8th of Nov, as that is a lucky day. But it is the builder foreman who contacts the shrine to organise the date, so we will find out when. After the ceremony we are to go back to the builders showroom where we go over everything and do the final hanko to approve everything. We were shown the A3 size booklet they are making, which has all details in it, from colour, to wallpaper etc. In this sample we also learned that for our house, with the sunlight from road rule is, 10m/1.25. Ie, from centre of the road, go straight up for 10 metres, then "the slope of the plane is 1.25m rise for every 1m of run". About 51 degree angle..?

We also received a paper to fill in details about big furniture, washing machine, fridge etc, and to which room we were planning to move them. They will calculate as to whether or not it is possible to, for example, carry the washing machine up the stairs, or if it has to be lifted in through a window.

(Real.Proper) Last Meeting

Today we had the last meeting with the builders, and had a full house, so to speak. Going back a week or so before, we received a letter from Shibuya-ku about the land purchase. A form to fill out about the tax required. This looked quite complicated, so we had asked our translator for help, which is why she came to the meeting. With the form, it assumes you bought the land for commercial use, so by showing papers and contract, that we are building a house etc, using the size of the land in m^2, and total size of house in m^2, plus math, minus rebate etc, it turns out that the rebate is larger than the calculated tax, so we need not pay anything for the land, There will be another form to fill in once the house has been built.

We also had one of the managers attend, who started the meeting explaining the issue about the water pipe. Since we want water to the 3F we need to get the wider pipe, as discussed earlier in here. To dig up the road, they need permission from the neighbours. Today we were told that, because there was an agreement with the neighbours and the land-seller (which needs to be redone with me as the requester, instead of the seller) they had assumed that getting the permissions updated would be "easy". Alas, the neighbour across from us has not been home for 2 months, and they are running out of time. It was explained that they will keep trying to get ahold of the neighbours before the deadline (mid Dec). Should that fail, they can bring in water from the Shibuya-ku part of the road, which is a hint further. But the builders will front the extra expenditure as it was their responsibility. Still there is time for things to go as planned. I filled in my part of the agreement with neighbours, complete with hanko, with space for 3 more names and hanko should they get a hold of the neighbours.

Then the meeting started proper, we went through the selections starting from outside, and all went smoothly until the kitchen. They had colour printouts for each selection too, so we could see the bath, with our tile selection, wall cover etc. Quite nice to get a visual. As for the kitchen, it was still blue, although we had picked "mango yellow" in the previous meeting. Much apologising aside, that was remedied quickly. We mentioned that we would like to upgrade the 35L oven to the larger 44L oven (44L is almost 'western regular' in size). But, the 44L version is not an option with Panasonic, our first pick in kitchen, and we had to change to Toclas for that. Toclas had no yellow colour option, it was listed under optional extras. If we wanted that, the bigger oven is 8man more, and the yellow colour 10man. What pushed it over the edge though, was the Finnish style dish drying cabinet, Panasonic only had a rail for drying towels, whereas Toclas had a proper cabinet. So, we essentially redid the whole kitchen in this meeting.

We also updated the light switches in 3LDK, as the wall the "middle set" was to go on, is a bit small. The quote for LAN cables was about 9man, so I trimmed it down to just a cable between 3F and 1F. The tap on the rooftop balcony apparently would need a pump to work at all, and that would cost about 40man. Since we really just want it for watering plants up there, it didn't feel like it was justified, instead we will get a quote for a rain water catcher.

There was one complication about the land. They had heard back from the Shibuya-ku road department, regarding the set-back. There was some clarification needed here, in that we were not talking about the setback on the north road, which is to follow the rules of Japan. But rather the road on the East side, which we had entered into an agreement with the neighbours (as part of the land purchase contract) to keep clear "for access". Not for cars, mind you.. there is no space to drive a car down that road, after our house. This was important though, since it was eventually explained that Shibuya-ku is "advising" that we pull the area of grass in smaller, to make sure it is 4m wide. But this is not classified as a 4m road, nor is it registered with shibuya-ku as a road. So it is suggested by Shibuya-ku to keep to 4m and not put grass there. However, I feel that as the contract does not specify 4m road, just that we will keep it clear for access, and that grass is much nicer than just asphalt, even if people were to walk on it. we will keep the grass there. The builders will simply not put down the little brick lip, that would separate the road and our "area".

Shibuya-ku also had some forms for us to fill out, with more hanko. One was to acknowledge we had a meeting, discussing the (real) 4m setback. There was also a form to fill in the total amount of setback, and shibuya-ku will pay us back if the setback is large enough to justify it.