Building a House without Spending Much Money: I didn’t have any experience of building a house. Since I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have any choice but to build one by myself. I’d mowed before, but I’d never had the experience of cutting down so many trees. Even so, I was trying to make a step forward for my new life.

That is mainly because I noticed something was wrong living in a metropolis. One day, after coming back to Tokyo from living in Madarao Highlands for one year, I noticed that I had not stepped on the earth. The touch and smell of air was different. "Something was wrong. What was it?" This place is not where I should live. This is not a place for us to live, I thought. Then I started looking for the place to live. next

My wife had the same thought. "Tokyo is not where we want to live." "Let’s go out and look for land." We looked around for 18 months. That was when our first daughter Haru was 1 year old. We had place in Setagaya but we often went out by car and slept in the car and used portable gas stove for cooking. We’d return to Tokyo when I had to work and when I’d finished working we again went out to look for land.

It was valuable time. Since we slept in the car, we keenly realized how important it is to have water and a toilet. That was also the time when my wife and I spoke our minds to each other. We looked around many places and went to the local hot-spring and listened to the local old men talk on their land. We went to Chiba, Saitama, Izu, etc. And finally we chose Tsuru considering several conditions like not far from Tokyo so that people can visit us easily. next

I first tried to build a minimum-size house with low cost. If I build a house on someone’s land no matter how valuable the house is once I need to return the land, everything goes in vain. I had such an experience, so I strongly wanted to own the land. So I bought the land. And I got building materials, thinking that I’d build a house by myself. I started building the house without any blueprint. I felt that it is important to believe that I can do it otherwise it’s not possible.

Leveling the ground was the hardest part. Gradually, I became fed up with cutting down the trees and mowing single-mindedly. Eventually, I could not move so much because my back started to hurt. I was also mentally exhausted. When I couldn’t continue working by myself, I sent letters to my friends asking for help and decided the days for working together so that I could encourage myself to work. Many friends came and helped with a little money for lunch and bath. next

With all the support I got from my friends, thinking of what I could do to repay them became my homework. I have not yet come up with a clear answer. But it could be that we make a living properly here or I go to help them when they want to build a house. It may not be returning something directly to my supporters. It could be done through helping those who start living in the countryside. I think that’s how the cycle works.

I really appreciate help from others, especially 2 of my younger colleagues. They devoted themselves, saying "Please do not hesitate to ask anything." "I will do anything." It couldn’t have been possible without their support. I really did ask them many things without hesitating. The house was built. I am truly thankful to them.

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