October 2023
It was almost 1:30pm and I’d had such a busy morning I hadn’t even had time to stop for lunch. Rice cracker in hand, I briskly walked down the street in the warm autumn sun (I loved days like this!). Six doors down and I was munching my last mouthful as I waved to Kiyo and her mum, Mrs Suzuki. In true Japanese fashion that had arrived early to our meeting point, the Baptist church’s Prayer House. We all warmly greeted each other and then it was confession time.
“I couldn’t wait,” says Kiyo, “I came here earlier with mum to have a look. It’s actually not that bad!”
I’d never known Kiyo not to be trustworthy, but I just couldn’t believe her. Not that bad? Maybe her house tastes or standards were different to mine…?
I had been feeling too cramped and dissatisfied in our house-built-for-two. I’d gazed over the fence at the vacant house next door, hoping we could buy it. We’d made an enquiry but were still waiting for the answer. In the meantime, I had confided in my dear friend, Kiyo, about my struggles with our living arrangements and wanting to move out. She had proactively started searching for vacant homes in our village and on this day we were inspecting two of them.
The outside of the Prayer House was totally unwelcoming. The front gutter was starting to fall off the roof, the wood under the eaves was rotting. A large black mark on the corner of the front wall looked like mould from water damage. The roof was rusting. All timber outside was peeling its paint, rotting and/or falling down. And just the boxed shape of the building with its long sloped roof just looked so unappealing.
Mrs Suzuki turned the key and unlocked the door. They ushered me inside, telling me to keep my shoes on because the floors are so dirty. In Japan I’d never been told to keep my shoes on! I stepped through the entry and before entering the living room I was impressed. There, on the opposite side of the room was a beautiful, stately, wooden staircase complete with rustic timber poles. It was eye-catching.
“Wow!” I turn to Kiyo with large eyes, “it does look alright!”
“See!” There was no smugness, but confidence and joy.
Like a beckoning finger pulling us forward, the staircase drew us to itself. We ascend the stairs and found two sizable bedrooms. The lighting was poor (due to the typhoon doors and windows being closed on the outside of the house) but there was enough light to see the floor. I mentally counted the tatami mats: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Boy, I’m thinking like a Japanese! (Yes, the Japanese measure the size of a room by how many tatami mats can be laid in it.) The 6 tatatmi mat room was bigger than our 4.5 tatatmi mat living room in our house! I instantly allocated the rooms to the children, one each.
We opened the glass sliding door in one of the rooms and jiggled the typhoon door, pushing and sliding it to the side so we could see outside. There was no verandah, but a rotting wooden frame, the verandah roof for the room below was now long gone. I imagined how nice it would be to have a small balcony.
Before leaving the room I took note that there was a built in cupboard. The other bedroom was practically identical. There was one more room upstairs. It was only 2 tatami mats big. A very small room with a sloped roof, most people would hit their head, even on the higher side. A storage room perhaps… It did have a small window. Maybe a playroom for the kids... A Lego room!
At the top of the stairs there was a sort of skylight letting in natural light. But there was water damage and watermarks down the wall, on the door of the small room and onto the floor. How much damage has been done, I couldn’t tell.
I stood admired the living room from the top of the stairs. It wasn’t massive, but it looked so spacious to me! With two lounges facing each other on the wooden floor and a coffee table between, I could imagine table and chairs in their place. Oh to have a dining table with chairs!!!
Heading downstairs we looked at the room beside the living room, directly under the upstairs rooms. It was even bigger than the bedrooms upstairs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8! Eight tatatmi mats! Wow! With shoji doors standing in front of glass sliding doors on two sides of the room, facing east and south, (equivalent to north facing in the southern hemisphere) I was in love! Then Mrs Suzuki pointed out a walk-in storage cupboard, which was additional to the built in cupboards on the other side of the room. Awesome!!
We checked out the bathroom next. In typical Japanese custom, it was 3-way. The wet room was very large with this wooden platform in the middle of the room, so that you have to step up and over it to get to the shower and bath. I’d not seen anything like that before, but then again, I had been in very few Japanese homes. The whole bathroom looked like it needed a complete renovation.
Walking back into the living room, it was time to check out the kitchen. There wasn’t much to see. The kitchen was maybe half the size of not the entire bathroom, but just the wet room on its own! It was SO small!!! But impressively there was a lot packed into this mini galley style kitchen, with high cupboards lining the two long walls. The actual floorspace was maybe 1m wide! I imagined that only one person at a time would be in this kitchen!
I love the bedroom sizes. Bathroom will be fine after a reno. The house is so spacious! And with typhoon doors open, would be so well-lit and airy. Kitchen is a downer, but I could make it work...couldn’t I?
I couldn’t believe I was falling in-love with this dump. Extensive renovations were needed; inside walls were pealing off, flooring needed replacing, shoji doors all needed new paper, kitchen could do with a makeover, and bathroom was looking very sad, not to mention the outside of the house!!! But like a pearl hiding in the oyster, I could see the potential. I loved the layout, loved the southerly aspect (two bedrooms and the living room all faced south to the sun), loved the staircase and loved how spacious it felt (except for the kitchen, haha!).
“I haven’t told you yet,” Kiyo interrupted my thoughts, “but there’s another room.”
What?!
She led me back to the entryway and there was a door to the right. It was very dark and unfortunately the torch on my phone was hopeless, but I had a brief look inside and could see that it also had tatami mats on the floor, but they were currently protected by a blue tarp and had garden tools sitting on it. At a glance it seemed to also be 6 tatatmi mats big. Wow! A spare room!
As I walked out of the house, my heart felt stolen, but yet cold at the same time. It was just too much work. There was no way Shujin would be interested. This house just needed too much work! A LOT of work! Almost a complete renovation. But it was so easy to imagine our family of four living there, in this beautiful, sunny, well-lit home. And with a spare room, Okasan could stay over anytime, and have her own space!
I’d have a wood stove installed so we could actually be warm in winter. I’d insulate the house before relining the walls so we could be super toasty in the winter, and cool in summer. Oh the dream! The kids would have their own rooms, and I would have a normal size bedroom! And a dining table with chairs!
I took no photos, I just knew it was too much work and Shujin wouldn’t be interested. But back outside, I suddenly regretted. So I asked to go back in and Mrs Suzuki was much obliging, retrieving the key from her pocket. I took three quick snaps.
While my head and my heart were waging war, Kiyo and I went to the next house. The outside looked tired, but not unlivable. And large. Double-story. A Mansion in Japanese terms. I anticipated great things as I stood back and waited for the front door to be unlocked.
I was invited in and stepping inside, I discovered I was in the bathroom. Huh? Perhaps we’d come in the “laundry door”, seeing as it was on the side of the house… We walked through the bathroom and down the hallway and around the corner and came into a small room with a round table and chairs. Okasan’s small living room was bigger than this! Next to it was the kitchen.
The kitchen was very generous in size, you could put a narrow dinning table in it. There was a small room off the kitchen, like a storage room, and just one other room beside the one with the table. It was small. Surely not a bedroom? But what? The bedrooms must be downstairs.
We went down the long, narrow staircase and stepped into the bedroom. The one and only bedroom, which had an ensuite. And that was it.
It was such a strange, one bedroom, two bath house! Apart from the kitchen, nothing else appealed to me. It was certainly not suitable for a family of four.
Back out on the street, Kiyo and I talked over the two properties. We both loved the “Prayer House” and were impressed with how spacious it was, despite looking very box-y and small on the outside, and we both thought the “Mansion” was like a rabbit warren and a total flop!
“There’s one thing I haven’t told you yet,” confessed Kiyo, “the Prayer House is free.”
“Free?” what did she mean? “Free as in available? Or free as in, costs nothing?” I was confused.
“Free as in, costs nothing. They aren’t selling it. The Baptist church wants to give it away.”
My poor Aussie brain could hardly comprehend the concept of someone wanting to give away property, for free!
At home, I sent the three photos of the Prayer House to Shujin with just 5 words, “I found a free house.”
I love sunny, well-lit homes. My husband and I both appreciate a good kitchen. What house features appeal to you?
When your heart and your head are at war, what do you do?
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A free house! Wow... so unbelievable for an Aussie mind!
Pray, step forward. God’s blessings are new every morning and you have seen them unfold for you and the family. Here’s prayerfully hoping. What was his response to the ‘free house’? :)