This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew Koller, 31, a freelance camera operator who purchased a home in Yamagata, Japan, in March. Koller, who’s based in Edmonton, Canada, renovated the home and plans to use it as a vacation home. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Like a lot of millennials, I was exposed to Japanese culture in some sense early on with “Naruto,” “Pokemon,” and “Dragon Ball Z.” After that, I don’t think my interest really left.
Come 2020, I had a bunch of time on my hands like everybody else. It seemed like a good time to finally learn Japanese. I’ve been learning Japanese with a private tutor since then.
Then, in 2023, I made my first trip to Japan.
Like everybody else who comes back from their first trip to Japan, I just fell in love. I couldn’t stop talking about it, but I wanted a deeper connection to the community.
Courtesy of Andrew Koller
I wanted more than just the superficial, surface-level experience of Japanese life. So I thought maybe a good way to get that experience would be to buy a house that’s not in a major tourist city, somewhat live there, and spend a good chunk of time over there getting involved with the community by renovating a forgotten property.
The algorithm was watching for sure. After my first Japan trip, my YouTube and Instagram algorithms were suggesting to me all these similar people doing similar things.
From that, I was like, this seems like something I can do. In my free time, I like to DIY. I have a little workshop — I wouldn’t say I’m good at it, but I feel like I know enough to do the basics.
I’m at the point in my life now where I’ve had all these ideas and I’ve said, “Oh, it’d be cool to do this,” but I never do it. I never follow through. I just wanted to prove to myself that I actually followed through on one of these somewhat whimsical ideas.
The house I bought in Japan cost a fraction of what houses cost in Canada
I’ve always been interested in real estate since a young age.
Purchasing your first house is doable, but if you want to purchase a second house after that, like a rental, it’s extremely challenging to do that in Canada. Canada’s housing market has exploded, especially in Alberta.
I’m in a very fortunate position where my partner and I own a house and we own a rental property as well close to the university area.
I bought the rental house when I was 20 with my parents — they had to sign on because no bank was going to loan a 20-year-old kid a mortgage. I rented out the rooms and then I lived for free for my time in college.
Courtesy of Andrew Koller
Both houses have a similar value. My primary residence is worth just under $600,000 CAD (about $422,880). When we bought the rental 10 years ago, it was around $500,000 CAD, but it’s gone up since.
For my home in Japan, I spent $15,000 CAD (about $10,600) on the purchase price plus closing costs, which was another $3,000 CAD.
I can definitely see myself spending extended time in Japan.
I want to go out there at least a few times a year. It’s close to a pretty big ski resort, and I snowboard.
Doing the math for that, if I was to go stay in Banff or Jasper — one of the more popular mountain towns in Alberta — for a week and ski, it’s actually cheaper to fly to Japan, because the skiing is also very affordable, so that was a big factor for me.
I would like to rent it out, but I don’t plan on making a lot of money from it
I went to Japan in October 2025 to look at properties. I made an offer in November, it got accepted, and then I got possession of the property in March 2026. Then I went up for the entire month of April to start renovations on it.
I wanted to respect what was already there when I went in. Even though the house itself wasn’t ancient or historical — it was built in the ’60s or ’70s — it was very traditionally built with the Tatami rooms. I wanted to keep a lot of that, coming in as a Westerner.
I wanted to try and adapt to their way of life rather than trying to impose my own. I just wanted to complement what was already there.
Courtesy of Andrew Koller
Now, the house is 98% done.
The actual renovation costs right now are just over the purchase cost. So I’m at around $18,000 CAD and change, doing most of it myself.
Right now, the goal would be to do a short-term rental in the future, but I don’t plan on it making a lot of money.
I think that’s the one thing people will get confused about. They think, “If I do this and renovate it, I can make a ton of money off a short-term rental in Japan.” That’s not the case, because there’s so much competition with the hotels there that are already amazing and very affordable.
Courtesy of Andrew Koller
I just want to cover the maintenance costs more than anything. Doing a little bit of short-term rental, I think, will help with that.
It’s not an asset. I think maybe people go to Japan with the Western mindset, like, “Oh, it’s a buy-and-hold asset.” Outside of Tokyo and the big cities, real estate doesn’t do that.
Real estate always goes down in value over time. If you’re buying a house in Japan, go in with the expectation that it’s not as much of a financial asset as it is a recreation: you’ll get more of a cultural experience.
