A diary, not a travel channel
Building a life between the UK and Japan
I'm John. At fifty, instead of settling down, I redesigned my life: a mortgage-free house on a hillside in Kitakyushu, Japan, a home in England, and a few months a year in each. This site — and the Japan House Diary channel — is the honest, unhurried record of how that life is actually built: the house, the paperwork, the neighbours, the mistakes, and everything in between.
The story so far
This didn't start with a house. It started with a question.
Before I turned forty, I left a secure full-time career and spent the next decade travelling — a month crossing Japan in a campervan, Route 66 twice, dozens of countries. The question was always the same: what does a good life actually cost, and where can it be lived? Buying an old house in Kitakyushu wasn't a whim. It was the answer starting to take shape.
Here I write about what the videos can't fit: what things really cost, what went wrong, what I'd do differently, and how a life split between two countries works in practice — with Korea possibly joining the map next.
The full story →Follow the journey
New videos roughly every two weeks; occasional written pieces here. Leave your email and you'll get a short note when something new is published — nothing else, and you can unsubscribe any time.
Join the community
Ask questions, compare notes, and swap experiences with others buying houses, renovating, and building lives across countries. I read and answer personally.
Visit the communityA question about any of it?
Buying in Japan, renovation, visas, the channel — I read every message and reply personally.
Get in touch