Sunday, April 22, 2007

Land Crunch


Yesterday was my day off so my husband and I went for a bike ride to see a Surrealism exhibit at the Tochigi Prefectural Museum. I remembered I don't like surrealism except for Salvador Dali.

On the way there we stopped at an open house by one of the largest home builders in Japan. Seikusui House (pronounced "sexy house"). So for a 1290sqft house we were looking at $400,000, granted it was near the university. This is a suburban area where the houses are jam packed; I mean the neighbour coughs and you hear it. This price is reasonable because it includes the land and it is in a semi-rural part of japan. By semi-rural I mean 1 hour by bullet train to Tokyo.

So when I think of homes in Canada or America with gorgeous lawns, big backyards and big square footage for the same price it is a real reality check. I know, I know I am generalizing.

One nice point is Seikusui house gave us a present just for looking at their homes. We got some kitchen and bathroom wet naps and a dishcloth. Nice!