Nasu Sightseeing Virtual Tours A personal guide to Nasu. You can plan your trip by what you want to do.

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This is the first chapter. It explains why I decided to build a vacation house in Nasu and how I started to look for land.

Start of the project

別荘建築の始まり
I love Nasu, so I finally decided to build my own vacation house here.

At that time, I shared the progress of the construction in a diary format. In this chapter, I describe the first step, how I felt when I looked for land, and some points on how not to be cheated.
▼ Beginning of my house-building diary

I love Nasu so much that I finally decided to build a vacation house here. I reported the progress step by step at the same time in a diary format in 2001. I was very excited to see what kind of house would be completed.
On this site, I also explain many important points on how not to be cheated. I have seen many people who were actually cheated and had serious problems.

In Nasu, you must pay special attention when you buy land. There are many agents who try to make easy money by cheating people who are dreaming about a vacation house. You should also avoid agents who say that they do not care after the sale is finished. It is important to see whether you can keep a good, human relationship with the agent even after the construction is over. One quick way to judge an agent is to talk with people who built a house through that agent about five years ago.

Information from local people is more valuable than anything. Do not believe only the story from the agent. Please listen carefully to local people who can give you a calm and objective opinion. When you plan a big project like building a vacation house, it is important to control your excitement, collect many opinions and pieces of information, and then make a balanced decision. This is the key to avoiding a big failure.

Now, let me tell you how the house-building story started.


This happened between the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002. I was staying at a pension called “Sarai” in Nasu. To other people, it might have looked like I was just spending a slow and relaxing New Year holiday at a pension. But in fact, I was staying there with a clear decision.

My decision was, “This year I will have my own vacation house.” I had visited Nasu many times because I liked it so much, and my wish to have my own house there had become stronger little by little.

I felt a bit sorry because it was during the New Year holidays, but I made appointments with several real estate agents and went to see many pieces of land. There was heavy snow in Nasu at that time. I walked around to see many plots in a completely white landscape, but none of them felt quite right to me.

According to a rumor, 99% of real estate people in Nasu have some connection with unfair deals. Because of this, I started to feel that it was very difficult to find an honest agent by myself. When I was a little disappointed and thinking about what to do, the wife of Mr. Nakamura, the owner of Pension Sarai, spoke to me.

She said, “Are you looking for land for your vacation house? Then I can introduce you to the real estate agent who helped us when we built this pension. The president does not feel like a typical agent and has a very good personality. I think he will help you.”

The president she introduced took me to see several plots in the heavy snow. Among them, I found one place that I liked very much in terms of location. However, I asked him to wait for my answer because of the snow. I decided to check the condition again after the snow had melted and to compare it with other land before making a final decision.

大雪の那須街道
This is the Nasu road in heavy snow. I went around to look for land in this snow. There was too much snow, so I could not see the land clearly or the exact border lines.

*I think it is not realistic to look for land in such heavy snow.

How to read this story

Each page shows one step of building the vacation house in Nasu, such as land search, meetings with the architect, construction, and daily life after completion.
You can start from any part you like, but reading in order may help you understand the full flow more clearly.

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