If you believe that America’s national park system is one of the greatest achievements in the country‘s history — and is for the betterment of mankind — you’d find yourself in the company of the majority, including me.

However, Cronon articulates a fascinating history of post-Civil War America and the winding down of the Indian wars. At this time, many native Indians were forced off their land to establish the national parks across the country in the name of keeping the land “pristine” and “sublime”. Naturally, we think of this as an absurd tragedy. We often think of the native people as having a deep connection with the land and a deep connection to their human nature. Why, then, would we divorce them from their natural place and way of life in order to respect an arbitrary line on the map?

In his essay, Cronon argues that we all possess the same human nature, whether we are native Indian, American settlers moving out West, Swiss mountaineers, or Japanese farmers. However, in our modern world, we Americans seem to have forgotten that truth that we are embued with human nature. Modernity and industrialization have done a good job of detaching us from the land, the fruits of our labor, and the wrath of natural disaster.

Cronon says that we have fetishized the wilderness out there and have failed to recognize the wilderness in here.

From a practical matter of public policy, it makes no sense to dismantle the national parks nor would I ever advocate for such action. However, my experiences in Japan, in Switzerland, and the reflections I’ve gained from reading this essay have taught me that it does little good to treat far-flung places as separate from civilization. If we do so, it becomes easy to slip into the mindset that we humans are devoid of nature, or worse, are contaminants to it.

Instead, Cronon argues that we should tend to our gardens, care for the trees along our sidewalks, and clean the streams in our neighborhoods just as if they are Yosemite Valley, the Amazon Rainforest, or the Ganges River.

There is a beautiful Buddhist belief that says that as you walk along the street and look upon the faces of the strangers going past you, you may just be looking at the face of the Buddha. In the same way, the nature in your backyard exemplifies the sublime if you only look close enough.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature by William Cronon

* The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

* Walking by Henry David Thoreau

* My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

* Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail by Theodore Roosevelt

* The End of Nature by Bill McKibben

* This Is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic River by Wallace Stegner

* Home Economics by Wendell Berry

Links to More Resources:

* Profesor William Cronon

* President Theodore Roosevelt

* John Muir

* William Woodsworth

* Hayao Miyazaki

* Princess Mononoke

* Wendell Berry

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* The Akiya Project on YouTube

Products Used For the Build

* Rockwool Insulation

* Wood Putty

If you’d like to see the visual media and photos behind this paywall, please subscribe for $5 a month or just $40 a year!

In this episode, I walk through my observations upon returning to the US from Japan and share what I witnessed after the outbreak of the LA fires, which have filled headlines worldwide.

Commenting on current events is a bit out of the norm for the podcast. However, I offer a quick history of 13 years of life to help illustrate the personal perspective I have on the disaster. I also briefly mention Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue.

For those of you who would like to get into the weeds with me about Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue, I wrote an all-to-short summary of his thesis below. He deserves to be studied deeply.

In short, I will argue that we are indeed living in an age after virtue. A suffocating, growing, cold bureaucracy has filled that vacuum. But in the aftermath of the fires, I also witnessed the human spirit in the streets of Pasadena.

The Enlightenment’s Mistake

According to MacIntyre, the Enlightenment thinkers (18th-century philosophers like Kant, Bentham) wanted to replace Aristotle’s virtue ethics — which tied morality to shared human purpose (telos) — with “rational” systems like rights and utility.

But by foregoing the idea that humans have a built-in moral purpose, they turned ethics into a free-for-all. Without a common “why” for morality, debates became clashes of personal preference, not mutual pursuits of truth through reason.

The Death of Virtue

Aristotle’s virtues (courage, justice, etc.) thrived in communities with shared goals. In the pursuit of maximizing individual freedom, the Enlightenment rejected Aristotelian virtue — throwing the baby out with the bathwater. People began treating ethics like a menu of opinions, prioritizing personal preference.

This is why public discourse is so shrill in the modern era, according to MacIntyre. “Abortion is wrong” and “Gun ownership is wrong” are shallow arguments rooted in the speaker’s likes and dislikes as opposed to a higher aim for human flourishing. This fractured the social fabric.

MacIntry calls this emotivism. “X is wrong” just means “I dislike X.” Without a shared understanding of virtue, debates became manipulative power struggles. There’s no common ground — just competing preferences.

Bureaucracy’s Rise

Into this moral vacuum stepped bureaucrats. They claimed “neutral expertise” to manage society “scientifically.” But this is susceptible to human weakness and cowardice:

* Managers pretend to be value-neutral but enforce their desires (profit, power, slacking off work, giving their friends a pass).

* Institutions prioritize external goods (money, metrics) over internal goods (craftsmanship, care).

In my opinion, this is one of many reasons why buildings are so ugly today. Craftsmanship is not valued today as it was in the old world. What is valued today is how quickly you can build something with efficiently priced labor and materials.

Why Bureaucracy is a Moral Catastrophe

* It Crowds Out Virtue: Bureaucracies reduce people to data points. Teachers “teach to tests,” universities chase quotas. Instead of mentoring students through childhood or accepting the most worthy applicant, for example, such moral judgment is replaced by compliance.

* It Destroys Community: Bureaucracies fragment society into isolated individuals. In a virtuous society, communities cultivate trust through face-to-face relationships, reciprocal duties, and a common understanding of telos.

This telos was perfectly illustrated in the generosity displayed after the outbreak of the LA fires. There was a shared story of “we’re going to help each other out to rebuild”. Bureaucracies fragment these stories into isolated incidents to be "managed," divorcing actions from their moral context.

To be honest, I deeply believe MacIntyre is right: We’re in a moral dark age. But as I discuss in the episode, I saw decency in the aftermath of the fires. Fellow residents were lending a hand — no permits required. At the end of the day, Altadena and the Palisades will rebuild — not because a committee approved it, but because neighbors showed up.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre

Links to More Resources:

* Americana at Brand

* Rick Caruso

* Hyatt Regency in Austin, TX

* Buc-ee's

* California, the most regulated state in the USA

* Cafe Frosch in Kyoto

* Yumeji Vintage Villa in Kyoto

* Graduate Institute Geneva Maison de la Paix building

* Picciotto Student Residence Building

* Japan Tobacco International Building

* WWOOF: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

* Change.org Poll Demanding the Immediate Recall of LA Mayor Karen Bass

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* The Akiya Project on YouTube

My brother and I finished demolishing the entire kitchen by hand, including the stone foundation, brick stove, ceramic tile bathtub, and wood framing. (Here’s a YouTube short of the demolishing of the kitchen.) Upon clearing the site of debris, we dug deep footings around the entire perimeter and placed rebar inside.

We were working against the clock because our flights home to California for the Christmas break were upon us. However, we managed to pour the concrete, batch by batch. Without the luxury of a backhoe or a cement truck, we completed this process with shovels, a hammer drill, a wheelbarrow, and a portable electric cement mixer.

Ultimately, we left the work site at a great spot. In January, I’ll be able to pick up where we left off and cap off the entire floor of the future kitchen with a nice concrete slab. Then will come the fun part (and my brother’s specialty as a trained carpenter): wood framing.

Below, you’ll find three photos of the old kitchen:

Now, here are four photos of the cleared space and the footings we dug. We had to remove the old foundations first. (It was interesting to see how the previous builders worked. They placed large boulders beneath the rectangular foundations to lock the whole structure in place.)

When digging and forming the new foundation, we used string lines and the Pythagorean theorem to make sure the corners were square:

When my parents visited in November, they helped a great deal with cleaning, organizing, demolishing walls, and composting the old straw from the attic:

One last housekeeping note, I am going to change the name of the podcast to: The Akiya Project. It provides more continuity with the YouTube channel. Most importantly, the name more truly reflects the central theme of the podcast. Logistically, nothing will change on your end.

And with that, I am excited to bring you today’s episode on the iconic and tumultuous life of Frank Lloyd Wright. His designs have had a profound influence on me and how I hope to build. It was a pleasure to dive deep into his life to learn about his own influences, his philosophy on nature and democracy, and in particular, his fascination with old Japan.

His imprint still echoes deeply across America, and even parts of Japan. At the very least, here in my little corner of Kobe, his legacy will endure.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life by Ada Louise Huxtable

* A History of the American People by Paul Johnson

* The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanaka

* Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Years, 1910-1922 by Anthony Alofsin

* Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan: The Architects Other Passion by Julia Meech

Links to More Resources:

* Ada Louise Huxtable

* New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission

* Penn Station

* The Playroom of the Oak Park Home

* James Charnley House

* Unity Temple

* Larkin Company Administration Building

* Prairie Style House

* The Darwin D Martin House

* The Imperial Hotel

* Museum Meiji-Mura

* The Hollyhock House

* Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin

* Läicité

* Taliesin West

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* The Akiya Project on YouTube

Products Used For the Build

* Rockwool Insulation

* Crawl Space Vapor Barrier

* Fujampe Electric Cement Mixer

* EM-1 Effective Microorganism Solution

A Sketch of the House Floor Plans

As mentioned in today’s episode, I’ve attached a photo of the tentative floor plans that I drew for the house. I decided to place it behind a paywall since it is my personal creation and something I’d like to keep between friends, family, and those who are closely following the project:

The first concrete has been poured beneath the previous foundation! The process will continue several more times, which will ensure that the house does not heave or shift unevenly over time or fail during an earthquake.

In other news, we have running water on the property thanks to a deep well cleaning and the installation of a brand-new pump. The well now has a capacity of 2.5 tons of water per day! I am in the middle of editing a video about the cleaning process for the YouTube channel, so I will share that here next time. For now, you can listen to me describe a bit of the process in today’s episode.

Here are just a few tips I’ve learned from YouTube and from studying Foundations & Concrete Work, published by Fine Homebuilding (a magazine I love, by the way):

* First, place a set of gravel under the concrete. It provides a stable base, improves drainage, and prevents cracks.

* The plastic sheet (see below) is a passive house detail that improves airtightness and prevents moisture from rising into your crawlspace.

* Since this job was a retrofit, we anchored rebar into the old foundation. We drilled holes into the old foundation with the hammer drill, filled them with specially designed caulk, and inserted the rebar into the holes.

* The standard mix is generally: 1 part cement, 2 parts sand, 3 parts aggregate.

* More water that you add makes it easier to work with but also reduces its strength.

* Try to mix to the consistency of cookie dough.

* After you pour, vibrate the mix to reduce air bubbles that form inside.

* To help the concrete cure, shower it with water every few hours (water is an agent that activates the cement).

Unbeknownst to me for weeks, episode #40 went missing from the catalog. I am not sure how this happened but my interview with Steve Beimel was fantastic, and I think it deserves to be shared far and wide across Japan. I’ve re-uploaded it this week.

I enjoyed listening back to our discussion. I recalled my subsequent visit to the School of Traditional Building Arts in Kyoto and learning how to use the Pythagorean theorem, a chalk line, and a handsaw to carve a wood joint. It was also wonderful to reflect on how far things have progressed since the time of the interview (just over one year ago).

I hope you enjoy this re-broadcast as much as I did.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* The Beauty of Everyday Things

* Japanese Country Style

Links to More Resources:

* JapanCraft21.com

* Japan Traditional Craft Revitalization Contest

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* JapanLivingArts.com

* Mingei Folk Craft

* Soetsu Yanagi

* “Yō-no-bi”

* Shin-Machiya Juku (School of Traditional Building Arts)

* Tokonoma Alcove

* Yoshihiro Takishita

* Minka Summit

* Melmac

* Kengo Kuma

Products Used For the Build

* Siphon Pump

* Magnetic Sweeper

* EM-1 Effective Microorganism Solution

In an episode last summer, I covered my first autobiography about the story and works of Yoshihiro Takishita. Looking back at my catalog of podcasts, I found this to be one of the most insightful and enjoyable to listen to.

For a few months now, I’ve been dwelling in the realm of ideas — about beauty, tradition, modernism — and have been itching to bring them down to a more practical, human level. There’s no better place to start than to re-explore the genre of biography. The practitioners of architecture will no doubt have much to offer as I work on my Japanese farmhouse restoration.

Today, Kengo Kuma will give us a tour of his finished works throughout Tokyo, which range from epic sports venues to regal museums to quaint confectionary shops. As arguably the greatest wood architect of his generation, he advocates for an architecture that respects and takes into account its surroundings — as opposed to obtrusive buildings that selfishly obscure their neighbors.

Since my project is mostly a historic building restoration, the house should take its humble place within the neighborhood without much difficulty. However, I think Kuma can still offer inspiration in another area. Collapsed roofs and rotten columns will need full replacement, and there will be plenty of room to use new wood material in a creative (Kuma-influenced) way to bridge the old and the new.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* My Life as an Architect in Tokyo

* The Art of Japanese Joinery

* Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography

* Frank Lloyd Wright by Ada Louise Huxtable

* Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture

Kengo Kuma’s Works Mentioned

* Japan National Stadium

* Meiji Jingu Museum

* Sunny Hills

* Daiwa Ubiquitous Computing Research Building

* Asakusa Tourist Information Center

Links to More Resources:

* How to Install a French Drain — Akiya Project YouTube

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* Lowering Your Basement on YouTube

* Kengo Kuma

* Shigeru Ban

* Kazuyo Sejima

* Kenzo Tange

* Grand Morillon Student Residence at IHEID

* Yoyogi National Stadium

* Zaha Hadid

* Meiji Jingu Shrine

* Seiroku Honda

* Antonin Raymond

* Jigoku Gumi

* University of Tokyo — Hongo Campus

* Yoshikazu Uchida

* Yoshichika Uchida

* Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel

* Asakusa Shrine

* Asahi Beer Headquarters

Products Used For the Build

* Hammer Drill Shovel Bit

* Makita Hammer Drill

With a month-long trip back to California, I took time off from the project and enjoyed reading The Old Way of Seeing by Jonathan Hale. I first heard about the book from Brent Hull, a master craftsman who wrote an article titled “Books Every Builder Should Own” for the wonderful magazine Fine Homebuilding.

In a democracy, equality is among society’s highest ideals. One drawback, Hale argues, is that we tend toward mediocrity. As the Japanese saying goes, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” Hale pushes back against this, pointing out that our built world has become increasingly ugly. Despite saying the obvious, our society remains uncomfortable with such harsh judgment. It prefers to maintain the average.

In this book, Hale illustrates this view, contrarian to our modern times. He makes the case that the old way of seeing produced beauty, and that we have lost that ability. He dives into what made the old way of seeing so powerful, namely that the ancients were more in touch with human intuition, natural patterns, and the ethic of play. He provides a history of when and how we lost the old way of seeing. He discusses how the vision of the modernists and the post-modernists fell short. And he concludes with a hope for the future.

He presents Frank Lloyd Wright as the greatest architect of our modern times. He understood the importance of pattern and form, yet he knew how to innovate. He was not tied down by historical precedent, yet he knew how to play with and off of old buildings. Most of all, he understood his culture and designed homes that epitomized American democratic life.

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did! I am back in Japan now and preparing for the most grueling stage of the project: retrofitting the foundation. I’ll update you more on that next time. In the interim, have a look at our new YouTube channel to see our successful implementation of a French Drain. Thanks again.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* The Old Way of Seeing

* The Classical Language of Architecture

* Democracy in America

* After Virtue

Links to More Resources:

* The Akiya Project on YouTube

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* Jonathan Hale

* Brent Hull

* Books Every Builder Should Own by Brent Hull

* Fine Homebuilding

* Edward Hopper

* Vesica piscis

* Alexis de Tocqueville

* Democracy in America

* Tyranny of the majority

* Nicholas Biddle

* Golden ratio

* Alasdair MacIntyre

* Reconstructed Historic Center of Warsaw

* Ralph Waldo Emerson

* Frank Lloyd Wright

* What are Usonian-style homes?

As opposed to removal work like throwing out trash, cutting bamboo, and organizing storage, my brother and I have finally completed our first tangible contribution to the property: a French drain. Below, I’ve listed the Japanese “netron” pipe product we used for the drain, which is quite unique from the typical perforated pipe you’d find in the United States. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a supplier of netron pipes for you in the US.

The other major task that we completed this month was the removal of an estimated 400 small bales of straw from the attic. With one bale averaging 10 pounds, we removed roughly 2 tons of straw! Bale by bale, we piled them up in the backyard. We wore long sleeves to keep our skin relatively clean, plus we wore heavy-duty respirators. The back-breaking work in the humid attic forced me to enter a mental state of detachment, repeating in my head, “Just one at a time. Just one at a time.” I’m glad it’s over.

As someone with a soft spot for traditional architecture, I’ve been flirting with the idea of re-thatching the old roof. I hesitated to expose the straw to the elements in the backyard because that amount of straw would be enough to thatch most, if not all, of the roof. However, the current priority for me is to reduce the weight of the building in preparation for the foundation retrofit. As a consolation, I have contacted kusa-kanmuri, an incredible thatch roof company in Kobe, to try to donate the straw. I hope it can go to good use.

Having spent over a week in the attic, I have become more familiar with the construction of traditional Japanese roof framing. This makes today’s book all the more timely. The Art Of Japanese Joinery by Kiyoshi Seike has helped me to examine the various wooden joints around the house with a more trained eye.

While it is not a strict how-to manual, the book’s photographs and diagrams helped move me from a pure novice of Japanese joinery to an educated amateur. While I can rely on my brother (a trained carpenter) for detailed woodwork, I will certainly reference Seike’s book for guidance when we start restoring the wood framing.

Kiyoshi Seike was one of the most influential architects of Japan’s post-war era. His long list of architectural works includes residential homes, university buildings, and structures for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. The house he built for himself in Toyko, simply titled “My House” (watashi no ie), is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan. In fact, you can schedule a visit using this Japanese website if you are interested.

In today’s episode, we take a deep dive into the history of Japanese joinery from Seike’s point of view. We learn about the origins of kiwari, Japan’s human-centered measuring and proportioning system. We learn about how to best implement joinery (namely that you ought to reinforce wooden joints with adhesives, nails, or metal braces). We also get a taste of Seike’s comprehensive and technical list of types of tsugite joints and shiguchi joints. Please enjoy.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* The Art Of Japanese Joinery

* Foundations & Concrete Work

* The Classical Language of Architecture

* Building the Timber Frame House: The Revival of a Forgotten Art

Links to More Resources:

* The Akiya Project on YouTube

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* The Marco Polo Bridge Incident

* Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform

* Great Fire of Meireki

* Fire Blocking Basics

* Kiwari (in Japanese)

* Traditional Japanese house earthquake test (video)

* Splice Joints (Tsugite)

* Connecting Joints (Shiguchi)

* Kusa-kanmuri in Kobe

* Schedule a visit to Kiyoshi Seike’s “My House”

Products Used For the Build

* Japanese Netron Pipe

* Non-Woven Geotextile Fabric

* CIGMAN Self-Leveling Laser Level

* Walensee Tamper

* KEEN Steel Toe Work Boots

* Big Red Hydraulic Jack

It’s easy to get discouraged during these early phases when my brother and I are literally moving earth with nothing but shovels, a wheelbarrow, and our bare hands. We move forward inch by inch. 

On some days, it does not feel as though we complete much. But when I look back at the photos from one month ago, our progress becomes clear. I feel gratified with the hard work.

This project has humbled me to the raw power of nature. We’ve exerted great energy in forcing the sprawling bamboo roots to unclinch their grip on the earth. We’ve hauled away buckets and buckets of soil that flooded the house over the decades. Most of all, we’ve witnessed the power of water. 

Wherever we’ve seen a crack in the roof, we’ve found rotting wood below. Water has also seeped up from the ground and into the crawlspace air, destroying the underside of the floorboards. Water has even softened the soil near the foundation, making the stones start to slip downward. 

Our most successful task this month has been the digging of over 300 feet of trenches, to be used as a French drain. This is all in the name of getting the water out. In addition to channeling rain and groundwater into the nearby river, the drain system will also lower the land’s water table. This will keep our future footings dry and will reduce the amount of moisture that enters the crawlspaces. 

Once this is done, foundation work will begin. My architect has just begun to draw plans and details for the footings. This will no doubt occupy our July and August. This is the most important part of the structure, so the investment of sweat and persistence will surely pay dividends. Wish us luck.

Today’s book, Be Your Own House Contractor: Save 25% Without Lifting a Hammer, has been a great resource for me to ease my anxiety about the intensity of the work. The author Carl Heldmann provides well-organized lists of every home-building step you need to consider, a breakdown of costs, and the proper sequence of steps. This orderly information has helped me put into perspective where I am now and how far I need to keep going.

My architect has told me, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” This book has helped me understand my place in that marathon and manage my energy for the upcoming year. I hope you find it just as useful.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* Be Your Own House Contractor: Save 25% Without Lifting a Hammer by Carl Heldmann

* Passive House Details: Solutions for High-Performance Design

Links to More Resources:

* The Akiya Project on YouTube

* Build Your Own House website (www.byoh.com)

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

Cost Breakdowns Provided in the Book

* Permits, fees, surveys

* Installing Utilities (electric, gas, phone)

* Excavation

* Foundation

* Rough Lumber

* Rought Labor

* Windows and Exterior Doors

* Roofing

* Concrete flatwork (slabs) garage floors, basement floors

* Siding

* Plumbing

* Heating

* Electrical

* Insulation

* Water (Well)

* Sewer (Septic)

* Fireplaces

* Drywall

* Cabinets

* Interior Trim

* Interior Trim Labor

* Painting

* Applications

* Light Fixtures

* Floor Coverings

* Driveway

* Garage Door

* Other

Proper Sequence of Steps in Building the House, according to Carl Heldmann:

* Staking the lot and house: 1–3 hours

* Clearing and excavation: 1–3 days

* Ordering utilities, temporary electric service, and a portable toilet: 1 hour

* Footings (first inspection must be made before pouring): 1 day

* Foundation and soil treatment, then foundation survey: 1 week

* Rough-ins for plumbing, if on a slab, and inspection: 2–4 days

* Slabs, basement, and garage: 1–2 days

* Framing and drying-in: 1–3 weeks

* Exterior siding, trim, veneers: 1–3 weeks

* Chimneys and roofing: 2 days–1 week

* Rough-ins (can be done during steps 9 and 10): 1–2 weeks

* Insulation: 3 days

* Hardwood flooring and underlayment: 3 days–1 week

* Drywall: 2 weeks

* Priming walls and pointing up: 2 days

* Interior trim and cabinets: 1–2 weeks

* Painting: 2–3 weeks

* Other trims, such as Formica, ceramic tile, vinyl floors: 1 day-1week

* Trimming out and finishing plumbing, mechanical, and electrical and hooking up utilities: 1–2 weeks

* Cleanup: 2–3 days

* Carpet and/or hardwood floor finish: 3 days–1 week

* Driveway (if concrete, can be poured anytime after step 14): 1–3 days

* Landscaping: 1–3 days

* Final inspections, surveys, and closing of construction loan and interim loan: 1–3 days

* Enjoying your home: a lifetime

Note: Steps 2 and 4 can be done by one sub. Steps 3 and 4 can be reversed.

My brother has arrived! He settled into his sharehouse, took a tour around the neighborhood, and began working on-site with me. We’ve already made great progress on excavating more trash, old furniture, and unneeded material. A more pristine work site is on its way.

I’ve also met with my architect a few more times. As we wait for the 3D model to come in, I’ve been starting with tasks that don't need an architect’s blueprints. First up is digging French drains around the property. I’ll make sure to share photos of the process, as I’ve researched some best practices from both books and YouTube.

I’m also thinking of renting a backhoe to remove the muddy topsoil from the main road, compact the soil below, and install pavers or cobblestones. I may need to reinforce the side of the road as well. My neighbors have said that the previous owners used to drive their cars all the way up to the house back in the day, so I hope I can mend the road to its previous strength.

I read a quote from T.S. Eliot once that always stuck with me, and it’s been coming to mind quite a bit this month:

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

― T.S. Eliot, The Rock

Even though Eliot first published The Rock in 1934, the quote rings as true today as ever. Thanks to Google, we have the world’s information at our fingertips, and thanks to AI language models, we have it at a moment’s notice.

And thanks to innovations in building technology, we now have the information to build safe, indestructible buildings quickly and cheaply. But I sense that we have lost the wisdom to build beautifully, to build harmoniously.

In today’s podcast, The Classical Language of Architecture will unearth some clues to that wisdom. We will learn about the Greek and Roman “Orders” and how to use them in our buildings. We will learn about the philosophy of harmony and storytelling that drives classical architecture.

The author Sir John Summerson will teach us about the fascinating history of the Orders as well. After the fall of the Roman Empire, societies across the European continent lived among the ruins. But the knowledge of how to build as the Romans faded from memory — until an Italian scholar rediscovered an ancient text by a Roman engineer almost 1,400 years after it was first written.

How lucky we are to live in a world where that knowledge was not lost forever. For me, Summerson’s book is my first introduction to the classical language of architecture. It has helped me to look at the built environment around me with a fresh set of eyes. Please enjoy.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson

* Foundations & Concrete Work by Editors of Fine Homebuilding

* Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture

* The Four Books of Architecture

* The Art of Japanese Architecture

* Essai sur l'architecture by Marc Antoine Laugier

* The Rock by T.S. Eliot

Links to More Resources:

* The Soil Texture Triangle

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

* #47 Greene, Wright, Huntington, and the Art of Japanese Architecture

* Donato Bramante

* Sebastiano Serlio

* Vitruvius

* Andrea Palladio

* Sir John Soane

* Postmodernism

* Marc-Antoine Laugier

* Inigo Jones

* Le Corbusier

* Modern Movement

* If you don’t see the photos, visit Substack to subscribe.

Just a few days ago, a 3D modeling company brought over their cameras and tripods to scan the ins and outs of the property (my architect in California will use the data to visualize the site since he can’t visit in person). I’ll share more about this important step soon, but recently, I’ve been reflecting much more on the manual clean-up required to prepare for the scan.

Whenever I would encounter other forms of life up there, like lizards, spiders, and even orange slime molds, my fight or flight responses would kick in, my pupils would dilate, and my body would rush with adrenaline. In our safe, manufactured cities, I rarely needed to turn on these instincts. But up in the mountains, I have found myself gaining a greater awareness of and connection to my natural surroundings.

One day, I pulled a heavy cabinet off the front lawn and uncovered the shelter of not one, but two Japanese pit vipers (mamushi). As it turns out, mamushi are one of two venomous snakes in Japan. I had probably walked past them daily for weeks without even knowing it! They have since slithered away in retreat, but I’m sure they’re not too far. 

Equally startling to me was my encounter with a pair of rodents. I had just finished removing a stack of rotten wood and was sweeping up the remaining heavy debris. Resting beneath this layer of debris were two newly-born mice — pink, hairless, and totally helpless. Their infant form was both disarming and creepy. I lightly covered them back up, hoping their mother would return (especially before the snakes find them).

In addition to the vast but forgotten ecosystems that exist before our eyes, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for something else we often take for granted and even look down upon: trash collectors.

Since the 3D scan was a big expense and a one-time camera shoot, the site had to be as clean as possible. I removed over one hundred bags of trash and nearly one ton of scrap metal that the previous owners left. I was so desperate to get the ever-increasing mountain of trash bags out of my house that, as a customer of trash disposal services, I would have been happy to pay an extra inconvenience fee for the sheer volume I was amassing. 

On trash day, I stuffed the neighborhood collection area to the brim and drove away nervously, hoping the collectors would accept my trash. When I drove past later in the afternoon, the bags had disappeared and no warning notices had been posted. The trash collectors were simply doing their jobs, but from my elated perspective, they had taken a great burden off my shoulders for just 80 yen per bag. 

I brought a truckload of trash to the collection area four more times, and every time it happened, I couldn’t believe that they would just take it away. Disposing of trash is much like flushing the toilet. We do it every day, and so we tend to forget how miraculous of a system it really is. Since I’m working on a piece of land that has no cement road, water, or electricity yet, I’ve become forced into awareness about the value of these modern comforts.

I’m sure that this is only the beginning of the stories that I’ll have to tell once the renovation enters full swing.

Now that the design work is ready to commence and the clean-up is finishing up, I’ve been returning my attention to the principles and tactics of homebuilding. So please enjoy this episode of the Local Japan podcast as we explore the Bible of timber framing, Building the Timber Frame House: The Revival of a Forgotten Art by Tedd Benson.

Local Japan Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

When you purchase a book (or anything on Amazon) with the links below, you support me and the podcast at no extra cost to you:

* Building the Timber Frame House: The Revival of a Forgotten Art

* Learn to Timber Frame: Craftsmanship, Simplicity, Timeless Beauty

* The Art Of Japanese Joinery

* The Genius of Japanese Carpentry: Secrets of an Ancient Woodworking Craft

* Passive House Details: Solutions for High-Performance Design

* The Not So Big House

Links to More Resources:

* Tedd Benson

* Bensonwood

* Build Show Podcast: Restoring the Past, Building the Future

* Barnwood Builders

* Soetsu Yanagi

* Todaiji Temple: World’s Largest Wood Structure

* The Timber Framers Guild

* Building Science Corporation

* Learn Ikebana in Kobe (with me and a local expert!) on TripAdvisor

13 Essential Joints Listed in the Book:

* Mortise and Tenon

* Shouldered Mortise and Tenon

* Anchor-Beam Joint

* Knee-Brace Joint

* Scarf Joint

* Housed Dovetail

* Tusk Tenon

* Dovetail

* Corner Joints at Sill

* Joints at Rafter Feet

* Tongue and Fork

* Collar-Tie Joint

* Framed Overhang