The days were getting hotter in Kanto and we were biding our time till the summer holidays for kindergarten before we ventured north. There was plenty of preparation to be doing before we got in the car.
A week before we were planning to head to the inaka house to start the major repair work we decide to call the utilities. A call to Tohoku Electric was met with no problems and they soon arranged for an Engineer to come to the property. Even our request to have the bills sent to our address in Kanto posed no problems.
Just the water to get connected, shouldn’t be a problem. We checked when we bought the property there was a water supply. After a few minutes on the phone to the city water bureau it became clear there was going to be problems.
Firstly they assured me the was no such address for our property. I was a little worried but not overly concerned as I was in possession of a map supplied by their office showing my property with a water supply. Aside from this I had actually been to the house. In these situations I always think there is a problem with my Japanese. So I apologized and explained again. After about 40 minutes of the water board telling us that our property didn’t exist we agreed to fax the documents to the office.
Happily but with a nagging feeling we went about the day’s business. Nearly at the close of business we get a return call about the fax. When a phone call from an official starts with “moshi wake gozaimasen” (I am sorry for troubling you) you know there is going to be some big problem. They informed us that in fact we don’t have a water supply to the property and it was cut off more than ten years ago. The water board was mainly concerned that we had a contract of purchase that stated we had a water supply and told us to complain to the estate agent.
My heart sank all I could hear was : “it’s old and hasn’t been lived in for years.” So after a few assurances that there was no recourse on that front, the water board gave us a company to contact. We received a estimate for the work that was around double the cost of buying the house. Oh dear back to the drawing board…
Lesson Learned: Don’t take on trust documents from the utilities, phone them and check before buying especially a rural property.
But is says we have a water supply…
Water main tap at the front of the house.
inaka house 
Wow, I can’t wait to hear how it turned out! When we lost water for a few days, I ran a hose from the stream nearby and just had it siphoning non stop. Good enough for washing up.
Hi Eric
We are yamagata now. Loads to do. I am trying to write the updates but we notice days in the country start early! Having fun and getting a lot of the repairs done. It is really hot up hear though we had 38 degrees today. How is your place?
Ours is doing fine. Our town is really like paradise sometimes- North and South of us is 35-38 degrees, we are 28ish. Great working weather! I am re-staining our wood siding this week. It is going much faster than I thought. Three walls done, one to go! After that, it is homestead cleanup time and then off to the beach!
(The vegetable garden can wait one more day)
We hit the 40s today! Brutal. This place is supposed to be a summer retreat from the heat. We had to have a day spent in shopping malls utilizing the aircon. Missing those icy malls in the days before setsuden 😦
Spent the past four afternoons at the beach. Just lovely here. 30 degrees with a cool breeze from the ocean. Ah, Paradise!