How Many Interesting Places Are You Overlooking? 

The Best Place to Buy Might Be Somewhere You Haven't Considered

I had just finished filming in Shiga, and I could have headed straight home. Instead, I decided to keep going north and spend a day exploring Tsuruga and the Fukui coast.

I hadn't properly explored this part of Japan before. I knew there were some interesting houses here, and I'd seen photographs of the coastline, but I didn't really know what to expect.

What surprised me was how much there was to discover, and how accessible it all felt.

It also got me thinking about how people choose where to look for a home in Japan.

We tend to look in the same places

When people start searching for property in Japan, they usually have a few places in mind already. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, perhaps somewhere around Mount Fuji or a well-known coastal destination.

That makes sense. Most people begin with somewhere they've visited, somewhere they've heard about, or somewhere they can already picture themselves living.

But I think that can make the search unnecessarily narrow.

A place doesn't have to be famous to be worth considering.

Tsuruga is a good example. It's within relatively easy reach of Kyoto, but it feels quite different from the destinations most international visitors associate with the Kansai region.

The city itself surprised me. It has a modern station, broad streets and a proper waterfront. You don't arrive expecting to find yourself somewhere particularly remote.

Then you get in a car and head toward the coast.

Sometimes you need to get outside the city

One of my favorite parts of the day was driving out toward Diamond Beach, also known as Suishohama.

The scenery changes remarkably quickly. Mountains, clear water and coastline appear within minutes of leaving the center of Tsuruga.

And it's not just one beautiful beach. The surrounding area has plenty to explore, including Mikata Five Lakes, where you can take a chairlift up to a panoramic viewpoint overlooking all five lakes.

I was struck by how few international visitors I encountered around the lakes. I'd just come from Kyoto, where the international crowds around the station were hard to miss.

Then I met two travelers from Lithuania.

They were driving toward Kyoto and Osaka, looking for interesting countryside along the way. They'd spotted the Five Lakes area on Google Maps, thought it looked worth a visit, and decided to stop.

They weren't following some elaborate travel itinerary. They simply saw somewhere interesting and went to have a look.

I liked that.

It's actually a pretty good way to think about searching for property, too. You don't have to know exactly which town you want before you start exploring.

But could you actually use the place?

Of course, beautiful scenery is one thing. If you're considering a second home, you also need to think about how often you'll realistically get there.

A place can look wonderful in photographs and still be a pain to visit.

After spending the day around Tsuruga and Mihama, I returned the rental car, caught the train and headed back toward Shin-Yokohama. The actual journey took about two hours and 45 minutes.

That's my particular journey, of course. Your starting point, connections and travel costs will be different. If you're traveling with a family, those costs are worth considering separately.

Still, I got home and thought, that really wasn't bad.

In fact, I found myself wanting to bring my family back.

That's a pretty good sign when you've spent the day exploring somewhere you've never properly visited before.

Give yourself a little more room to look

We also found three quite different housing options around Tsuruga and Mihama. There's clearly more variety here than I would have expected before making the trip.

I'm not suggesting everyone should rush out and buy a house in Fukui. That's not the point.

But I do think people sometimes eliminate entire areas from their search simply because they aren't familiar with the names on the map.

If you're looking for a second home in Japan, try zooming out a little. Look at the towns around the destination you already know. Check the train connections, look at the surrounding coastline or countryside, and consider what it would actually be like to spend a weekend there.

You might find that the place you end up liking most wasn't on your original list.

I certainly hadn't planned on spending the day in Fukui. Now I'd like to go back.

If you're still exploring where to buy, try opening AkiyaHub Map Search and looking beyond your usual shortlist. You might find somewhere interesting.

And if you'd like to see what I found in Fukui, you can join me on the trip here:

[WATCH Ep. 324: Fukui Special - Japan’s Caribbean]