Thanks for watching!

They have their photos displayed around the property ☺️

You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!

Thank you! Traditional building techniques have kept the main house going for 120 years and the lower one where the Kissa will be for over 60, so it only makes sense for me to do things as naturally as possible to prolong the life of the houses. Hope to see you here one day!

It is! The road that passes opposite the river is part of the Wakayama 800 cycling network, 800km of roads that have infrastructure for cyclists, like toilets and signage.

I’m okay with a rag! Keeps the wood as dry as possible (mops leave a thin film over the wood).

Thanks Wei Choon! Ruiming’s kitchen will have a floor like this, come help paint and wipe it down!

Thanks 👍

Mold is amazing

Dilute borax solution will reduce mold growth. You can use it anywhere that isn't food contact and unless you rinse it off it will stay out.

Thank you! And good luck with your mold too! 😅

Thank you!

We’re just an hour away from Koyasan (practically neighbours because there’s the Koya-Ryujin Skyline highway), so come visit!

Thanks for watching! Yes lots of water for the plants but it is humid - summer brings lots of insects too, like mosquitoes and horseflies.

Diesel! That’s interesting - does the odour go away after a while?

Thanks!

It never gets too hot here so we don’t need one ;) Night time temperatures are 21 degrees Celcius in the hottest time of the year. You can still install air conditioning if you like though!

Most westerners think they NEED an air conditioner because it's all we're ever known. But if you give your body a chance to adjust, and eliminate carbs and sugar, then you will get used to it. We have for millennia.

@@marygeorge2467 Most westerners don't think they NEED air conditioning. We are well aware that it is a luxury. Those people that lived for millennia without it would choose to have it in an instant if it was available to them.

@@MrPhooey442Most Americans, I should have said . . . and not if they knew how much cfcs screwed up the planet.

@@marygeorge2467 lmao oh you're one of those

Organised groups are no fun - hope the normal tourist visas resume soon but don’t hold your breath for it. Covid cases are skyrocketing and the media is filled with footage about how foreigners aren’t masking up.

Gotta make a bowl stand next then!

😂😂😂 yes" I guess so but your a talented young man you'll knock a bowl stand up in no time look forward to the next vlog take care.

Glad to be of help!

The crawl space is actually quite dry, just added quicklime as a precaution and also because the floor’s going to be sealed up from now on so it’s easier to sprinkle whatever I want to sprinkle before the floorboards get installed.

Thank you! Hope to see you here someday!

I’m not too keen on using plastics on the wooden floors because they seal off the surface. The mold’s growing because I applied two layers of perilla oil in quick succession so that’s a lesson learnt 😅

@@Ryunohara now you’ve got me interested. I do carpentry and woodworking. Could you explain how doing 2 layers in quick succession caused this problem?

@@tarmization Sure - the oil is normally applied in a very very thin layer, and any excess is wiped off. It is then left to dry for a few weeks before a second layer is applied. My guess is that I applied the oil in May, when it is very humid, and I sealed in lots of moisture by applying 2 layers of oil in quick succession (the second layer was applied a day after the first). The mold problem may also have been averted if I sprayed the wood down with alcohol to kill off as much mold spores before I applied the first layer of oil. This may not have been a problem if the wood was new but the engawa wood was over 100 years old when I reapplied oil so there were lots of mold spores on it to begin with.

Thanks for watching! I will!

Unfortunately both Ume and Mori love licking things so I had to pass on the borax 😫

Yeah a vapor barrier under the house will help a lot.

Actually it will cause the humidity to increase under the pillars if you don’t lay the plastic below the pillars. I don’t like plastic either because it degrades after a few decades. The quicklime’s just a precautionary measure because the covers to the sides have been removed and the airflow is now excellent.

@@Ryunohara if the wood pillars are on hard impervious rock footings they won't wick water up into the wood. If the foot stones are limestone or sandstone I might worry. But in the US in the damp and humid south moisture barrier is recommended for post and beam construction.

@@DanielJoyce yep they are all on very hard and heavy river rocks. Traditionally the crawl space is left open so that the moving air can naturally dry the wood. If termites do come, the centipedes eat them. In turn chickens would go in to eat the centipedes. These days most people seal up the crawlspace and moisture builds up in there.

@@Ryunohara I'm not saying wall off the crawlspace. I'm saying cover the floor of the crawlspace with plastic. It massively reduces moisture migration into the home. We have post and beam houses in the US too.

I think I over-applied perilla oil last year (applied it twice, once should have been enough). As others have mentioned in the comments Borax would work but I would prefer not to use it. The humidity lasts from tsuyu (June) to late September.

Any season! Right now sansho peppers are starting to come into season.

Isn't cycloheximide classified as an extremely hazardous substance? DNA side-effects?

Hi Georgios! The floor is typically raised between 50cm-100cm in traditionally built houses to allow air to flow through and ventilate the floors to keep everything dry. Newer houses built in the last 50 years will be built with a concrete base and will not have such large crawl spaces.

@@Ryunohara many thanks, I got it.

I think it might be last summer’s application of perilla oil that caused the wood to become moldy - I applied too much at once.

Needs some kind of barrier. Maybe tea seed oil or beeswax and mineral oil.

@@DanielJoyce the plan is to harvest beeswax from the beehive later this year :)

Hi! I prefer to use just vinegar and alcohol and won’t be using fungicides on the wood because the engawa’s really popular with children and dogs. I’m happy to keep wiping it down every summer because I expect the problem to disappear in a year or two. The mistake I made was to apply two very thick layers of perilla oil in quick succession, which trapped moisture in the wood. The rag you see is actually quite a few different rags; I reserve one for just the engawa. The glass table and tatami also have their own rags.

@@Ryunohara Oh. Thanks for the explanation. Yeah, the fungicide is super toxic so i get what you mean. I applaud your patience.

@@Metathronos I hope I'll remain patient! I'm tempted to use fungicides for the convenience of it sometimes but I'm treating Ryunohara as a project where I try out old techniques first to see if they can still be used in our modern times.

@@Ryunohara Well, in case you change your mind look into epoxy sealers, but first you would have to find a way to remove the moisture already in the wood trapped by the oil you mentioned. The epoxy sealer definitely isn't traditional at all, but it could prevent irreversible damage. Also the weather there seems like it could be an issue. Do all houses over there have this problem?

@@Metathronos I think I will leave the wood as is for a year or two more. Mold is a huge problem in Japan because of the sustained high humidity in the summer but well-ventilated outdoors wood exposed to sunlight should normally not have any mold. The engawa planks simply had moisture sealed in so I’ll just give it time.

We can use charcoal to control humidity in cupboards and I do that with my clothing and kitchen cupboards but the house itself is open to the elements (the doors are left fully open in the day and the ceiling is actually half open so that air can circulate from the main entranceway) so charcoal doesn’t work in such large open spaces. Humidity goes up to 100% some days in July so the only real way to keep the humidity down might be to air-condition the place (which will be quite energy-inefficient anyway because of the paper windows and open ceiling). 😅

I think they should last 3-5 years?

Thanks Nick!

Hi Stefanie, it’s a legal requirement here, and especially for Ume and Mori because I got them from the shelter and the written agreement says that I promise to keep them leashed whenever they are outdoors. This is because any dogs found loose are trapped, sent to the shelter and in many cases are culled within a week.

@@Ryunohara wow, i didn't know that. Poor dogs😔 - but thanks for the answer ☺️

Just by chance!

@@Ryunohara just a Chance To stay way from big city i am planing to stay way from America i want to buy a small house in japan

Replied to your other comment! We open on 20 August.

@@Ryunohara thanks man

You can! Osmo uses a mix of oils that’s supposed to be really good for the floor but I’m sure just linseed oil works. Perilla oil would work too but that would be super expensive.

@@Ryunohara Thank you. I think I'll get the linseed oil as it seems pretty cheap. And thank you for your videos. I'm looking forward to watching the next one.