in the direction of kyoto and let's  face it it's not hard to see why

when i come here to make a video i'm always  kind of spoiled for choice i don't know what  

to do i can cover the food the history the  culture the shopping but for me the thing  

that really gives kyoto a sense of identity is  the architecture i mean look at this beautiful  

stunning traditional building yeah it's uh  it's a starbucks that's where i got my uh  

where i got my cappuccino from believe  it or not but we've not come here today  

to look at starbucks because hidden down  every side street in kyoto are the majestic  

stunning town houses that really give this  city its magical atmosphere and we've come  

here today to take a peek behind closed doors  and see what's inside so let's go and find out

today we'll be staying overnight in a stunning  traditional kyoto townhouse known in japanese  

as matcha we'll take a look inside a variety of  different homes to discover what characteristics  

and design choices make up a match here and  we'll hear from the man who's dedicated his  

life to renovating them who reveals the sad truth  about why kyoto's townhouses are under threat  

if tokyo is the beating heart of japan as  the center of politics and commerce kyoto  

is the country's soul they may only be two and a  half hours away by shinkansen but the two cities  

feel like a world away from each other that being  said arriving in kyoto for the first time can feel  

like an underwhelming experience when you first  step out of the futuristic colossal structure  

that is kyoto station and into the  city's unremarkable downtown area  

it's not really what you imagine it to  be and it all feels rather anticlimactic

but then as you leave the station behind the  bland generic buildings you go a few blocks and  

climb a staggering amount of stairs um you are  rewarded with a view like this and this is when  

the beauty of kyoto really starts to kind  of reveal itself uh this is the kiyomizadera  

temple probably the most famous temple in keto  and the views from up here are nothing short  

of breathtaking particularly if you climb  all those stairs very breathtaking indeed

of all the cities i visited in japan over  the years kyoto is the one that's most like  

an rpg like a video game because hidden down  every alleyway there's a secret there's a shrine  

a temple a cafe a park right now we're in front of  an alleyway down a side street off a back street  

i'm about to show you where i'm staying for the  night come with me hidden down this inconspicuous  

alleyway are four townhouses and this is the place  i'm going to be calling home just for tonight  

so off the side street and  into the townhouse there we go

this is the entrance room lots of slippers here  of course when you go into a japanese house any  

house you must take off your shoes and switch to  slippers the only time i've seen a japanese person  

get angry with my friend was when he walked  into her house without taking his shoes off  

understandable really it's the one rule in  japan that you need to know so then let's go  

inside into the townhouse and into the kitchen  the dining room and the sitting room all in one  

so as you can see it's quite a small townhouse  apparently it fits two people ideally but you can  

have four folks in here as we'll see upstairs in  a minute but uh i love it it's very peaceful very  

quaint and you kind of feel locked off from the  world you've got your own kind of private slice of  

kyoto but you do have a window here to the outside  world there's a little zen garden there which is  

really nice you've still got that kind of indoor  outdoor connection but the japanese have a word  

for this sort of place and there's kakurere which  means private kind of private space hidden space  

and apparently a lot of japanese guests come here  to sort of just hide away for a few days and you  

can see how you can see why beautiful exposed  being here as well it's kind of got that really  

nice connection traditional and contemporary  let's go and check out the bathroom area we've  

got a nice sort of kitchen space here but over  here the real highlight of the house a washer  

and dryer ladies and gentlemen if you like to wash  and dry your clothes this is the townhouse for you  

restroom very well signposted just in case you  get confused but the best room in this townhouse  

is this one right here this is the bathing room  complete with a hinoki wooden bath cypress wood  

beautifully finished why don't i have one in  my house so hinoki wood comes from the japanese  

cypress tree and it is known for giving kind of a  very high quality timber which is used in temples  

and shrines throughout the country and of course  bathtubs and it's said to smell like lemons so  

it's kind of a sweet scent don't have its lemons  but it's very nice kind of refreshing smell to it  

but also because it's a high quality timber it  means it doesn't rot easily so it's perfect for  

bathtubs and hot springs and onsen having spent  the morning sitting inside it i can attest to  

its magnificence i never want to go back to my  generic mass market plastic bathtub ever again  

so we're upstairs now and into the  bedroom area there we go and it is really  

cozy and quaint as you can see two twin beds  here at first you might think it's kind of  

small isn't it a little bit small but behind each  of these shorty sliding doors there's a surprise  

behind shorty sliding door number one we have  

a balcony a nice outdoor balcony which we'll  get to in a minute and then over here as i said  

earlier you can fit up to four guests in this  townhouse uh two guests here and the other two  

in this room a little secret hidden room come on  in and for the quintessential kyoto view look at  

that you can see across the street to the other  town houses and it feels uh it feels a little  

bit like going back in time to the edo era i love  it uh but with a space like this you can fit two  

futons or given i'm just gonna be in here alone  i'm just gonna roll around on the floor do some  

press-ups sort of things you can exclusively do in  a japanese townhouse so out here on the balcony i  

haven't been out here yet so i don't know what to  expect i don't want to smash my head on these nice  

kawara roof tiles oh wow that's so cool you  can really appreciate the beautiful traditional  

roof of the house unfortunately over the  years japan has lost a lot of its traditional  

architecture throughout the country prefabricated  houses are the norm and they last for about 30  

years before they're bulldozed and rebuilt but  as i said this is one of the smaller townhouses  

we're going to go and look and see what  you can get on the higher end of the scale  

and also kind of hear about the process behind  renovating these houses because it can't be cheap  

and it must take a lot of time so let's go and  find out how he's renovated and let's go and  

see what you get for more of your hard-earned  cash without banging your head on the roof tile

so what are the key characteristics that make up  a matchier townhouse well here are five things to  

look out for number one are the ubiquitous cauchy  wooden lattices that you find on the exterior of  

most townhouses they evolved as a security measure  during a period of social upheaval and military  

conflict during the 1400s and subsequently  became popular by allowing a degree of privacy  

from passersby walking down the narrow streets and  speaking of narrow number two you may hear matia  

being referred to as unagi no nedopo literally  eel's nest in reference to the narrow fronts and  

deep thin interiors this style originates  in the edo era when a property was taxed  

according to the width of the front of the  building residents would have their shops at the  

front and their homes towards the back which leads  us to characteristic number three towards the back  

of the house a small garden or courtyard allows  residents to enjoy a slice of nature and peace  

and quiet from the comfort of their own home even  amongst the bustling city centre not only that but  

the garden can have a ventilating effect allowing  the air to pass through the front of the house  

and leave at the rear and while we're on the  subject of ventilation number four if you look up  

you might find skylights which are common features  in larger matter not just to allow lighting but  

also to help cool the rooms in the summer months  by releasing heat and number five is an adherence  

to natural materials from the wooden timber  to the tatami straw mats which give a warm  

glow to the interior reflecting the soft light  through the paper on the shogi sliding doors  

all of these characteristics resonate with the  senses to create a feeling of calm that can  

often be hard to come by in a modern home and  yet despite this the stunning townhouses have  

been in decline for many years now between 1996  to 2003 alone 13 of kyoto's matcha were destroyed  

on the search for answers i meet with an  entrepreneur who's renovated almost two  

dozen townhouses including the very one that  i'm staying in tonight corgi meider was once  

an investment banker living and working  in tokyo but after a visit to kyoto he  

fell in love with the city and started a new  successful career in renovation i sit down  

with him to uncover why matya are disappearing  and what it takes to bring them back to life

so how long have you been  renovating townhouses in kyoto  

i started my business uh for uh five years ago  five years and you've got 20 properties now yes  

20. it's a lot of properties in a very short space  of time yes why so many because um you know i like  

some something hard job if i can make a success in  the uh rebuilding the material i can stay in kyoto  

a town house like this how long does it take to  actually renovate it maybe two months only two  

months only demand really yes i thought it would  take like two years two months two months and how  

much does it cost about uh maybe two hundred  thousand u.s dollars 200 000 u.s dollars yes  

it's quite a lot of money yeah it's quite a lot  of money yeah i i always talked with my bank

people in kyoto doesn't like the material because  matcha is very old and they not not comfortable  

you know in summer very hot in winter maybe you  know very cold right so they try always you know  

people in kyoto try to you know try to destroy the  kyoto machia and to make a new house modern house  

old japanese people is very short you know all  right failing is very low so ah so the ceiling's  

pretty low yes so we we we make raise the sails  that's interesting i never thought a few years ago  

the policy of the government destroy  the old townhouse to destroy them  

yes because of the fire yeah they urge people  may uh make a you know new house okay safer yes  

that's interesting i mean it's a problem uh i  used to live in uh sakurata in yamagata and in  

the 1970s uh it's all of sakura it was burnt down  all the old houses gone in a day because of that  

but it's a real shame because the best  houses in japan are these traditional  

town houses i think it's really great what  you're doing and i think it's exciting  

you know if you can keep kyoto's history  and you can keep these townhouses then  

it's great for kyoto and hopefully mm-hmm other  cities in japan will take notice yeah i i want to  

you know expand my development to to another city  like kobe or east canada or other city yeah yeah  

i think that's fantastic i think it's really great  but thank you midasan thank you today thank you  

it's sad to hear that kyoto's matcha have  fallen out of fashion as places to live but  

understandable given the lack of convenience let  alone the expensive upkeep however there is a  

ray of hope it's exciting to hear that kyoto's  townhouses are finding a new lease of life for  

tourists looking to escape and hide away in a  more traditional setting especially if their  

popularity amongst travellers is able to convince  local entrepreneurs and kyoto's own government to  

have a more proactive role in their long-term  preservation the match here that i'm staying in  

costs around 200 a night and whilst you can find  cheaper places to stay such as a business hotel  

if you're looking to make the accommodation  as much a part of your experience in kyoto  

as the city itself then the price is worth  it for the extra space the beautiful setting  

and of course the amazing hinoki wooden  bath even if it doesn't smell like lemons  

certainly a bold move uh  letting me cook my own dinner  

uh i'm the world's worker as we've established  in previous videos and letting me cook  

was sukiyaki was not a good idea but it's turned  out alright i might not be a great cook but  

it looks pretty good and the beef this  beautiful wagyu beef you just let it sit  

for about 20 30 seconds and it's cooked it is the  most idiot-proof dish in the world and that is why  

i'm doing a relatively good job of it but i hope  you've enjoyed our tour through kyoto and these  

beautiful stunningly renovated townhouses but  for now guys as always many thanks for watching  

the broad japan channel stick around for more  videos and i hope to see you right back here and

it's going so well wasn't it