The city of Chichibu, in Saitama Prefecture, boasts the lush nature of the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park. Hiking, camping, rafting, and fruit picking—popular leisure activities attract throngs of visitors including from the nearby Tokyo area. Our hosts this time were a family born and raised in this Chichibu.
Isao and Naoko Kurosawa live in a BESS G-Log Natsu that they both fell in love with at first sight. The couple make a living growing vegetables in their own fields spreading out in front of their house. PAPERSKY Editor Lucas B.B. was joined by Takuya Murakami, CEO of the outdoor guild Muraco based in Saitama Prefecture’s Sayama City. The two guests were curious to get a glimpse of the farmer’s lifestyle.
Guest / Lucas B.B. (PAPERSKY Editor)
Guest / Takuya Murakami (outdoor guild Muraco CEO living in Hidaka City, Saitama Prefecture)
Hosts / Isao & Naoko Kurosawa (BESS homeowners in Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture)
1. Living in a dream “kawaii” home
Lucas B.B.: What kind of crops do you grow?
Isao Kurosawa: Our main crop is cucumber. Chichibu cucumber is a well-known brand vegetable of Saitama Prefecture. We also grow tomatoes and other vegetables.
Lucas: Nice. You’re making me hungry for cucumber!
Naoko Kurosawa: Ours is really delicious.
Takuya Murakami: I don’t know a whole lot about farming. Is it very hard work?
Isao: Well, it keeps us busy anyway. My wife and I work together from early in the morning to late at night. Cucumbers grow very fast, you see. They get bigger and bigger in a matter of hours. If left alone, they would keep growing to nonstandard sizes. So we harvest them morning and night. There’s no time for resting.
Lucas: How often do you take a day off?
Isao: Let’s see, about ten days a year.
Takuya: Wow! That’s hard work all right.
Naoko: During the winter, we run a boiler in the greenhouses outside. If an error happens, we need to fix the problem right away, or the crops will be ruined. That kind of emergency can happen in the middle of the night.
Lucas: Imagine if the fields were any farther than right in front of your house.
Isao: We used to rent a house in another place and commute to these fields every day. But then we took over the fields from our parents, and that was when we decided to build a new house right here.
Takuya: Living in front of the fields is certainly a lot more convenient for your work. Besides, the natural feel of your BESS home is the perfect match for your farm.
Lucas: How did you come to choose a BESS home?
Naoko: Once we decided to build a house, we knew from early on that BESS was the home for us. Our minds were pretty much made up about that.
Isao: That’s right. My wife knew about BESS and suggested we visit the [BESS showroom] Logway in Kumagaya, Saitama. I already liked the idea of a log house, so I was curious about BESS.
Lucas: How did you feel when you saw the BESS houses in person?
Naoko: All the models looked so cute.
Isao: They were log houses from the outside, but the inside looked comfortable to live in.
Naoko: I also liked the overall atmosphere of Logway.
Isao: The display homes were decorated with fun items as if someone were actually living there, and the interior design was to my taste, so I could easily picture my own family living there. The great thing about BESS is that it doesn’t just show you the houses, it presents whole lifestyles too. Every display home in Logway was attractive. It was only a matter of choosing the right model for us.
Lucas: How did you go about choosing a model?
Isao: Well, I liked the idea of a log house to begin with, so we chose the one that was closest to the image I had in mind. That was this G-Log Natsu.
Naoko: We both loved the spacious, open upstairs loft of the G-Log Natsu. It was a big plus that we agreed on that point.
Takuya: I saw your upstairs loft earlier. It really feels amazing.
Naoko: Doesn’t it? I also liked the face—so kawaii!
Lucas: The face—as in the house’s exterior?
Naoko: Yes! The face was so cute that we both fell in love at first sight.
Takuya: I know what you mean. I built my own home too, and I made sure it looked good. A home should be comfortable to live in, that’s for sure. But you also look at it every day, so it’s really important that you love the looks, or as you say, the face. Here, you’ve got the immense fields spreading out in front. This G-Log Natsu is the perfect match for your scenery.
2. Wonders of the warm and cool wooden house
Lucas: It’s amazing that you’re living in the wooden house that you both had in mind. How would you describe the features of a wooden house?
Naoko: A wooden house is warm. When we stepped in from the outside in the winter, we couldn’t believe how warm it was.
Isao: Before we started living here, I imagined a wooden house would be cool to look at but feel cold temperature-wise. But it wasn’t like that at all. And in the summer, it’s so cool that we don’t need air-conditioning.
Lucas: That’s nice. The wood must help regulate the humidity. I’ve visited many BESS homes before, but the large windows are a great feature of your home. The windows let in lots of natural light, and that adds to the comfort of the interior space.
Takuya: That’s the best kind of comfort, isn’t it? Since you started living in the G-Log Natsu, has anything changed in the way you spend your time at home?
Naoko: I would say so, yes. Now I enjoy making the little things from scratch. I dry my own fruit on the stove and add it to recipes, for example, and pickle my own plums, and puree my own chestnuts to make Mont Blancs. My workplace is right there in the fields in front of the house, so I’ve become good at using my spare time to find those tiny pleasures at home.
Isao: My wife, our children, and I—each of us has our favorite spot in the house, where we naturally find ourselves spending a lot of time. We didn’t have spots like that in our previous house.
Lucas: I see. BESS homes have no such thing as dead space. Wherever you are, it promises to feel good.
Isao: I’m quite a fan of the floor.
Lucas: The floor?
Isao: Yes. I like to lie flat on this living-room floor. It feels great—cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It’s so comfortable that I often nod off here instead of going to the bedroom to sleep.
Lucas: I envy you!
3. Every day is more exciting in a BESS home
Here, the party sat down for the usual snack break. Takuya-san had stopped by a local traditional Japanese confectioner for bouchée mini sandwich cakes filled with choice butter and cheese cream. The party enjoyed it with Naoko-san’s coffee and continued chatting away. The conversation turned to Isao-san’s hobbies. His passion was ignited when he moved into his BESS home.
Takuya: I noticed you have all kinds of hobby supplies in your home.
Isao: I have a wide range of interests. And I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to give everything a try.
Takuya: I love cars and bicycles too. What’s your number-one hobby?
Isao: Right now, I’d have to say motorbikes. Number two is golfing.
Takuya: I love the bike you have outside.
Isao: Our son rides a Kawasaki too. His is a Vulcan.
Naoko: I would like to ride a bike too—a Honda Dax 125.
Lucas: Everyone’s a biker!
Isao: I never owned a bike before I moved here. Living in a BESS home brought out the bike buff in me.
Takuya: I also saw some snowboards and surfboards. You’re really into everything. And your bicycles. That was a Swiss BMC bike back there, wasn’t it? Awesome!
Isao: That’s right. Now that you mention it, I guess I’m crazy about bicycles too.
Lucas: So Isao-san is absorbed in all kinds of hobbies. How do you feel about that, Naoko-san?
Naoko: Farming is busy work, and Isao-san works hard every day. I think he deserves a breather.
Isao: If I had 30 free minutes, I would go out for a ride, and that brief change of scenery would make me feel nice and refreshed.
Takuya: Your BESS home has very few walls, so you have a seamless transition between the inside and the outside. I imagine that openness alone must help you feel relaxed and refreshed.
Isao: I love my work and having my work space right out front, and I feel great when I come home. I’m totally convinced that building our house here was the right decision.
Lucas: It’s so important to feel comfortable and relaxed at home. What does “home” mean to each of you?
Takuya: For me, home is the ultimate form of self-expression. The exterior, the interior, the lifestyle—my home equals me.
Naoko: Our every day is a repetition of working in the fields and coming back home. So I would want our home to be a place of recovery, where we can recharge our mind and body. In that sense, I think we made the best choice.
Isao: I like a home where I can reset my mind and mood, including by indulging in my hobbies. I like feeling nice and refreshed, and then going back to work and doing a good job. So for me, a home needs to be exciting too. Every day, I feel this G-Log Natsu has the magic to make all of that happen.
Lucas: It’s amazing that you feel excited every day. Thank you for having us.
BESS Homes
https://www.bess.jp