Inside a $500,000 Tokyo CUSTOM ARTIST'S HOUSE | Tokyo Portfolio Home Tour 

*Obligatory "sorry for not posting more" comment* Don't worry guys, I got more in the pipeline.

What I admire most about Japanese houses is that they look like a dream from the outside and a nightmare from the inside.

leaving the walls as bare plywood: they call it artistic expression, i call it selling a half finished house at an artificially inflated cost.

Imma be real with you, chief. The inside of the house just looks like they didnt finish building it lol The inside reminds me of a hunting shack someone would build in the woods to sleep in while they are hunting with the bare plywood interior.

The walls make it feel like a hastily constructed crack den

Man the whole curtain parts feels like "Oh I spent too much of my budget, but I have to cheap out somewhere!"

Maybe it’s just me but the plywood all over the house looks cheap. In fact, the whole house looks cheap and just thrown together. You done small apartments that are much more esthetically pleasing. Nope. Can’t see anyone paying that kind of money for it. Still, once again I really enjoyed you showing us another home. Thank you.

I love watching these kinds of houses, because it shows me what not to get. When I'll buy (or build) a house it's gonna be square and rectangular rooms all over. Everything will be simple and practical.

IT WAS ABOUT TIME, indeed xD this was also the strangest home I have seen so far

I usually don’t comment but my god, whoever that builder was needs to come back and finish the job. Don’t even try to pass off plywood walls as something “designer” haha. OTHERWISE, the place would be very nice!

From a European perspective, I wouldn't consider this residential house ideal for a family with one or two children. However, it's perfect for a couple needing or desiring up to two workspaces and a lot of storage space, especially considering the two interconnected rooms in the lower area. Moreover, if one enjoys frequently inviting friends over, it becomes perfect with the almost obscenely spacious kitchen/living room/mini-loft area.

"With the nearest train station being 15 minutes away by foot, this neighborhood might not be the best for people commuting by train" In the European metropolis I live in, that's still considered a pretty accessible train station. We're a city of roughly 2 million people and my daily commute is around 90 minutes each way, involving around 25 minutes of just walking (or a bit less of it when cycling depending on the season). 15 minutes to the station would currently be an upgrade to me :''D

Such a cool, unique property - this is what I watch house tours for at this point. I don't necessarily care for the next $58m Malibu mansion, but the architecture here is so interesting and the finishes are clearly well thought out. Thanks for the tour!

Very interesting property, the aluminum looking outside being contrasted by the wooden aesthetic inside is quite unique.

One of the best channels on RU-vid, I love the concept of this channel so much

It looks more like a WIP. I would have painted the walls and made the windows bigger in some rooms, and replace the closet blinds with doors. Also, I think someone might have made a mistake with the beam placement since the window blinds are blocked (@7:20) XD

I would really like to see more standard rent properties, like $1k - $3k range!

Once the walls/ceilings are painted it would be really nice - kind of difficult to visualise rooms with so much wooden texture. Not sure if I'd ever use the blinds but could be useful

Always great to see a new vid. Love your work.

I totally watch these videos for the ASMR effect.

It's great to see another video from you. This house really is unique. I like the high ceilings. Looking forward to your next videos.

You've made noticeable improvements in your presentation, editing, and production since I first watched. I enjoy your videos even more. Nicely done, mate.

It did seem to be much larger inside with a lot of usable space. Even fully furnished all that wood might create an echo chamber. Alex doing "the artist thing" with the mismatched socks. Great content.

I love the little around town look before the tours.

I love these videos, please bring more out when possible. I might not be able to live in Japan, but it's very interesting to watch and you have a great presenting style.

Great episode Alex. It’s quirky, but at least it’s a blank canvas that a few 1000’s could finish off nicely. Floors are fine, but walls are bit too raw to make it homely.

A truly unique property in a beautiful neighbourhood. There's definitely something to be said about the clean and modern exterior vs the "unfinished" interior aesthetic, the shared closet, and the off-center kitchen. That linen shelf door not closing properly at 3:51 was triggering.

Finally a new video from you. Post more frequently pls 🙏

Love it. Might have to grab you when we move from Sapporo to Tokyo this year and check out some properties. Keep up the video posting ….enjoy your content.

Beautiful! I love it all.

This is such a unique house

What a cool house! The plywood aesthetic is not my thing, but I don't think this is largely unusable at all - it would comfortably fit a family with two kids! And yeah, borrowed scenery or borrowed landscape, that's the best - we have a garden that's surrounded by the neighbours' trees. I love looking at them and the squirrels and birds that use them!

Great house. One of the best you’ve shown. Love all the wood and the layout. Glad they left the quality control stamps on the wood. So creative. Nice kitchen. Open space. Score 🎉

Welcome Back!

If you manage to sell or rent this house, you will surely be the greatest realtor of all time!!!

Fascinating.

I wish he was able to upload more often. Great channel!

very cool I totally would live there!

You do have your way with words where you describe a 'sauna', as house ~ Good Luck

I quite like this quirky place

Unique property. I like it a lot👍🙏😎

So... When are they coming back to finish the place? All the plywood makes me think it is all placeholders till they get the drywallers, tile setters and flooring specialist in there. Joking aside, I... Like the place. It is strange design that really got to me. I won't even dare venture into mind it's architect. It is either a bizarre place or a silly place. This place however does claim the number two spot on my list of "weirdest houses in Tokyo Portfolio's portfolio". Though the reigning champion still is the shizofrenic pawnshop/old storage house/vault from a long long time ago. That place was a hot mess. This house is, at least, on message with it's design. The design being a rundown hunter shack somewhere in West-Virginia. I hope to see more of these unique houses. They are a sight to behold.

Truly bizarre house, compels me tho. Love how the video doesn't even really seem like you're trying to sell it to us XD

I’m not a huuuge fan of the plywood walls everywhere but, you know, if you slap some art on the walls and decorate with unique furniture/items I think it would look super cool. I do love the crazy stairs and how many floors it has. It needs more windows though. Enough about the house… let me just say Alex’s mismatched socks are the best. 😆

I’ve watched this 3 or 4 times and I Honestly think this place would be stunning if you spent a chunk of money to renovate and took the interior and gave it a similar fallout/bioshock/bond lair aesthetic to the exterior and made permanent closets, the room shapes and communal areas would be absolutely perfect for it

I feel like all this wood around you might feel "heavy" pretty quick but a bit of paint, mainly white mixed with beige or light greens (think summer colours) and a bit of nicely placed lighting could transform this house into something incredible! Really nice video!

I love Komazawa olympic park! it's the album cover for that ryusenkei tokyo sniper album

He's ALIVE!!

Cool, a good place to go insane at

liked the video! also, I can understand why someone wants to get rid of this building (I refuse to call this a house)

Like I always say, respect the wood

The kitchen makes the Monk (Adrian Monk) crazy in me

It's been 3 months. I only found out about this now through recommendations since RU-vid didn't notify me of this upload despite the fact that I'm already subbed to your channel 3 years ago.

A unique house

Alex: Look at these high ceiling and amazing storage spaces. Everyone in comment section: Wood, unfinished walls and more wood.

where were you, i was anticipating on your post for months, about time

As an architect, I gotta say - this is an exercise in how to make the interior as unliveable as possible! Nice neighbourhood though. Thanks for the great videos. Are you doing the crazy different socks thing?

Idk if I live on there, the last floor could be an entertainment room where occupants could watch movies or play party games, or could do VR gaming. I think the place could make a great RBnB.

This is even more weird than the (modern 90s) apartment Alex reviewed with Sharla!!! 😮😮❤

I like your video

I’d love to see if there’s a house designed for ceramics. Would be interesting to see how it’s set up. 😮

I would love to live there

Lovely house, if I were in the market I would be very intersted.

It's definitely very creative as to how the the floorplan works. But there's a lot going there that leaves me wondering WHY?! The top floor is quite beautiful though.

Really unique property and I like the aesthetic, but you're right when you said it's basically unusable. I'd say it's a 1 bedroom house with an office and a guest bedroom and possible studio/living area. Not sure. I suppose it could be a small family home....maybe.

I'm speechless 🙊 The big windows are only in the kitchen? I understand why is for sale !

If you want to make your family live in a wooden shipping box, i guess it is pretty nice. The wood feels super claustrophic and visually messy/hectic and i am somebody who likes tiny spaces. Even tiny student apartments feel more comfy. The idea of the two rooms connecting might be pretty cool for kids, but the problem is the curtain shuts off one room's access to the "closet".

There's no way I'd be able to live in Japan (finances aside, I'm Korean and would receive harsh backlash from both ends), but looking at these houses is so interesting because of how different they are from the suburban sprawl I've been accomstomed to.

500k for unfinished house, what a steal! /s

This is too much of a mess. Looks more like a summerhouse thing vibe going on

For better or worse, any possible Olympic medal for me would probably come from the "bouncy castle" competition.

I think I saw you back in January at Haneda airport or at least someone who looked and dressed similiar. I wasnt 100% sure cause you walked past and I wasnt going to chase down a stranger. I believe it was the 21st.

What kind of wood was that on all the walls? Struck me as a type of particle composite. Threw me off on the walk through the house. Like the short steps between areas.

i think youtube unsubscribed me from your channel for some reason never mind i resubbed, anyways alex love the videos i will say i would love to see more cheaper and weirder properties on your videos

lol hate those plywood walls, feels like a kid's outdoor playhouse someone's dad made. but I don't think you would straight up paint it...wallpaper maybe? or some type of wallpaper prep that can be painted, or maybe some type of thin fiber wallboard, in any case you'd have to finish those walls. the price, i dunno, i guess you're paying for location.

If I was wealthy, I'd by 2-3 assortment of quirky condos around JPN. And just choose 1x to be my main storage home but the others for vacation/fun.

Kinda reminds me of those houses that people build in Minecraft or other survival games Entire interior made with wood

honestly this house i believe is a little to unique to be sold, and the lack of properly size windows and the plywood on all of the walls makes it feel like a coffin at worst or a home trap in perpetual construction at best, regardless really enjoy seen the complete lack of foresight of Japanese home truly one of a kind in this world also loves the videos.

Interesting house with a lot of character, but totally impractical

Is it an Asphalt running track though? Makes my knees hurt from the thought alone.

Nice job in showing the house. It looks like they ran out of money to finish it. Reminds me of a clubhouse I built in my backyard when I was a kid. Plywood walls. I guess it’s just a matter of different taste.

Thanks for posting this. I really like the interior as it offers so many possibilities - very practical choice to leave the walls unfinished as this would allow for hanging many other works of art. As well, I think this house offers many different internal views; for some people, being able to change perspective so easily would be a great benefit.

at 1.20 is it your BMW? btw. greetings from germany

Sure, the interior (and exterior) design is minimalistic and reflects, in a sense, the motto: form from function. As such it's sober and clean, something one would expect from a Japanese design. However, I've seen this kind of house in Germany, where these were plentyfully built during the seventies. This design was quickly abandoned for two reasons mainly: The spaces are too fragmented and too small, and therefore totally impractical. The second (third ?) reason why this architecture was abandoned was that, it meant having to navigate an inordinate amount of steps to get from one end of the house to the other... something elderly people definitely did/do NOT appreciate. In my opinion, this house is perfect for a well-to-do (very) young couple who have an active social life and invite friends over regularly, or perhaps a wealthy (foreign) hermit who wants a pied-a-terre in Tokyo when he/she is on one of his/her world trips P.S. : one goes to a place by car, by bicycle or by train but does it on foot

Looks like a indoor airsoft hall

I HATE IT! I LOVE IT! i think i would like it better if it was less wood. i love the layout though

Really interesting house, but man are some of the design choices questionable haha. Who though that wood on wood on wood on wood would ever look or feel good with almost no windows on the lower levels? Also, those sliding doors and roll-curtains certainly don't provide any privacy. Idk, kind of weird, I don't think it's appropriate at all for a family but theres too many weird rooms for just a couple and none of then are pleasant. 8/10 on the weird scale overall haha

So from a practicality perspective, they cook their food and then have to carry that potentially scolding hot food up 1-2 sets of stairs before sitting down to eat?

More like... you haven't uploaded a video in a while, we miss you dude!

What a fever dream of a house. Fun to watch but i wouldn't want to live there even if i got paid the asking price.

The wood panels look soooo bad. It's definitely unique for japan, but it looks like an unfinished basement. But after seeing the loft, some good interior design would make that place look so cool and cozy

Its a new age apocolypse bunker with a built in priest hole! Jokes aside, i actually like the rooms but think all those stairs would make me dizzy carrying the shopping to the top.

Just what every millionare wants. A dark house with tiny clouded windows, tiny kitchen with hardly any cooking space and a million random stairs in every direction, plywood walls, ceiling and zero privacy haha. Should be called the "Stair house". I admire the creativity, this should be an artist sketch but not a real persons house. $500,000 and has a tiny bathroom should be a red flag that something went wrong. Kinda felt sick with all the twisting and turning on this property haha. Felt like we were going up a stairwell the entire time. Unfortunately with the lack of sound insulation between rooms, once you add fridge noise, washermachine/dryer noise, watching TV might be quite difficult in some of these rooms. Interesting idea though. The crawlspace near the frontdoor is probably the most private room. Would really suck to hafta crawl in there and dig around to pull out the vacuum to go vacuum every step in that house seems to be the only spot you'd be able to hide utility closet type stuff like vacuums, etc.

yeah, huge canvasses would look amazing in that upper floor, but...... how would you get them in and out? It's all well and good stretching the canvas in situ, but getting it back out would require removing the canvas from it's stretching frame to get it out after painting it, and so risking damage to the art, but also guaranteeing that it would never look quite right after remounting. None of the windows are big enough to accommodate the size paintings you are siggesting.... arrrrggghhhh, my 'Queen of 3D Tetris' mode (I'm a full time potter, it's totally a THING with us when it comes to packing a bisq firing) took over there for a hot minute. Nope, no apology, I have no shame. This place looks fantastic and I agree that only an artist could really make the most of the space. The architect really should have factored in a roof top area to go with the LDK, it would have really topped the build off nicely, but the ripple iron skin looks outstanding regardless. I just think they could have pushed it more. I love the quarter split level thing going on, and I could have so much fun setting it all up. The bathroom however, I would need to fix, the prefab jobby was obviously an afterthought, if it wasn't, then WTAF were they thinking? Also, I am loving the socks, if they're from the same set of 3-6 pairs, they match, fight me if you think I'm wrong. I will win.

Are some of these available or pure eye-candy? :) (I will humbly learn to finish the videos before commenting)

Love your channel, I hate that house

The interior must feel like you are inside a plywood box.

It seems like its almost unfinished and rushed lol. I'd probably have to fix the inside to make it livable.

Immidiate like!

That's the kind of home you would build on Minecraft, adding more floors each time you need more space lol