Atami
The ad said the property was 2 km from Ajiro Station on the Ito Line, but it was difficult to tell how far we were traveling in the agent's car. Most of the trip was up a steep, winding road into the hills above Atami on the Izu Peninsula, an area developed in the 1970s by the Tokyu Corporation for bessō, or second homes. The realtor talked the whole way.
"The songwriter Yu Aku had a large house over there," he said, making a hairpin turn. "But since he died his family has had a hard time selling it, even at ¥40 million."
Most of the homes didn't look that grand, especially the one we were interested in: two stories, 78 sq. meters of floor area on 247 sq. meters of land. The neighborhood looked like a typical Japanese housing development except for a magnificent view of the Pacific to the east. The house was built in 1969 and had been bought by a different real estate company from a man whose main home was in Tokyo's central (and chic) Shibuya district. The company was renovating it, but not today. We stepped over piles of lumber to inspect the interior, which looked as if it hadn't been occupied for years.