***It’s time for another inspiring and beautiful Dream Changer piece. This story is remarkable and will leave you to wonder about what synchronistic moments are waiting to shape the rest of your life. For K.S. Takagaki it was a simple stroll around town that led her to a home that would change the rest of her life. Read, enjoy, and be inspired!***
A meeting of souls
K.S. Takagaki, Ebisu’s Kyoto International House
When I first came to Kyoto, I walked everywhere. Kyoto is an amazing city for walking because of the huge number of temples and shrines, some large and some tiny, scattered across the city. It is interesting just to watch people rushing to work, cleaning the road in front of their houses, hanging futon out the windows to dry, or cycling to the shops with kids strapped into the child seats of their bicycles. Not to mention seeing the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nijo Castle, Momoyama Castle, the university campuses, the changes wrought by the seasons, the different styles of houses and gardens, the Kamo River, the mountains, and the Yoshida hillside. It was an experience to be savored because I had come to Japan on a working holiday and, I thought, would be leaving after one year. Even though it felt like “home” to me.
One day, I decided to walk around Yoshida, the shrine, neighborhood, and hill just to the east of Kyoto University. Heading into a maze of impossibly narrow streets, I spied a set of stone steps leading up the hill. Of course I climbed them just to see where they went.
Then I saw it. On a small landing almost at the top of the hill was an old, abandoned house. Some paper had been blown against the front by the wind, the garden was overgrown, and the windows were dusty. It seemed somehow sad and alone. For all of that, I was really drawn to it. There was something promising in it and I felt my fate was intertwined with that house. I even talked to it! I said, “You are a beautiful house. You won’t be empty for much longer. I have a feeling that you will be my house.” I really didn’t know how this could be possible since I was due to leave the country in less than a year.
Fifteen years later, I was married. We had been looking around for a house we might be able to buy to live in, but we hadn’t found anything that we liked. One day, walking past the real estate agency, we saw a new listing for an old house on the mountain. It was on an enormous (for Japan) parcel of land, but there were no details about the house itself. We went in to ask about it, and the real estate agent said that the open house would be the next day and he could take us
there then. We asked for the location, and he gave us a general idea. We walked up just to look at the outside. I was wondering even then if this was the same house. It turned out that it was! Another realtor was having a showing, so we walked through. We loved it, even though it was too big for two people. It had eleven rooms plus the kitchen and two toilets. The bath area was outside and obviously needed a more modern (and indoors) solution. It was really run down. But it was obviously the house we wanted to buy.
On the walk home, we did the math to see if we could afford to buy and fix it up. We realized that it would be a wonderful group house or guesthouse. We went directly to the real estate agent and told him we were interested, and made an offer. The deal was completed, the repairs done, the house outfitted with everything it needed to make our guests welcome, and Ebisu’s Kyoto International Guesthouse was opened for guests who are visiting Kyoto for a month or more.
Over the years, the people we’ve met through the house have enriched our lives more than we can say. Now there are babies being born from relationships that started in Kyoto. We get emails, cards, and letters with their precious photographs and updates on their growth. We hear about everyone’s lives and careers. Our old guests come back and stay with us when they are in town. The Ebisu’s Kyoto family keeps expanding. And the house is no longer lonely or sad.
I really had no idea when I first saw the house that this would be the result of our meeting. This house, although built long before I was born, was meant to be ours. If feel that very strongly each and every day.
Some people need to follow their passion. Some people need to follow their hearts. I needed to listen to my soul.
For more information about this beautiful space you can check out the Ebisu’s Kyoto website.
