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Is there a place in Japan where the density/lifestyle is close to small town USA?

vu7

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Hi there, I know that Japan has a lot of residents. Is there a place in Japan where you can maintain your American way of life, driving around all the time to and from everywhere, and density is low, open highways and two lane roads? Anybody know anything about Iwate? Can you do the American way of life in Iwate, driving to and from everything everywhere? Because I know that Iwate is the lowest density county without leaving the Japan mainland.
 
Pretty much anywhere outside the big cities are like that. Even the outskirts of Tokyo is like that. Okutama, for example, has a population of around 5000. Although I must say one nice thing about Japan is that in many places you don't need to follow the "American way" and you can eliminate the expense of a car altogether.
 
Agree with mdchachi, UNLESS the American way includes the house in your profile pic.

BUT one thing to NOTE, a city of 80,000 is a small city and especially if it is near a bigger city can be extremely rural.
 
Hi all.
I recently learned this so JFYI.
There is a concept that the Japanese Government named DID ( Densely Inhabited District ) which means the given area has multiple areas adjacent to each other with more than 4000 inhabitants per square kilometer.
So avoiding the red area on the map below should be good practice.
地理院地図

P.S.
Found this out when my friend asked if there is any place he can fly his drone in Tokyo. And just in case anybody's wondering, the short answer is no.
 
The state of the village in Hanamaki by aerial photography
花巻 散居村 Dispersed Village in Hanamaki

"In Hanamaki City, Iwate prefecture, you can see scattered villages surrounded by windproof forests in paddy fields.
When rice planting, the water surface of the rice paddy with water is turned into a water glass and it becomes a beautiful scenery."
 
Man what a view! I'd be so happy to live in the country and have a house but I imagine potential earthquake and tsunami situation might mess up the single family home and be potentially costly?
 
vu7 said:
Man what a view! I'd be so happy to live in the country and have a house but I imagine potential earthquake and tsunami situation might mess up the single family home and be potentially costly?
Click to expand...

More importantly you would have to consider community values, because as you are renting you would always be regarded as a guest/outsider within the community, but they would still expect you to take part in community activities/events and community work.
 
Last edited:
vu7 said:
Man what a view! I'd be so happy to live in the country and have a house but I imagine potential earthquake and tsunami situation might mess up the single family home and be potentially costly?
Click to expand...
I think you need to reconcile your fear of earthquakes with your desire to live in Japan. And...just looking at the map of Iwate, Hanamaki looks to be 20 or 30 kilos from the coast. The threat of tsunamis in Hanamaki has to be so low as to be virtually zero.
I think at its most powerful, the tsunami of 2011 went about 3 kms inland.
 
Iwate–Miyagi Nairiku earthquake
"On June 14, the 2008 Iwate earthquake struck the Tōhoku region of northeastern Honshū in Japan.[2] Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) officially named this earthquake the Iwate–Miyagi Nairiku earthquake in 2008 (平成20年（2008年）岩手・宮城内陸地震)."
The area without natural disaster is not Japan.
 
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