another fool wrote:

> Wow - some of the places in there are dirt cheep.

Not only there. Keep on conducting searches for real estate or "不動産"
in whatever location you desire.

> Showed `em to the
> wife and said "well, you keep saying you want to stay in Japan when we
> get done with this ex-pat thing - here`s what we can afford".
> Needless to say she was not ammused by the one that was a 30 minute
> drive from the train station in a village with 8 other houses.

Keep looking. That particular site is heavy on Niigata property, despite
being based in Tokyo. No one I ask knows why there is so much Niigata
property for sale, or why it is so damned cheap, despite some of it even
being new.

> Something about I could live there she and the kids would be with mom.

Many Japanese don't get it. Here foreigners are isolated from all our
other family and friends, having given up property large enough to be
mistaken for a public park near the coast of Hawaii for example, and they
complain if they can't be near their own family and friends, or in a
really nice place like urban Osaka or Tokyo. They complain they can't get
"interesting" or high paying work.

> Now if I could just get one of you guys who reads/understands kanji to
> find me a site like that that has houses in the Hyogo Prefecture -

Hyogo has a number of rural properties, though probably in the south or
center. In urban areas, Hyogo is kind of expensive.

Here are two sites I use:
http://tinyurl.com/xoxj
http://tinyurl.com/xoxs

Here is a search of "Hyogo real estate":
http://tinyurl.com/xoxi

> preferably near a town named Yokka in the N. part I could really scare
> the bejebus out of her.  That`s where her mom and dad are retiring too
> if dad ever retires...

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