Digging Begins!

After months and months of waiting, the digger has arrived and we have finally broken ground. It’s taken such a long time to get to this stage that we were really starting to wonder whether it would ever actually happen. Nevertheless, we have started!

The builders started by introducing themselves to those in the vicinity of the plot and explained that they were planning to commence construction and the likely duration of it. Usually we would have accompanied them but we were away in the UK at the time. There were no indications of any objections, I think partly because the plot has been empty for a while and a new house is decidedly less unsightly than some straggly plants, weeds and tall grass. I did ask the builders what happens in the event that someone objects and they said “We build anyway. It’s your right”. So much for asking for permission.

Often in Japan there is also something called a jichinsai, which is a ceremony to purify the land before construction starts. It wasn’t something we especially wanted to do as it is quite expensive and doesn’t mean anything to us (but we were prepared to do so if family were interested and we did think it might be quite an interesting cultural event). As it turned out, there wasn’t time to have the ceremony before we went to the UK so we managed to swerve it in the end. Of course, it being Japan, there other ceremonies further down the line. Whether we’ll be able to avoid them too, only time will tell.

At any rate, the first work started and has basically involved cutting into the tall stone wall to make way for the new double parking space. As you will see in the pictures below, there is not much else to report other than to marvel at the fact that apparently one guy managed to make that huge hole with a tiny digger in just one day! I can’t really think of anything else to add for now so enjoy the photos!   

The little digger

Bye bye tiny parking space!

The hole with view to the West