Turning akiya into a hospitality hustle

“But when I first moved to Tokyo, I didn’t see any of that. It was just brand-new builds. People were tearing down perfectly fine houses.”

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That approach is anathema to Wormann.

“A new house feels unlived-in - that’s worse than a hotel room,’ he says. “It needs to feel warm, it needs to have sunlight and it needs to feel thoughtful, somehow.”

He still does much of the work himself, although he has found a talented carpenter, and hires contractors for the electrical, gas and foundation work.

The list of tasks is endless, says Wormann, who is living in one property while renovating another.

“We've been working on it for about a year. Tomorrow, I’m doing the last trash round, then we'll build a bamboo fence and clean.”