Benton Guesthouse: Private Countryside Nostalgic Shōwa-era House: Former "Akiya"

Our guesthouse is a true Shōwa-era style countryside home. Built in 1953 with traditional Japanese joinery, this house was formerly an 'akiya' abandoned for 10 years. Many of the antique belongings were carefully restored and used to decorate this house. We hope guests will enjoy stepping back in time, with a few modern amenities. The furnishings are simple, era-appropriate, and true to the history of the home.

PRIVATE RENTAL HOUSE: We only rent to one group of guests at a time. There are no "shared spaces". If you are a solo traveler, or a large group, the whole house is private just for you. You have private access to all living spaces: 1 Western-style bedroom suite, 2 Japanese-style bedrooms, living room, full kitchen, office, bathroom (toilet room, laundry room, shower room), 'doma' entrance room, and traditional 'engwa'.

BEDROOM: Japanese-Style Bedroom (Upstairs): Sleeps 4 on Japanese floor mats with tatami mat flooring. Large wooden windows can be opened for a breeze. This room does NOT have air conditioning (coming soon).

BEDROOM: Western-Style Bedroom Suite (Downstairs): Sleeps 2 in a 'double' size western-style bed. The bed area can be closed off from the sitting area, using the vintage shoji screen doors. YES, this room has air conditioning.

BEDROOM: Japanese-Style Bedroom (Downstairs): Sleeps 4 on Japanese floor mats, with tatami mat flooring. This room is next to the 'engawa' sunroom. YES, this room has air conditioning.

BATH & SHOWER ROOM: We now have both a bathtub and a shower available. We recently finished renovation of our cast-iron bathtub, which was a real adventure. Please enjoy!

TOILET: We have one toilet. We're planning to increase guest capacity in the future, but before we do that, we plan to build a second toilet room (this will hopefully be completed by autumn or winter 2025).

COOLING: For the summer, we have air conditioning in 2 bedrooms and the living room. Other rooms are cooled with electric fans or by opening the windows for a breeze.

HEATING: For the winter, we have electric and kerosene heaters. In traditional Japanese style, we have a cozy 'kotatsu' heated table, 'hanten' house jackets, and slippers. For extra warmth, the bedding closet has more blankets than you could ever need.

KITCHEN: We have a 2-burner stovetop, cookware, dishes, glasses, silverware, rice cooker, blender, and a refrigerator. Also, a Keurig coffee maker and instant hot water kettle, with complimentary coffee pods and tea bags. NO microwave.

NOTE: Since ***we do not provide guest meals*** we've curated a small "convenience store" cupboard with quick meals and snacks you can purchase: various instant noodles, pocky, and stove-top popcorn. Additional snacks and drinks can be purchased from our neighbor Rumi-san's corner market and vending machines.

TV: We have a vintage TV with a classic Shōwa-era gaming console (Nintendo Famicom), plugged in, and ready to play! There is no broadcast or cable TV.

VINTAGE/RETRO SHOP: We have a small "shop" for vintage and retro items that we've found in our two 'akiya' abandoned homes, located in our 'doma' front entrance room. The items range from antique to vintage and retro, most lfrom the 1940s to 1970s. There’s some really cool stuff here!

NEIGHBORHOOD: The Kamiura-cho Inokuchi neighborhood is located on the east side of Ōmishima island. It's close to both bridges, which makes it very conveniently located for guests traveling the Shimanami Kaido. We have one grocery store (closed on Sunday) and a handful of delightful restaurants.

OUTSIDE: You have access to our semi-private side yard, and our vegetable garden. But currently it's not a very usable space, as we're still in the process of building an outdoor sitting area. You're welcome to make yourselves completely at home!

OUR STORY: We’re Evan + Dani Benton. It's been a very long journey for us to get here: We're from the US; native Oregonians. We built an urban farm in New Orleans, Louisiana (2016-21), where we welcomed over a thousand happy guests to our on-site rental. Then we found ourselves house-sitting throughout Mexico (2021-23), where we got to enjoy 21 Mexican states.

Now we're re-planting our roots permanently here on Ōmishima island, in rural Japan. In addition to this guesthouse, we're renovating another "akiya" former ryokan! We hope to grow our honey bee business, homestead, and family. We're able to live in Japan as two foreigners thanks to the Startup Business visa, which earned us to the Business Manager visa.

OUR AKIYA RESTORATION: You can look back to see every step of the way! We encourage you to visit our YouTube channel (Benton Homestead Japan) to see the love and hard work we've poured into this house.

WHAT'S NEXT?: There are many, many things we would like to make even better! While this guesthouse is perfectly functional and comfortable, we plan to continue restoring it over the next few years. What you're seeing now is what we call "Phase 1". Each guest is personally helping to fund future renovation projects, to make this guesthouse even better. Thank you!!!

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Note 1: Benton Homestead's business office is located in one room of the guesthouse. It has it's own private entrance, completely separate from your guest space. Even though it would not interfere with privacy, we do not enter the office while hosting guests.

Note 2: There is a large garage on the property, separate from the guesthouse. We're in the process of renovating this into a roadside farm-stand and retro shop. While this is a completely separate building, we still take great caution to ensure guest privacy.

To be very clear: the whole guesthouse is your private space; there are no "shared spaces". We're attentive hosts, but we do not live on-site. Our house is just down the street, so we're easily available when needed. We enjoy meeting guests, and have a lot of love for Ōmishima and the surrounding area, so we're happy to answer questions!