How far would you go to recreate something you love based on your favourite country?
Amalyasa, a Singaporean man who loves Japan recently renovated his Housing & Development Board (HDB) flat into ‘Little Japan.’
The ‘Japanophile’ loves Japan so much that he visits the country every year.
One day he was visiting Japan when he suddenly got the idea of incorporating a Japanese theme in his home back in Sengkang, Singapore.
The remodelling costs about SGD15,000 including purchasing Japanese-styled furniture and decorations online.
He told Stomp, “Every furniture (sic) was purchased and shipped from other countries, like China and Japan.
“I am living alone, so budget is my top concern. When I see items being sold at high prices locally, I look beyond borders and find ways to bring them in.”
Although he couldn’t understand or read Mandarin, Amalyasa managed to comb for furniture through Chinese online shopping site, Taobao.
The re-modelling took four months during which he intricately laid out a few phases for the make-over.
In a Facebook post, Amalyasa said that the whole process of converting his place consisted of eight different phases.
Phase 1 – General Cleaning, Cleansing ritual, Home blessing
Phase 2 – (Little Kawaguchiko) Japanese Master bedroom with sunset panels
Phase 3 – (Little Tokyo) Entertainment glass room and Japanese blinds, (Little Sapporo) Kitchen
Phase 4 – (Little Kyoto) Japanese Platform, tatami mat, calligraphy and Japanese partition
Phase 5 – (Little Osaka) Dining under Japanese lanterns, wall altar with another calligraphy + bamboo waterfall + Shimpaku bonsai
Phase 6 – (Little Fuji) Japanese Hanging Gardens outside the house
Phase 7 – (Little Arashiyama) Japanese-inspired bamboo forest in the toilets
Phase 8 – Secret! To be revealed!
Amalyasa began with a home blessing before framing up Japanese art pieces in the master bedroom.
Next, he installed Japanese-styled blinds in his living area where he also laid out a table, cushions and tatami mat.
The fourth phase was challenging when installing a platform for his living area.
“This 3-metre by 3-metre platform arrived as nine big packages but only six was successfully delivered to my doorstep. The remaining three couldn’t enter the lift so they were left downstairs.
“I rushed home while fearing that someone could’ve removed or tampered with it and upon seeing the packages, I almost fainted,” he said, adding that he had to ask his friends for help to carry the platform up 14 floors on their own.
“By the time everything was in my house, it was already 11pm. But the drive and desire to see the end product was there, so we spent another five hours to fix the platform together. We were so motivated to make it happen that we all forgot to change out of our office wear,” he said according to Stomp.
Despite the little hiccup he had, the journey to convert his low-cost place into a Japanese-themed home was a fruitful one for Amalyasa. -/TISG