Nice to meet you.
We are a couple who moved to the Ina Valley in Nagano,
a quiet valley surrounded by mountains,
where we now run three small accommodations together.
A 100-year-old traditional house renovated into “nagare.”
A villa with wide views of the Alps, villa “nagare.”
And a log house gently scented with wood, Log “nagare.”
Before this life, we both worked as bankers in Tokyo and Yokohama.
In the midst of busy days,
we began to feel the need to pause
and think about how we truly wanted to live.
That quiet feeling led us to take a bold step:
a 500-day round-the-world honeymoon trip.
Along the way, we encountered countless landscapes,
stayed in many different accommodations,
and experienced many ways of living.
Through those experiences,
the gentle moments that exist
somewhere between “travel” and “daily life”
slowly settled into our hearts.
Wanting to create that feeling again with our own hands,
we moved to the Ina Valley in 2018 after returning to Japan.
In the summer of 2020, we opened our first place,
Kominka nagare.
Today, we live here in the Ina Valley
with our five-year-old son and our dog.
The idea of creating a place to stay
began near the end of our journey.
“What kind of time feels truly comfortable for us?”
That question gradually took shape
as our trip came to a close.
After leaving our jobs and resetting our lives,
we spent many hours talking about
how we wanted to live from then on.
Through those conversations,
the idea that felt most natural was:
to create a place to stay.
There were several accommodations during our travels
that left a lasting impression on us.
One of them was a quiet guesthouse
in a small town in Guatemala.
It no longer exists,
and it was neither a tourist destination
nor a convenient location.
Yet, for some reason,
time there felt gentle and unhurried.
Drawn to that feeling,
we stayed there for nearly three weeks—
the longest stay during our 500-day journey.
In the mornings, the owner’s family greeted us warmly.
We cooked meals in the kitchen with ingredients from the local market.
Before we knew it,
we had our own favorite cafés and bakeries.
Those days quietly accumulated into something unforgettable.
The name of that guesthouse was “nagare.”
Our accommodations take their name from that place.
Another memorable stay was a house in Iceland,
lent to us while the family was away.
The tableware on the shelves, the photographs, the furniture—
all seemed to gently tell us about life in that place.
Though it was someone else’s home,
it felt strangely like an extension of our own.
Neither place was elaborately designed.
Yet both were filled with small, carefully layered “likes”—
experiences we never wanted to forget.
That lingering feeling quietly lives on in “nagare” today.
Here in the Ina Valley,
together with the light, the wind, and the changing seasons,
we hope to offer a place
where guests can naturally let their shoulders relax.
If you find yourself thinking,
“This kind of life feels nice,”
even just a little,
we would be very happy.
We hope “nagare” becomes a place
you recall fondly after returning home,
and wish to visit again someday.
Thank you very much for reading.
We truly look forward to welcoming you.
