[GoNative]

Agree with all of that steven. The house we bought was definitely a fixer upper and we spent about double what we bought it for on renovations. Up here in Hokkaido there are very few what I would consider 'traditional Japanese homes' as Hokkaido has only been settled by the Japanese a little over 200 years and probably due to the brutal winter there's not that many old style homes around. Plus on the whole, at least in my experience here, the Japanese aren't big on buying older homes and renovating. Generally they'll buy an old place, level it and build a new one. Old houses are often valued at land value only as it is expected new owners will knock down the existing house. In our case they actually reduced the sale price to take into account the costs of removing the old house.
I agree structurally a lot of the houses are very well built, carpentry here is of a really high standard but I also agree that the interiors can vary greatly. Up here it's not unusual to have most of the pipes for plumbing fully exposed on the interior in the kitchen and bathroom. I find that simply crazy and hideous.
And rpk I wasn't suggesting that you'd want a massive kitchen or bathroom but I really don't think you realise just how small the average Japanese kitchen and bathroom can be. The bathroom in our house before the renovations was minature. We actually turned that room into the laundry, it's barely even big enough for that! Also be aware that most Japanese houses do not have an oven in their kitchen. Personally I love roasting and baking and having friends around for dinner so living without a good sized oven just wasn't an option. We got a good deal on an stianless steel commercial overn/cooktop that is awesome.
As steven points out most Japanese houses, even if reasonably large, break up the interior into lots of very small rooms. In our house the downstairs area had 3 separate rooms aside from the kitchen/bathroom area. All too small to be of much use for anything. So we took out two of the walls opening up the area into a more usable living/dining area.
And as steven points out if you're looking to build a new home using traditional materials and methods it get really costly!