Is the reward of low rent worth this high risk?

A lot of homes in Japan have sliding interior doors. Sometimes this is an extension of classical Japanese architectural aesthetics, but another reason is that it’s often a more efficient use of space. Japanese homes aren’t very big, and sliding doors that can double as interior walls don’t need a clear arc to swing out into a hallway, letting you make the room itself that much bigger.

So when Japanese real estate agent and Twitter user @S_taka_G was visiting a house in Hyogo Prefecture that the owner is looking to rent out, he wasn’t surprised to encounter such a sliding door on the second floor, as shown in the photo above. He was shocked, though, when he saw what’s on the other side of the door.

Ordinarily, when you step through a doorway, you expect there to be something for you to step onto. That’s not the case here, though, where instead there’s simply empty air, which arguably makes this more of a window than a door.

“I thought I was going to die while I was touring this property. Simply put, it’s dangerous,” tweeted @S_taka_G, and commenters were quick to agree.

“Reminds me of the Infinity Castle from Demon Slayer.”
“It’s like a ninja house.”
“I thought it was forced-perspective trick art, but actually it’s just super dangerous.”
“After a few drinks, I’d definitely fall down that hole and die.”
“It’s the Dark Souls of houses.”
“So I’m guessing the previous residents all had the power to walk on air.”
“You could put rock-climbing grips on the wall…Free exercise every day!”

On the bright side, you won’t plummet all the way to the ground floor, since the opening is above the stairway. However, between the steep angle of the steps and the wood surface, you’re probably going to land on some very hard corners, then continue sliding down with enough force to smash painfully into that glass-panel door at the bottom.

So how did this happen? @S_taka_G believes the house had an extension put on it after it was originally built, and the steepness of the stairway definitely makes it feel like it was a force-fit of sorts. Taking a close look at the sliding door threshold in the photo, there appear to be two panels, and if they were slid in such a way to create an opening on the half of the threshold closer to the camera, there’d be enough floor space to step onto when exiting the room.

Aside from its unique/possibly lethal floorplan, the two-story house has a number of other benefits. The kitchen has recently been redone, and there’s a garage with space for three cars. The rent is attractively low at just 70,000 yen (US$610) a month too, which should help whoever moves in set aside some extra money for their inevitable medical bills.

Source: Twitter/@S_taka_G, Lmaga via Yahoo! Japan News
Images: Twitter/@S_taka_G
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