• Machiko Imai inherited a 200-year-old traditional Japanese home from her father when he died in 2020. • Together with her son, Matsukane, they restored the property and turned it into a guesthouse. • Now, rates start from $350 per night per guest for a minimum two-night stay on Airbnb.

When Matsukane Imai was a child, summer meant escaping the bustle of Tokyo and heading to his family's traditional home in Okaya, a quiet city in Nagano Prefecture, Japan.

He remembers those days filled with simple joys, like digging in the dirt in search of insects, watching fireflies over the rice paddies, and playing with fireworks.

Even his mother, Machiko Imai, now in her seventies, recalls spending her childhood at the two-story house, where the upper floor was once used for cultivating silkwo

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