This Glassy Getaway in the Mountains of Japan Is Not Your Typical Cabin

It’s a late March afternoon, and the mountains of Japan are awakening to spring as Rob Tull dozes in his living room. The soft-spoken Englishman hails from a small town on Great Britain’s southern coast, and after living abroad for nearly three decades, he has finally found a place to put down permanent roots with his wife, Junko, who is originally from Okayama.

The home, with its sprawling glass surfaces and sharp angles, could feel out of place this deep in the woods, but nature doesn’t seem to mind it. A pack of wild macaques arrives to clamber over heaps of firewood, and their cries enter the house via an open kitchen window. The monkeys can see Rob and his family going about their daily life indoors, but they remain unfazed.

This house is a besso, a Japanese term for a countryside vacation home. Although Rob and Junko would like to eventually live here full-time, they are currently tied to Tokyo because of their work in finance. They escape a couple times a month with their daughter to Karuizawa, a mountainous enclave in Nagano Prefecture, about an hour northwest of the city by bullet train. "The location is just too convenient," Rob says. "We were won over by the practicality of it." Most Karuizawa besso are uninspired prefab cubes or stereotypes of American log cabins, but the couple knew they wanted something different.

They found their architect, Rei Mitsui, in a uniquely Japanese way. Junko met him at a formal tea ceremony, and they bonded over their love for traditional culture and aesthetics. A former associate of Shigeru Ban, Mitsui has designed projects ranging from traditional sukiya tearooms to minimalist homes.

Rob remembers seeing Mitsui’s design concept for the first time. "Wow, that’s different," he said, semi-speechless after years of expecting to retire in a traditional kominka farmhouse. Still, it felt right. Mitsui was given free rein to let his imagination run wild, and he delivered a 1,085-square-foot cabin with two multilevel wings connected by a living space.