ENTERPRISE — You can find your Zen, have Japanese tea and experience a sample of the Orient right outside of Enterprise when a local couple opens the Kominka Life Coaching & Retreat.

But first they have to finish reconstructing it.

Bill and Kiyomi Oliver have moved a kominka — a traditional Japanese farmhouse — from Japan to their property north of Enterprise as a place where visitors can spend the night, enjoy Japanese culture and even receive a little life coaching.

“We’re going to have people come here for a Zen retreat to get reconnected with themselves, to get coached if they want to for their life purpose and also just to sit back and enjoy the place,” Bill said. “We also have done a few tea ceremonies in this little teahouse.”

Kiyomi, who was raised in Japan and is a certified life coach, even conducts traditional Japanese tea ceremonies garbed in one of the kimonos given to her by her mother. They completed the teahouse portion just before last winter and tried it out with the ceremonies.

The Olivers’ kominka consists of a 200-square-foot teahouse attached to a 600-square-foot main portion of the building. The teahouse is just for ceremonial purposes and has no water, though it will be lighted and heated, Bill said. But the main building will have all the modern conveniences, including sleeping quarters, a kitchen, a bathroom and a Japanese-style bath.

There will be a door from an old samurai home between the teahouse and the main building and carved, stone lanterns to add to the culture, Bill said.

No longer wanted

Bill said that kominkas, generally about a century old, are generally no longer wanted in Japan.

“The traditional farmhouses are being torn down and burned because nobody wants to live in them anymore,” he said. “They’re out in the countryside, they’re cold and have no modern conveniences. This one is 90 years old and it’s the upper story of a much larger house. Typically they’re pretty good-sized.”

But they’ve grown unpopular in Japan. He said although some Japanese move them to other parts of the country, many just want them gone.

“What happens is people say, ‘I don’t want this anymore; burn it.’ So there are a couple of companies we’re working with … and they find out about these homes,” he said. “Typically, the only cost is taking them apart. … There are very, very few here in the United States. We’re one of the first.”

This kominka came from an area on the large island of Honshu south of Tokyo and north of Osaka, Bill said. It was brought here in two 40-foot seagoing shipping containers.

“This whole thing was disassembled, put into the container and then shipped over here,” he said.

Kiyomi said the cost to acquire the kominka in Japan was about $135,000. After the shipping and reconstruction, it’ll cost the Olivers about three-quarters of a million dollars, she said.

She called that “a testament to the seriousness of our commitment to cultural understanding and appreciation.”

East meets West

The Olivers met in Seattle where Kiyomi had emigrated from her native Nagoya when she was about 30. She has since become a U.S. citizen. She went there to teach English as a second language in 1995.

“We had a common dream to do an English school for international students with common activities using English,” she said.

They have two children, a son, Kai, who came from his home in Bothel, Washington, to help with the kominka work. Their daughter, Kana, lives in Redmond, Washington. Bill also has a daughter from a previous marriage, Sarah, who lives in Poulsbo, Washington.

Reconstruction

In addition to Kai Oliver, Eric Carlson of Lostine is on hand as the chief builder. He has his own kominka, so he has experience at reassembling such structures (Carlson is a partner in the Kominka Collective; learn more at www.kominkacollective.com and on the not-for-profit’s Facebook page).

They’re built largely with mortise and tenon joints — the mortise being a hole in one piece that the tenon fits snugly into. The pieces are tapped into place with large, traditional Japanese mallets.

“They use those big hammers and tap, tap, tap, they come apart,” Bill said. “The work is so meticulous and so skillful that it just fits.”

He said each piece can’t be off more than 1/32 of an inch. No nails, screws or other metal fasteners are needed.

Each of the crates and the parts within them are marked — in Japanese — so the builders will know where they go.

“We have a fellow here who’s Japanese and my wife is, too,” he said. “They can read it; I can’t.”

The kominka also came with detailed plans Bill likens to directions kids get with their model airplanes or cars.

He said the floor beams are made of Japanese cypress and Japanese cedar. Large, round logs will cover the roof.

“Those go over the top and it looks like a whale from the inside — like Jonah’s view of a whale,” Bill said, referring to the biblical account of the prophet Jonah being swallowed by a large fish when he tried to avoid God’s command.

Finding your Zen

The Olivers hope to open for business this fall and to hold an open house before that. They aren’t yet sure, but they may charge around $350 a night to stay in the kominka, Bill said. They’ll be offering overnight guests breakfast, but Kiyomi has not decided if she’ll offer more in the way of Japanese meals.

Zen is a Japanese sect of Mahayana Buddhism that aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation.

Bill said that in addition to vacation lodging, the kominka will serve a more spiritual purpose.

“It’s for recentering yourself,” he said. “I sit on that rock over there and just watch the mountains ’til they move.”

What: Kominka Life Coaching & Retreat

Who: Bill and Kiyomi Oliver

Where: 69058 Dunham Road, Enterprise

Phone: 541-398-1104

Online: www.kominkalifecoaching.com