We had to postpone a few days because the rains have begun, but this afternoon was drier, so I called a few friends over from the nearby copper sculpting workshop, and in went the windows. Here's a shot taken from the upper basement balcony (B1) looking down over the edge while two of us inserted one of the windows (covered with plywood to protect it while we worked).

It was a bit difficult getting these heavy windows down all the stairs and up into position, so we didn't have a lot of free time for taking pictures all the way. Here they are all in place ...

As you can see, the two side casement windows open up, and the two taller front ones are fixed.

As expected, the interior has become a bit more 'closed off', but that's still not such a bad view to have from one's workbench!

Now, about these windows! As I mentioned earlier, we had first visited the showroom of Japan's major sash maker to get a price on some. We looked at samples of both Japanese made windows and some that the company was importing from America, then sat down with one of the showroom staff members to work out some prices.

It was an absolute fiasco, and I can't give you a final total of the price they quoted, because we just got up and left part way through. The big kicker came when we had got an estimate on a set of windows of the approximate size. The price was very high - somewhere around 400,000 ~ 500,000 yen - and the deal was already looking like a 'no go' when the lady asked us "And from which maker would you be ordering the glass to go in these windows?" I did a bit of a double-take, not understanding this rather strange question, but she then told us that the price she had quoted so far was just for the outer sash of the windows - now we would get down to business and talk about glass ...

Well, that certainly made the decision easy - I would have to import a set of windows from North America myself. I got home, got on the internet, and started firing off inquiries to various companies who had products that looked like they would fill the bill.

A small company in rural Ontario Canada (Thermotech Windows) had a very interesting product line; the windows were neither aluminum (which conducts heat to the outside very rapidly) nor vinyl (very weak on windows this large), but were made of fiberglass reinfored plastic. They were triple-glazed, gas filled, and were coated with one of these modern substances that cuts heat radiation out through the glass at night. They could make sizes that would suit my needs, and the openable windows came ready-fitted with screens.

I asked them if they would quote on a project for Japan, and they did: for the four units just about $1800 (US), and for shipping from their factory in Canada over to Yokohama just about $300. This worked out to just about 238,000 - half of the Japanese quote (which hadn't yet included either glass, or such things as delivery, etc. ...)

I placed the order (paying a 20% deposit), and sat back to wait for the notification from Yokohama. When the crate arrived a couple of months later I headed down to the port to arrange for customs clearance and transportation. These of course added more costs to my investment: 

     13,000 yen ... unloading from ship
      9,282 yen ... 3.9% import duty
     12,330 yen ... 5% consumption tax
     18,000 yen ... truck from port to my home (Akabo)

So for a total of just under 300,000 yen, a fraction of the price of the 'best' Japanese product, I now have a set of wonderfully strong, fabulously well-insulated, top-of-the line windows.

And they really are very well made: they are solid and strong, and the three layers of glass are bonded into a single sealed unit. The openable casements have a very tight seal, and there is no chance of any drafts once the strong latch has pulled the window closed (with a most satisfying 'thunk' sound!).

It's also interesting to note that the freight costs to get the crate of windows from the port to my home were just about the same as the costs to get it by truck from the Ontario factory to the Port of Montreal ... onto a boat ... down through the Panama Canal ... and all the way across the Pacific ...

A few years from now, when it's time to get to work on the house upstairs, it's going to be fun shopping around among the North American 'package' home builders to see what they can make for me!