MATSUE, Japan - Dressed in kimono, a Moroccan Muslim and his Japanese wife whisk matcha tea and welcome visitors to their more than 100-year-old farmhouse in rural western Japan, where they hope to create a place where anyone can feel at home.
Fatih Ymran, a Moroccan IT engineer, and his wife Nanami, a former civil servant who converted to Islam before they married, have opened their traditional home in the mountainous Hakuta district of Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture, welcoming neighbors for tea, conversation and seasonal cooking.
The house, complete with an earthen-floored entrance and a traditional sunken hearth, sits just off a road lined with old homes and merchant houses dating back to the Edo period, with tea plantations stretching across the surrounding hills.
Fatih, 33, and Nanami, 35, met in 2016 while he was an international student at a university in Kobe and she was working for the Kobe city government. A shared interest in traditional Japanese culture quickly drew them together.
Nanami experienced Ramadan for the first time in 2018 and said the month of fasting changed the way she thought about food.
"It made me realize that taking time to appreciate each meal could enrich your life," she said, explaining why she converted to Islam.
Faith and Nanami married in 2020 and moved to Yasugi despite having no previous connection to the area, drawn by its natural surroundings. In 2023 they bought the farmhouse, where they now live with their 2-year-old son, Sami.
One memorable scene was Sami watching the animated film "My Neighbor Totoro" in both Japanese and Arabic.
By opening their home, the couple has gradually expanded their ties with the local community.
Visitors gather to drink matcha prepared by the couple and make seasonal treats by wrapping glutinous rice in bamboo leaves before boiling it.
"This is the kind of place where you can start talking to someone you've just met," said local resident Sachiko Omichi.
The couple has also hosted foreign residents of Shimane from countries including Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh, who have stayed at the farmhouse for several days, sharing meals and daily life with the family.
Fatih, who works remotely for a Tokyo-based company, often receives visitors even while sitting at his computer.
"Back home in Morocco, it's common for neighbors to drop by," he said. "The Prophet taught us to care even for our seventh neighbor."
Although discrimination and online abuse targeting Muslims have been reported in parts of Japan in recent years, Nanami said the couple had experienced the opposite in their rural community.
"No one here has ever treated us differently because of how we look or what we believe," she said.
"People here saw us for who we are. I think that's what multicultural coexistence really means -- respecting one another without having to talk about diversity."
