Japanese houses

A traditional Japanese house is small. It is made of wood and has a tiled roof. Most houses are among bamboo fences or hedges . Space is very limited in Japan as it is a very crowded country. So, most Japanese gardens are very small. Japanese people decorate their gardens with rocks and plants to make them look more beautiful and peaceful. Everyone takes their shoes off before they enter a Japanese house to keep the floor clean. The floors are covered with a special mat called ‘tatami’. Tatamis keep the floor cool on hot summer days and warm on cold winter days. Rooms are separated with sliding doors. These doors are generally made of wood and paper. There is a main room where family members get together during the day. They sit together to talk about their day or watch TV. Japanese people do not use a lot of furniture. They sit on special cushions . In contrast to ours, Japanese people have no beds in their bedrooms. They usually lay the bed at nights and in the morning they put the beds away in closets . There are usually no chairs in a Japanese dining room. There is a low table called ‘chabudai’ in the middle of the dining room and family members or guests sit on the floor around that table and have their meals. In smaller Japanese houses, where there isn’t a dining room, family members have their meals on the table in the main room. To one side of the main room is the ‘tokonoma’. It is a special area decorated with a hanging scroll . The scroll is usually a painting or a poem beautifully written with a brush. Next to the scroll is a flower arrangement and one or two art objects. This traditional style of living is changing in cities in Japan. People prefer living in apartment houses. They also buy modern furniture to use in their houses.