Our House

This, for the remaining three and a half months, will be our house in Tokyo. After the girls finish a term of school, we will be moving on to take advantage of the holidays Steve has stored up and travel around Japan. For now, this is home.

Small plum blossoms out the front of the house.

We live in an old Japanese style house. It is very traditional. The height that every bench and sink is standing at is a real testament out just how old it is, (not to mention the doorways) and you can see from the layout that the modern facilities have just been added in as they developed. 

The first thing you see as you slide the door open is the concrete slab the house is built on. This is the entrance, or genkan. It's where you take off your shoes. You absolutely cannot wear your outside shoes anywhere in the house. Japanese families have a pair of slippers for everyone, and spares for guests. We aren't a huge fan of slippers, but Rachel is rocking the cow slippers we gave her for Christmas, so she's fitting right in. 

I have often wondered why Japanese people have the need to wear slippers at home, but I was reading the Disaster Readiness Guide that was in our house and one of the things people talk about is when an earthquake hits and the glass in the windows and doors shatters. You don't want to be stuck unable to cross the room to safety if the floor is covered in glass, so they recommend having a good pair of house slippers.  I don't know if this is the only reason (I think the clean inside vs outside is def another factor), but it certainly makes sense that it has contributed to how Japanese people live. Japan is one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world after all. 

Rachel's cow slippers, ready for action.

Anyway, this house would be considered big by Tokyo standards, small by Australian. There is no back, front or even side yard to speak of. The house stands approximately a half meter away from the boundary fence to the neighbours on all sides. Coming in there is a living room, where we have set up the kotatsu. This is a low table that you sit on the floor at. It actually has a heating element underneath and a double top (the very top of the table is moveable), so you can plug it in in winter, put a blanket between the top layers of the table and suddenly your feet and legs are toasty warm as you sit there. 

The kotatsu wasn't set up when we first arrived, and we didn't really need it, but when the rainy cold, top of five degrees celsius hit at the start of last week, we pulled it out of the cupboard and set it up pretty quickly. We also pulled out the heated carpets (think electric blanket for a bed, but this is designed to go on the floor) and set them up. That's what's under the brown mats in the living room and bedrooms. This old house is not insulated even the tiniest bit. 

Lucky cat (maneki neko) door hanging (noren) at the entry to the laundry/bathroom

The main bathroom (just the laundry and then shower room/bath) is off this living room, towards the front of the house. It's a testament to how old the house is that the bathroom is in such a random place. This is Japanese style, so the whole room is a wet area. You shower first and then have the option of soaking in the bath. The bath is really deep, so it is comfortable to sit and relax in. It has electronic controls on the walls so you can fill it up to a set height, and control both the hot water temperature of the shower and bath. Once it is full, the whole family use it (because you are clean before you get in). Again, the cold rainy days of last week meant we really enjoyed the bath at night. 

Coming further into the house from the living room, you step into the kitchen and dining room. The only toilet and handwashing sink are also in here right at the back (you can see the sink on the right of the photo below). It's a little strange, but this is an old house. Modern Japanese houses would not have this. 

Originally, the kotatsu that we set up in the living room, was in the dining room, but our hosts put in an actual dining table and bench seats that we can use instead. 

The kitchen is quite small (honestly, it gives me flashbacks to the original kitchen our house had before we put in the new one in 2011), but I'm making do. The fridge isn't even as tall as Rachel, so we shop small and often. Steve has trouble with the height of the kitchen, but luckily, our girls are on wash up most of the time and they are the right size for it. Any guesses what that trap door looking thing is on the floor there? 

It's the pantry! There are two food storage pantry boxes in the floor (since the house is raised up (remember we stepped up to get inside?) there is a whole lot of space underneath it), though the dining table also came with some storage that I've been using. We bought a small toaster the first week we were here, so now I can melt cheese on a whole variety of things. There is no oven, which ins't uncommon for Japanese houses, but usually they do compensate by having a microwave that can also be an oven. Alas, no such luck for us. 

Tatami flooring

Upstairs (up the very steep stairs), there are three rooms that honestly feel huge because they are mostly void of furniture. They are all tatami, which is the traditional woven straw mat flooring of Japan. Tatami is so soft to walk on we love it. I'm sad to say that the younger generations of Japan are opting not to have tatami (even when I lived here 20 years ago, most of the more modern houses just had one tatami room). My homestay sister in her very new house has no tatami at all. 

The biggest room upstairs we have set up for Steve's office. We had thought we were going to have to get the desk ourselves, but thankfully the people who own the house put one in for us. The chair they provided was not up to scratch though, so Steve ordered a new one. 

Doors of the wardrobe/cupboard behind Steve's desk. 

Wardrobes in the girls room. 

The bedrooms only have built in cupboards (with lovely painted doors) and nothing else. We are sleeping on futon on the tatami. These fold out mattress and doona combos are very cool. When we first arrived the futon were older and quite thin, but after a week, we asked the owners if they could replace them becuase we were finding it quite uncomfortable. Would have been fine for a week, but not for four months. They were great and ordered new futon for us that very night which arrived two days later. The new futon are so thick and comfy and now we can use the old futon for a couch/cushioning downstairs. 

Folded up futon

The end room at the back is where the girls have set up to sleep, and Steve and I have the room at the front of the house. In the morning, you fold up the futon to make space and let the tatami air. At night you fold it out again. From our room you can open the sliding doors and go out to the half a metre wide balcony, which is where we hang all our laundry. It's pretty much the only reason we go out there, but it's quite rusty and it makes me nervous even when I do. I do a lot of leaning out the door to hang stuff where I can. 

Futon ready to sleep in!

All the windows (and some of the doors) are covered by shouji screens, which is the traditional paper and wood screen combo. I actually love these and they do a surprisingly good job of keeping the cold out. They are somewhat fragile, but none of the holes in the paper were from us. I did get some PVA glue and A4 paper from the 100Yen store to patch them up though, since it was freezing last week, and I'm pretty proud of my work. 

Shouji screens

And that's that! We are pretty lucky to have all this space and still be in Tokyo. I honestly love being surrounded by all the traditional Japanese elements here too. It might be old and a little tricky at times, but we fit just fine. Happy days! 

Sliding doors to our bedroom