Japanese Homes Essay

940 Words4 Pages
A comparison of Japanese and Australian Housing Japanese and Australian homes are greatly different; Japanese style and design is minimalistic and delicate compared to Australian homes which are quite spacious yet many are ‘cluttered’ with furniture when compared with the Japanese styles. The styles, design, size, construction and the traditions of the two are quite dissimilar. All civilizations use the materials in their building construction which are the most common. In the case of Western houses – which were influenced by European architecture, stone seemed the logical building material; in Japan with its vast forests it was wood. The architecture of Japan is a response to its natural environment: its weather, its geography and its harmony…show more content…
In Australia you both clean yourself with soap and relax in the privacy of your own bath or shower. Many Japanese use public baths called a sento which is similar to their private bathrooms at home (furoba). The sento is divided in the female and male sections. The sento contains has a robe room (where you take off your clothes), a bathing room and a tub room. In the robe room you undress and take your soap and other belongings to the bathing room where you sit on a stool, face the wall and wash your body. You can then move onto the tub room. The Bath is very hot and many westerners find the temperature uncomfortable. Japanese find it relaxing and a way to ‘wash away the day’s…show more content…
Space is very limited in Japanese homes and so one room can be used for many different things i.e. the lounge room can become the bedroom and a dining room. This is possible because all the necessary furniture is light and portable, being stored in oshiire, a small section of the house used for storage. In Australia this is generally not the case; we usually have one room for each purpose – kitchen, dining room, lounge room, study our own bedrooms etc. The Japanese dining table is a low table called the kotatsu (in winter this usually has an electric blanket under the table top to keep the family warm) and the family sit on cushions called zabuton. This can be transformed into the bedroom at bedtime by taking out futons (these are made of cotton usually and have a bottom mattress called a shikibuton and a foldable quilt called a kakebuton) from the oshiire (a storage cupboard). These days many Japanese homes have western style beds like in
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