As October passes, Japan is slowly transitioning into fall. I can now walk to the girl’s school bus without breaking into a sweat at 0730 in the morning, I can pull back the curtains and leave the windows open, and the cooler air makes a bowl of ramen even more satisfying. I love the seasonal changes of snack flavors, the new ones recently including sweet potato and chestnut. As the girls grow out of their summer wear, I notice how taller their legs are and how their facial features have matured. I have noticed a few extra grey hairs on my head, and hope it is a sign I am growing wiser. We are rearing the end of typhoon season, but I hear the heavy rain outside my window as another one passes. Sitting in my home, I look around and appreciate all the quirky bits of the house and how different it is from our house in America. I thought it would be fun to share a bit on housing in Japan on this post.
A Grandmother’s Home
a 100-year-old Airbnb
We recently stayed at a 100-year-old Airbnb in Wakayama Prefecture. We loved it- it was spacious, inviting, and right across from the ocean. The home was built by the owner’s father in the early 1900’s. We visited a similar house on a farm here in Okazaki, built by my friend’s grandfather. It was beautiful, and held a lot of the same traditional features as this home. These homes could be referred to as “your grandmother’s home”, as a friend once said. I have noticed that when you are outside of the major cities, you see quiet a few of these homes still around. Upon entering the house, you open a large sliding wooden door and step into a large genkan, or entrance, where you take off your shoes. You step up and walk onto a floor lined wall to wall with tatami, or woven straw mats. The soft floor is easy to walk on, and invites you to participate in the Japanese custom of sitting and sleeping on the floor. Shouji , or paper screens, line the far wall, letting in soft natural light. You can see the garden past the shouji through the glass windows. Hand carved wood ranma make up the top part of the wall over wooden fusuma, the sliding doors that allow you to open up or partition off each section of the house.
I love these big sliding doors. 
Plenty of room for taking off your shoes in the genkan.
Futon laid out for sleeping, both an old tradition and a common practice today for many. 
A long narrow hallway runs the length of the garden, creating a great view. 
These glass windows were sealed shut, but normally open wide. 
The washer inside the bathing room. 
Deep bathtub to sit in for a soak, make sure you shower before entering. 
Kitchen modernized by this counter top dishwasher machine. 
I love the way the trees are landscaped here.
Traditional Meets Modern
Our 30-year-old Japan home
The Japanese housing market is a little different from the US, your home’s value actually depreciates with time. The houses are cheaply built to last about 30 years, then it is very common to tear down and rebuild after those years have passed. I read once that when your home gets to the end of those 30 years, your physical house (not the property) has close to zero value. Tax incentives are often given to those who build new homes, and there are many reasons the old ones are torn down. I have heard that Japanese do not like to buy used homes, and also that earthquake safety regulations are always changing and improving. Japanese homes for the past few decades have been constructed with paper thin walls, single pane windows, and cheap furnishings. I was a little surprised when I learned our doors and baseboards were faux wood as the wood “wallpaper” started to peel, and keeping the house cool or warm in each season is really challenging. Also, everyone in our neighborhood can hear me when I yell at my kids or even cough. Despite all this, I really love how our home still has traditional elements. We have a few shouji paper screens, a small tatami area, and we also have a few traditional oshiire, or thin wood closets. The house is a pretty good size, and we are thankful for the amount of space that we have. Also we have a small yard area, which is nice.
Lucky to have a little backyard and space to hang alot of clothes. 
Very small and narrow kitchen. 
Our genkan- filled with many shoes, golf clubs, and a paddle board.
A Friend’s Fab Home
The newly built home
Over the summer my friend invited me to her house, and I immediately loved her home. It is new, fresh, and open. There are no tetami or shouji, but from the bidet toilet to the genkan, it still feels very Japanese. You can see the colors are very neutral like our house, and also this family has small children and they sleep on a futon together.
Toilet buttons for bidet or to play water noises for privacy. 
Lovely kitchen. 
Same as mine, three gas burners and a fish grill below. Always fish over cake here.
There are three bedrooms, this one is the sleeping room. 
Stairs leading up to a rooftop deck, houses are narrow here and this really uses the full space.
A popular type of housing I did not share is called a mansion, which is a high rise apartment. My friend, with her husband and 2 kids, live in one and it is more spacious than our stand alone home! There is limited space in Japan, so all types of apartments are very popular. We have alot of friends who live in apartments. Another part of Japan culture, in general, is that homes are on the smaller side and it is not common to host people in your home. We often meet friends at the park, but I tend to invite myself over to people’s houses and we try to have others in our home often as well.
A View of our Neighborhood
A country town
Our neighborhood is very quiet and residential. I am very thankful that we can walk to the grocery store, the train station, the mall, and to the girl’s elementary school easily. School is assigned by neighborhood, so we often see friends when we are out and about. The girls love going to the park to catch bugs, running errands on bikes, and visiting the conbini (convenience store) for snacks. Everyone is very nice, although it does get lonely. We have felt a loneliness in being away from family and being one of the few American families here. We continue to make new friends and deepen relationships, but what is it about our longing for connection to our national identity? We are all sons and daughters of the same God, yet sometimes it feels like so much separates us from each other.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about our world here. Thanks for reading!
The orange tree we see everyday. 
I love this, I think they are training it which way to grow. 
Park life everyday. 
I love this older style wooden house and the moons on the doors. 
Bikes and vending machines, sums things up pretty well. 
My favorite are the houses with the blue tile roofs. 
On every corner, a kids crossing sign (all kids commute themselves to school), and a mirror so you can see oncoming traffic on the narrow streets.
Mountain town north of us, with traditional style houses and shops lining the street. Our neighborhood is more of a mix of old and new. 
Our neighborhood elementary school garden, you can see the old building behind it that also has a shrine. 
A view down our street, a rice field and Japan-style trimmed trees.