My Homestay Home

-Austin

Sorry about the lack of posts. Classes have finally started so we haven't been doing anything really blog worthy.

That being said, when I showed pictures of my homestay room I said that I would show more of my home at a later date. This is that date.

My home is a 2 story house with a garage built under it that can hold 3 (small) cars. Incredibly compact, but every bit of space is efficiently used.  If there is one thing I've learned since I've been here it is how efficient the Japanese strive to be.

Front of the House. This is actually 2 pictures, I've just combined them so that you can see the front better.. If you look closely, you can see where the division between the 2 pictures is.

The front door, looking at it from the stairs

The stairs that lead to the front door.

This is the side room that Mama-san uses to tutor her home students. It is right beside the stairs. I took this picture standing right in front of the front door.  This room is actually connected to mine.

Next, we go in through the front door. When entering a Japanese home or dorm, you always take off your shoes. This is even true of  schools, specifically the Elementary through Highschools (not college). In a home, this area is called the Gekan. It is usually a tile floor that is lower than the rest of the house's floor.  As you take off your shoes, you step up into the house, being sure not to let your sock clad feet touch the floor of the Gekan because it is dirty. People also usually wear slippers inside of the home that are only used inside the home, never outside.

The tile area is the Gekan. The white floor part actually extends about 2 inches over the tile to help you take off your shoes. You can walk up backwards to it and use the extended part to pull your shoe off.

This is my room. I have already posted about it here: My Homestay Room 

This is the crossroads of the house. In front is the living room, to the left are the stairs. Also on the left, closer to the brown door is a toilet. To the right is a hidden door into a sink/laundry room. 

In the living room you may notice an INCREDIBLE amount of picture frames. These are pictures of all of their past students. They've been taking on homestay students since Yuuki (their son) was little. He is 31 now.  They have had roughly 50 students stay with them throughout the years. A few have returned to stay again before.

This is the Living Room. Not much to say that you can't see.

This is where we eat. Quaint little table directly connected to the kitchen.

The kitchen. It is tiny, but Mama-san makes REALLY good food here, so she obviously for her :)

Different angle of the kitchen. From this angle you can see the hidden sink/laundry room behind that door I mentioned.

So, if we go into the kitchen, into the hidden sink room, and open that hidden door, we will be looking at the stairs.

These stairs are incredibly tall. Much taller than the stairs you're used to most likely. They lead to the second floor which contains the Shower and the bedrooms used by the rest of the family.

This is the entrance to the shower / bath. Inside of there is a little room where you would undress. (Yes there is also a door to close off that little room, not just the curtain.) 

This is the sliding door that leads into the Shower.  Picture taken standing in the undressing room.

The shower and sitting stool.

The bathtub.

Japanese people DO NOT use the bathtub to clean themselves.  The shower is used to fully clean the body. The bath is used to soak and warm up, especially during the winter.  Japanese baths have a special function that recirculates the water, heating it back up. An entire family would usually use the same bath without draining the water because you've just cleaned yourself so the water stays clean.

Some families even have water saving mechanisms installed in the house that will recycle the bath water after use. When the tub is drained, the water would be stored in a tank for later use in the washing machine.  Keep in mind that this bath water is completely clean, which is why it is okay to recycle it.

That is pretty much it for the home tour. Everything besides the toilet and my families' bedrooms.

A note: This house is EXTREMELY western style. Not all Japanese homes look like this.