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Traditional Japanese houses are different, any anime fan can tell you that. Japanese culture, a semi-tropical climate, Japan's island environment and the fact that Japan itself is both earthquake and typhoon-prone have resulted in building traditions that are very different from those seen in the West. Traditional Japanese houses are light, airy and flexible structures that are relatively easy to build and thus quick to replace.
Traditional Japanese houses tend to be fairly spartan, with multipurpose rooms and relatively little furniture. Closets and cabinets are used to store bedding and clothing. At the most basic there may only be one main room, which functions as living, dining, or bedroom as the situation requires. Modern Japanese houses run the gamut from mostly traditional with some Western features to tiny apartments little different from anything you'd find in the West.
Some typical features of Japanese houses.
Genkan: The traditional Japanese entryway. Typically a tiled well in the floor where one removes their outdoor shoes, the genkan can be found even in the smallest studio apartments, even though it may be no larger than a doormat. Larger houses (Such as the Tendo residence in Ranma ½) will often have an entire entry hall, and schools even larger ones, where the shoe lockers can be found.
Shoji and Fushama (or Fusuma): The traditional wooden-framed rice paper screens used as partition walls and doors. Translucent shoji are typically found on the inner wall, and opaque fushama on the outside. These can be quite fragile, and poking them full of holes is often used as a sign of pettiness and immaturity.
Amado: Sliding rain doors used to enclose Japanese houses from the elements. Typically glazed and configured so they will slide into a stack on either or both sides of the engawa. In My Neighbor Totoro Professor Kusakawa is shown opening the amado of his family's new house.
Engawa: Often loosely translated as "porch" or "veranda", the engawa is actually the strip of floor between the inner screens and the outer rain doors. The engawa functions as a porch when the amado are open and a hallway when they're closed. A popular spot for eavesdroppers, or just a good place to hang out.
Furoba: The traditional Japanese bathroom, with a wash area and one or more soaking tubs. Not the toilet, however: that is almost always found in a separate alcove, either off the main bathroom or even in another part of the house.
Tatami: Traditional rice-straw floor mats, made in uniform sizes that vary from region to region, generally with length/width ratio 2:1. Room and even house sizes are often expressed in numbers of mats, a system referred to as Ken. Once commonly found throughout Japan, but nowadays typically only found in formal rooms, such as tea rooms, receiving rooms, and dojo.
Examples:Anime and Manga
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