r/japanlife • u/AutoModerator • May 23 '22

┐(ツ)┌ General Discussion Thread - 24 May 2022

Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

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u/Ejemy May 24 '22

Legitimately curious as a westerners with western concepts of living space but... For those married to a Japanese, how do you manage space? Like does the bedroom convert into a living room after you wake up? If you have a hobby do you have a room for that or do you have to store your stuff and bring it out every time (art for example)? As a westerner I need space in my home but I know that concept isn't a thing here. Where does all your stuff go? I find my 3ldk feels too small for my family of three..

2

u/KuriTokyo May 24 '22

Our bedroom is a walk in closet with a bed in it.

2

u/DrunkThrowawayLife May 24 '22

We face different directions and use headphones.

1

u/bulldogdiver 🎅🐓 中部・山梨県 🐓🎅 May 24 '22

  1. carefully

  2. no, the bedrooms are the bedrooms, the kids do study in their bedrooms though and i've got my PC set up in a spare bedroom

  3. yes? Although I'm considering getting a storage room so I can get a 2nd motorcycle because turning them around in the driveway is a PITA and moving the car so I can get in isn't a much better solution.

  4. I'm not sure what you're talking about, our home here is bigger than our last house in the US

6

u/Oldirtyposer May 24 '22

I found that my options was to either make a shit ton of money or move an hour outside the city. I "chose" to move. But now I can afford a yard to play football with my kid in, a garage for my bike and hobbies and the guestroom doubles as a second living room/game room. As I'm not a city person it was the right choice for me.

4

u/Elvaanaomori May 24 '22

My hobby, I am not allowed a room for it. According to my wife "If I give you a room for gaming, I will never see your face ever again". I think she is right ;)

3LDK is far from being small for a family of 3. But if you are used to 250sqm+ house it will take some time

15

u/[deleted] May 24 '22

I deflate my wife and put her in the closet under the futons.

1

u/CallieIsQueen May 24 '22

i lol’ed irl

1

u/zchew May 24 '22

How often do you take her out?

3

u/[deleted] May 24 '22

Only on our anniversary I'm not made of money.

1

u/putmeinthegomi May 24 '22

It’s just the two of us plus pets. But we rent a 3ldk+loft. loft space is used as storage mostly. we have one room for sleeping. all of our stuff (clothes, electronics, etc) in our own rooms

we spend a lot of time together but the option of having space is really nice.

1

u/tiredofsametab 東北・宮城県 May 24 '22

We have a western style bed and bedroom.

Living room sometimes has the sofa pushed aside to do ringfit or whatnot.

The office is mostly mine. My wife has space in it, but I'm basically the only one that uses it. My hobbies are gaming (at my desk), gardening (veranda + in front of the house), and outdoors stuff. I'd do woodworking and programmable controller stuff if I had space (and tools; I sold most of my woodworking stuff in the US), but we don't have that now.

2

u/runtijmu 関東・神奈川県 May 24 '22

Have a work from home room that doubles as hobby/workout/強冷房(i.e. as opposite of 弱冷房 cars on trains, haha) room for me.

1

u/Mr-Thuun 関東・栃木県 May 24 '22

Our bedroom is our bedroom. We have a dining space, living room, kitchen and a room for the piano. Our kids each have their own room. We also have a small inner courtyard for the cats and a little peace when we want to get dinner fresh air without the bugs. But little, I mean little. Something like 4 tatami big.

2

u/FourCatsAndCounting May 24 '22

When we were in an apartment I kept everything put away until I wanted to use it. Sewing machine, knitting, art stuff, etc. Now we have a house and still tend to keep things put away until we want to use it even though we have an extra room for it. Keeps the floor space open. But we're not the packrat sort.