The Tatami Room
Almost every apartment in Tokyo has at least 1 tatami room, meaning the flooring or that room is made of tatami mats. Most rooms in Japan, even with wood flooring, are still measured by the number of tatami it can hold. The typical room is about 6 tatami. The tatami room in our current 2DK (which means 2 rooms plus a kitchen with a dining area) serves as our bedroom. I’ve grown to love tatami rooms and would really love to have one tatami room no matter where we end up living in the future. Using a tatami room as a bedroom means every night we lay out the futons to sleep on. They are not the futon beds which have become popular in NYC. They are simply thin mattresses which fold up. No need for cribs since the kids sleep on the futons as well. And no need to worry about kids rolling off beds in their sleep since the beds are right on the floor. Then in the daytime we fold up the futons, put them in the large closet which is made to hold futons, and viola – a large space for Keiji and Arisa to play and run around in circles! And if the futons are kept out late in the day the room becomes one big gymnastics mat for the kids to jump, tumble, nosedive and roll around on. A very fun space for kids, but when they are older I think I would like a bed again. There are some downsides to tatami that I’m discovering. One I’ve often been warned about are dani (mites) being a common problem, so I’ve turned into a vacuum maniac and vacuum frequently. Another thing about a tatami room is that the closet space is not great if you’ve got lots of clothes. Trying to fit all our clothes into the closets is a daily challenge. I’m still working on what is the best and most economical clothes storage solution for a family of four. Any suggestions most welcome!