Beds

Now while western-style beds do exist in Japan, most families still use the traditional Japanese futons to sleep on. Now when I say "futon" I don't mean the cheap couches that fold out into beds that you can buy at Ikea, I mean real futons, which are thin mattresses that you spread out on the floor.

I don't even know how sofa beds ever got the name futon anyway, I guess it is similar to how in America "hibachi" is a type of Japanese cooking, when it totally isn't. In Japan a hibachi is a tiny portable heater that samurai used to carry to keep themselves warm at night, but it was typically never used for cooking at all. What Americans are actually referring to when they say hibachi is called a shichirin in Japan.

But let's get back to our topic: futons. Japanese rooms are typically much smaller than rooms in America and having a permanent bed would just take up too much space. During the day, futons are generally folded up and stored in closets located in the bedroom, so technically most of the time, there isn't a bed in a bedroom at all. Typically kids will place a small folding table where the futon had been and transform their bedroom into a kind of playroom.

I can tell that most of you are thinking, "it must be SO uncomfortable for an adult to sleep on the floor" but it really isn't all that bad. It does take a little getting used to, but after a while, you adjust. I wonder how I will feel going back to super-cushiony American beds. I have to say one thing: the bedroom looks so tidy and clean without an actual bed cluttering it up.

I wonder if instead of the familiar cry of, "make your bed", Japanese homes are filled with screams of "pick up your bed!" I'll find out in a few years, I guess.