In Japanese houses and buildings, why is the light to the bathroom never on the inside? Why is it always out?

In every Japanese apartment, building, home, office, I've ever been in, why is the light to the toilet, always on the outside of the room? In she states, it is always in the room, just like every other light. In my place of work in Japan + in my friends homes + mine, the light to the bathroom is outside the door, so one can turn on the light before entering. Why?





any insight into this? My Japanese friends said they have never noticed before? They have never thought about it. Why is this a feature in Japanese homes?In Japanese houses and buildings, why is the light to the bathroom never on the inside? Why is it always out?
jorienta has all his facts all flamboozled. early japanese houses in the showa period had fire pits in the center of their home where they burned their dry sh*t for fuel. they dried there sh*t on lines with clothes pins, similarly how they dry their clothes today after they wash them... as for the light issue, it is due to the fact that the spirits of the family that still reside in the household do not want to see their living family members taking a sh*t. it is hard for spirits to see in low light.In Japanese houses and buildings, why is the light to the bathroom never on the inside? Why is it always out?
It's just a culture. Isn't it easy for finding the switches?.


And did you notice most entrance doors of house or apartment open outward? (In the states, it opens inward).


This is because Japanese take off their shoes inside of the door.





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I remeberd one thing. Historically, all the toilet was outside of the house (from Edo to early Showa era). The toilet was just a hole. If you don't notice the hole ahead of time in the night, it was very dangerous. Maybe this can be one of the reason (historical memory).


But I wonder how was the toilet in the states or UK 100-300 years ago.
You're not going to be in there forever, so usually the light's either off or on while you're in there. You turn it on as you open the door, so you can see where you're going if it's dark.





?? Is there something I'm missing?
I have no clue what you are asking?





Are you seeing the light to all the bathrooms you've been to have been on the outside or the light SWITCH to the light in the bathroom is on the outside.





I've seen the light switch on the outside all the time, but I've never been to a bathroom with the actual light on the outside.





I don't know why I can only conjecture:


I guess it has to do with historical construction reasons, it has always been. Having electrical switch inside with a wet hand might not been a good idea in the past? Beats me.





If you think about it, its really practical to have it outside, I like the idea. The first thing I do when I enter a dark restroom is find the light switch to see, but if I have it on the outside I dont have to fimble around inside.

Rooms in japanese houses?

i have an assignment and well i need to know what rooms (eg.bedroom) there are usually in a normal family japanese home. i know there is a genkan (shoe area) but i need to know more. can u name the rooms, japanese name if possible and jsut a little description about the room like what they use it for. thx!Rooms in japanese houses?
. Read the sites below:


';...Many homes include at least one traditional Japanese styled room, or washitsu. It features tatami flooring, shoji rather than draperies covering the window, fusuma (opaque sliding vertical partitions) separating it from the other rooms, an oshiire (closet) with two levels (for storing futon), and a wooden ceiling. '; ........


.........'; There are two more tatami rooms upstairs, along with a wood-floored room and two small balconies. The balcony in the back has rusty metal stairs leading up to what is marked on the floor plans as a ';pu re ha bu.'; .....

Why isn't Japanese housing very big

Japan is very densely populated 'cause of it's mountainous geography. They need to have enough space for industry and what not. That's why majority of Japanese people live in apartments.Why isn't Japanese housing very big
japan is over populated if they gave everyone anything bigger then a coffin to live in then there wont be enough for everyone

Japanese housing questions?

What is a beranda?


What is a furoba?


What is a rouka?


What is a kamidana?





Any info appreciated thanks.Japanese housing questions?
beranda-a porch


furoba-a bathroom, literary. a room with a bath tub and no toilet


rouka-corridor


kamidana-a small shelf dedicated to shinto godJapanese housing questions?
Beranda: It is sort of balcony, porch or extra footspace outside just next to the house building, also called veranda.





Furoba: It's Japanese style individual bathing room, including dressing floor.





Rouka: It's a general name for passages or corridors(mostly made by wood panel or something like linoleum or floor carpet) from place to place in Japanese house.





Kamidana: It's a sort of neat altar for Shinto style God.
1. Beranda ベランダ veranda


2. Furoba 風呂場 a Japanese bath room (a room with a bath and shower, but not a toilet)


3. Rouka ロッカー locker (in Japanese-English: coin locker)


4. Kamidana 神棚 A Shinto alter in a Japanese house, which will be in the 和室 [washitsu] tatami room

How have japanese houses changed since World War 2?

The size haven't changed that much. Japanese houses are not large. Particularly the houses in the big cities are tiny. Bony framework of the house is a wood. Because there are lots quakes. Ferro-concrete is for large appartments and buildings basically. Prefabricated were popular in the 70-80s, but not today anymore.


The design varies and have changed a lot.





Tokyo in 1945


http://et.mine.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp/et/asi鈥?/a>


http://www010.upp.so-net.ne.jp/papo/imag鈥?/a>





Houses in 50-60's.


http://homepage3.nifty.com/ajunamar/doso鈥?/a>


http://e-comm.cityfujisawa.ne.jp/backnum鈥?/a>





80s


http://www.sashichi.co.jp/images/school/鈥?/a>


http://pds.exblog.jp/pds/1/200604/19/46/鈥?/a>





Nowadays.


http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k228/_鈥?/a>


(You can see the process of the construction. Wall is hard material but the frames are wood.)


http://www.rover-archi.com/works/kotei/m鈥?/a>


http://www.oda-co.com/lineup/images/desi鈥?/a>





Solar energy systems (photovoltaic power generation) is becoming popular gradually.


http://www.city.maebashi.gunma.jp/ctg/Fi鈥?/a>





Condo and high-rise apartments are popular in big cities.


http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/bluestylec鈥?/a>


https://realestate.homes.co.jp/data/0106鈥?/a>


http://www.bluebird.co.jp/images/95-1.jp鈥?/a>





Traditional Japanese houses also still exist.


http://www.eastwindinc.com/gallery.htmlHow have japanese houses changed since World War 2?
Before they were wooden framed, but now they are prefabricated and earthquake resistant. Most homes also now have a western style toilet--it's easier on the knees!How have japanese houses changed since World War 2?
To add to the encyclopedic a fragment of personal observation...cheap housing in Tokyo has changed. Even 10 years ago in central Tokyo you could still live in one of the cheaply constructed postwar wooden houses: one particular school housed over 40 in accomodation that had become too unfashionable for J-students.





A lot of these have been sold on. You can get that kind of life in the countryside but the apartment build is now basically ferro-concrete in frame. Although sometimes room flooring is tatami (traditional materials) and the entranceway would be wooden, or the doors sliding wood and including paper inserts the transfer to (smallish) recognisably western-influenced bedrooms is noticeable. The windows now tend to be a standard type of metal framed sliding glass unit that is bit more robust to the hand than its wooden predecessors.

refinance

What is the name for old japanese houses?

like the one seen on animesWhat is the name for old japanese houses?
Dan H is correct.


It is called ';Minka'; (民家)





Minka (民家, literally house(s) of the people) are private residences constructed in any one of several traditional Japanese building styles. In the context of the four divisions of society, minka were the dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants (i.e., the three non-samurai castes), but this connotation no longer exists in the modern Japanese language, and any traditional Japanese style residence of an appropriate age could be referred to as minka.





Types of Minka


Minka come in wide range of styles and sizes, largely as a result of differing geographic and climatic conditions as well as the lifestyle of the inhabitants, but most generally fall into one of two major classifications: farm houses (nōka 農家) and town houses (machiya 町屋). There is also a subclass of the farm house style found in fishing villages, which is called gyoka (漁家).





Minka are generally treated as historic landmarks, and many have been designated for preservation by local municipalities or the national government. Of particular note is the so called gasshō-zukuri (合掌造り, literally ';clasped-hands'; style), which is preserved in two villages in central Japan, Shirakawa in Gifu Prefecture and Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture, that together have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.





The tremendous regional variation of minka has also been preserved in parks such as Nihon Minka-en in Kawasaki, where examples from around Japan are kept on display.





Overall Construction


The central concept in the design and construction of minka is the use of cheap and readily available materials. Farmers could not afford to import anything expensive or difficult to come by into their small villages. Thus, nōka are generally made almost exclusively from wood, bamboo, clay and various kinds of grasses and straw. The base skeletal structure of the home, roof, walls, and support columns are made from wood. External walls were often completed with the addition of bamboo and clay; internal walls were not fixed, and consisted of sliding wood lattice doors, or wood-and-paper screens called fusuma.





Grasses and straw are used for the roofing thatch, and for mushiro and tatami mats placed on the floor. Sometimes baked-clay roofing tiles were used in addition to thatch. Stone was sometimes used to strengthen or establish foundations but is not employed for the home itself.





As in other forms of traditional Japanese architecture, wooden columns support all the weight of the structure, so the walls are not load-bearing and can afford to have spaces left in them for windows or entryways. These openings would be covered with shoji paper screens, and also with heavier wooden doors. The wooden columns and crossbeams, intricately interlocked without the use of nails, formed the skeletal





Roofing


Gasshō-zukuri are perhaps most recognizable and distinguished for their high, peaked roofs. This serves somewhat as a substitute for a chimney, as mentioned above, and might also have allowed for extensive storage space. But the primary purpose of shaping minka roofs in this manner was to accommodate for the extensive precipitation experienced in many parts of Japan. A steeply peaked roof allows rain and snow to fall straight off it, preventing water from getting through the roof into the home, and to a lesser extent preventing the thatch itself from getting too wet and beginning to rot.





There are three basic styles of roofs, which bear strong similarities to roofs seen in other styles of Japanese architecture. Most machiya have gabled kirizuma (切妻) roofs, covered in shingles or tiles, and slanting down on either side of the house. Often, stones would be placed atop the shingles to prevent them from being blown away. By contrast, the majority of nōka have either thatched yosemune (寄せ棟) style hipped roofs, which slant down on four sides, or the more elaborate irimoya (入母屋) roof with multiple gables and a combination of thatched sections and shingled sections.





At the roof's peak and other places where roof sections came together, special roof caps would be needed. On tiled or shingled roofs, these treatments would consist simply of more shingles or tiles. These covers, particularly at the corners of the roof, would often serve as the only decoration on these simple homes; gargoyles or other figures carved in clay or other materials would often be placed here at the ends of the roof caps.





Farmhouse Interior





irori (囲炉裏)The interior of a minka was generally divided into two sections: a floor of compacted earth, called doma (土間), and a raised floor (generally around 20 inches (50 cm) above the level of the doma) covered in tatami or mushiro mats.





The doma was used for most cooking and farming-related tasks, and usually included a clay furnace-like oven called a kamado (竈), a wooden sink, food barrels, and a large jug to store water from an outside well. A large wooden door called an ōdo would serve as the front entrance to the building.





The raised floor often included a built-in hearth, called an irori (囲炉裏). However, there was no chimney connecting directly from the hearth to the outside, only a small smoke vent in the roof would sometimes be present. Smoke would rise up into the area of the high and spacious roof; thus, the inhabitants of the home did not breathe in the smoke and soot, but it did blacken the thatch, which would have to be replaced fairly often.





Though there were many various possible arrangements of the rooms within a home, one of the most common, called yomadori (四間取り), comprised four rooms in the raised floor portion of the house, adjacent to the doma. Although these four rooms could be partitioned, they were more or less communal space, since inhabitants had to pass through one room to get to another. Two of these rooms would be used for communal family activities, including the one with the irori hearth. Sometimes a small oil lamp would be used for light, but due to the cost of oil, more often the hearth would be the only artificial light in the home.





The family would gather around this hearth at mealtime, and sit in a prearranged order determined by social status within the family. The side furthest from the doma was called the yokoza and was where the head of the household would sit. Another side was for the housewife and other female family members, the third for male family members and guests, and the fourth side of the hearth was occupied by a pile of firewood.





The other rooms served as bedrooms and as space for entertaining guests, and would include a tokonoma, an alcove still commonly found in modern Japanese homes, where flowers, scrolls, or other such things would be displayed. The bath and toilet were often built as separate structures, or as additions outside the main structure of the house but under the eaves of the roof.





[edit] Townhouses


Machiya were by necessity arranged somewhat differently from their rural cousins. The main structure, or omoya (母屋), stood in front of an attached storehouse (kura, 倉) or a separated one called a zashiki (座敷). The doma generally extended from the front of the house back to the storehouse, and would have three or four adjacent rooms. The room closest to the street was used as a shop or to conduct business, and was called mise (店). The middle room was used as an office and to entertain guests. Meanwhile, the room closest to the rear of the home would look out upon the backyard garden, and would contain a tokonoma and be used for most of the family's daily activities.





Unlike nōka, machiya often had a second story, where the family would sleep. The second floor was also used to store items used on a more regular basis than those possessions kept in the storehouse in the back.What is the name for old japanese houses?
Derived from Zen Buddhist monastic dwellings, this style of Japanese domestic architecture is called: Shoin-zukuri. There remain two splendid examples; one is in the Nishi-Hongwan-ji monastery in Kyoto and one in the precincts of Nagoya castle. Such a style can also be found in the Japanese House (Shofuso) that's been built in 16th century style within the grounds of the Horticultural Center in the West Philadelphia section of Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. (Photo on second site). You'll find photos of the Minka style (as referred to by others) on the third site.
kung foo shack?
'minka' means private house for commoner. lots of japanese are still living in minka now.


'minka' does not mean 'old japanese house'.


old japanese houses called 'thatched roof house' = kayabuki yane no ie


and 'shoin zukuri' is tooooooo old.


not on animes
do they have large slanted roofs? If so could be Minka...