This is the name of the neighborhood in Hiratsuka where the Miyagawa family lived and ran the Suehiro soba shop.
*TATAMI
Tatami are traditional floor coverings made of straw matting.
Corky writes:
"Modern Japanese houses combine qualities of American suburban housing with much smaller plots and scale. Inside, there can be several tatami rooms, or none. Typical apartments are 2LDK, but single-family houses are often two-story--two bedrooms up, one down, and a western style living room, kitchen, and a bath, and separate toilet room.
*KOTATSU
Kotatsu refers to both the table where the family gathers and the electric heater which is attached to the underside of the table.
Corky comments:
"There are often some "old" elements, updated, in people's modern homes. That kotatsu in your home -- it's electric, no? And the quilted pad underneath might be an "heating rug". I don't suppose anyone has modernized butsudan,the Buddhist altar in your home, or the Shinto god-shelf, or kamidana (check, is this right? Do you have both?) But kotatsu, tatami, shoji screens aren't necessarily seen as throwbacks, people have pretty well integrated them into their modern lives."
*TOKONOMA
Corky White wrote this note:
"The tokonoma I mentioned? I've always loved seeing what's displayed in this artistic 'alcove.' This is a set-back niche at the front of a tatami room, usually the most formal room. Here there will be chosen for their seasonality; a branch of plum blossom in late winter, a poem about the sound of cicadas in summer, a bowl with maple leaf images in fall."
*BUTSUDAN
Corky White describes:
"The butsudan is another focus of such a room. This is where especially the older members of the household remember deceased relatives with rice, mikan (tangerines), incense, candles and other offerings. Sometimes photographs of departed kin will be on this miniature Buddhist altar, or tablets with their names. One of the families I often visited in Japan had such an altar and I would do as they did and greet the spirit of the old grandmother whom I'd known, clapping my hands, and then I would tell her what happened in my life in the year or so since I'd last reported in. It was very friendly and normal, and far from the image we have of 'ancestor worship'!"
*FUTON
A futon is a foldable cotton mattress placed on the floor as bedding.
*SHINTO
See the Shrine at site 19.
*KAMIDANA
Corky White writes:
"The kamidana too is often seen in older houses. Just to cover all the bases, this is a Shinto element where the more animistic side of Japanese spiritualism is attended to. Sometimes people have little ceramic foxes there, propitiating the fox-spirit or inari, which can help a family prosper -- or not! Did you know that the fox spirit especially likes fried tofu? If you eat an inari-zushi, or rice stuffed into a pocket of fried tofu skin, you are paying homage to the inari too, or at least having an enjoyable snack!"
*JAPANESE BATH
In traditional Japanese homes, baths were made of cedar and other wood, and heated by charcoal braziers under the tub. They are deep and narrow, and the bather sits upright rather than stretching out. Before entering the tub the bather washes completely and rinses with a shower or bucket.
Floors of bathrooms have drains so that rinsing and washing are done directly onto the floor. Modern baths are usually constructed in the same shape, with showers added, and the same routine is followed except that it is likely that a middle-class husband will be the last, not the first to bathe, as he will arrive home late at night.
