Foreign Friday

Hotel room

Southern Japan

April 1980

I never got used to sitting on the floor to eat: my long legs just didn't fit well under the table and cramped pretty quickly. The "chairs" shown in the photo were very common in homes, hotels, restaurants, etc. Hotel rooms often had small areas covered with tatami mats and frequently those areas had short tables similar to the one in the photo. Notice the additional floor pillows stacked under the storage area.

The floors in the ryokan guest rooms were covered with tatami mats. Futons which were used for sleeping were rolled up during the day and stored in the raised storage areas. Some ryokans had raised platforms, on which the futons were placed for sleeping and then rolled up and stored the day. Most of the hotels that I stayed in had beds with mattresses.

You can read more about Japanese style homes and the use of tatami mats on this blog.