The typical Japanese house doesn’t have a lot of land, and quite often they are right next to the street. So we surrounded our house with a shingled wall to add some privacy and help suppress the street noise.

You might have noticed the Honda Del Sol in the garage. If we’re going to be in Japan we need a little car, and I can’t think of anything more fun than the Del Sol we had for 20 years.

Upon approaching the house we are greeted with a traditional bamboo gate.

The front door leads to the tataki, or foyer. This room is sunken down a couple of steps to help keep the dirt out of the rest of the house. Please have a seat on the bench and remove your shoes. We have provided slippers for guests to use in the home.

The main feature of this formal room is the tokonoma, an alcove directly across from the entrance door that is used to display treasured pottery and artwork. This room is for entertaining guests and serving formal teas.

Tatami mats cover the floor. Tatami mats are made from rice straw, and are an important feature of Japanese homes. Rooms are sized around the standard 3 foot by 6 foot mats. Our tea room is a 12 tatami room.

Vintage Japanese homes would have a fire pit in the middle of the room. We deleted that feature in the interest of fire safety and healthy air. The tansu chest makes an excellent spot for the kitty to keep an eye on everything.

From the Tea Room, we can open a number of Shoji screens to access other rooms. Another main design element of Japanese architecture, Shoji screens are doors or windows that use translucent paper in a wood frame. You will see them throughout our house and they allow the whole house to be opened up for good air circulation.

In the 18 tatami dining room we find a low table, with cushion chairs. The ceiling in this room is open, showing the curved form of the roof.

An antique kimono is displayed along with some blue and white pottery.

 

This is one room where we kept to a more western design in the choice of cabinets and appliances. Of course there has to be a rack of copper pots and pans for Lori.

This has been the standard computer desk I’ve been using in the models. Each time I use it try to stock the shelves with something different. Here the shelves hold a couple of antique fire apparatus models, a hose cart and ladder wagon, in tribute to my 15 years as a volunteer firefighter with Ferndale.

Our house uses an L shaped layout that is quite typical in Japanese homes. The two wings enclose the koi pond, and the veranda provides not only a hallway between rooms, but it also servers a buffer between the outdoors and indoors. Typically the veranda would have bare wood floors, but we decided to put down a nice Oriental carpet runner. This veranda also serves as my photography gallery.

Reached from either the Tea Room or the Veranda, we next come to the Living Room. Traditionally, due to their humid climate, homes in Japan were not insulated as they depended on having good airflow to control the mold and rot. With Japan having cold winters, this presents a problem for keeping the home warm. Traditionally, the Japanese kept themselves warm instead, and one way they did it was to have a heater table. A kerosene heater is built into the table which would be covered with a heavy blanket. The family would then gather around the table, with their legs under the blanket.

Our house is modern construction and energy efficient, but we like the idea of the heater table so we included it here. This is the room for reading, watching TV, and playing games.

I remember when my mom went to Japan and she was aghast that traditional Japanese toilets were basically a hole in the floor that you squatted over. We decided against that, even though I found a model of one.

Instead we decided on a hybrid Japanese/Western bathroom. In a Japanese bathroom, the toilet is in a separate room because it is “dirty” and slippers are often provided just to use while you’re in that room. The Japanese have really led the way with modern toilets that, I kid you not, even come with remote controls to adjust the heat and water flow. I skipped going that route too because I don’t want to have to call an electrician when the toilet doesn’t work.

They also have toilets that have a faucet built into the top of it so that as you wash your hands, it fills the tank with the gray water for the next flush. I like that idea for drought stricken California, and I found a model of that style toilet, but we ended up installing a traditional western toilet and separate sink. We did segregate the two into a separate room though.

The Japanese bath is a huge part of their culture, and nothing like an American bathtub. It’s closer to our hot tub in style, allowing a full soak, and it’s often communal. There is a shower nearby that you use before getting into the tub.

The Master Bedroom is reached from the Veranda, but it also opens up directly to the garden on the other side.

While most of the house has plain plaster walls, the two bedrooms are decorated with Bradbury & Bradbury Japanese wallpapers. I wish we had one more room in our real house so we could decorate it with their Japanese papers.

This room also opens up to the Veranda and directly to the garden on two other sides.

The furniture is a combination of Asian and Craftsman. Craftsman furniture was heavily influenced by Asian design so it seems appropriate to use in a western version of a Japanese home.

First we cross the small arched bridge that passes under the red Torii Gate. This traditional gate signifies the transition from the indoor space to the outdoor space. On the other side of the gate we cross a flat zig zag bridge that traverses across the Water Lily Pond.

This pond provides a place for the frogs to live without having to worry about hungry koi fish. A Shishi Odoshi, a bamboo fountain that creates a rhythmic noise to scare off deer, sits on the shoreline. Not that deer are a problem in our walled garden. A teak garden bench provides a nice place to sit and enjoy the view.

A small rose garden is nestled in between the path and the wall. A bamboo grove obscures the corner, so that there is an element of surprise when you round it going either way.

This corner of the garden includes one of my favorite plants, Japanese Kerria. At the house I grew up in, my parents had a large clump of this plant. The little yellow flowers that show up in springtime are so cheerful. In fact as I write this, the Kerria that I have in my greenhouse just started blooming. That plant has it’s own story.

Along the side of the house there is a bed of Calla Lillies.

In the back corner there is a gazebo styled to look like a Japanese temple.

Directly behind the main house is a small Tea House. It can be reached by crossing the log path from the Veranda in front, or in back from the path that encircles the yard.

The Koi Pond is my favorite section of the garden. I was really happy to find a lot of the elements I needed for this section in the SketchUp library, such as the topiary shrub, bonzai trees, and the maple trees.

Behind the guest bedroom there is a large weeping willow tree, and a small fern garden. A birdbath provides an avian friendly hangout when they’re not feasting at the nearby feeder.

On the other side yard the path meanders between the bedrooms and some flowering vines. At the end of the path there is a three-tiered lantern pagoda.

The last section of garden takes us back to the living room. Here there is a picnic bench, a Zen garden, and a bed of cheerful wildflowers.