Beding

This is a very common sight in Japan. Many people sleep on the tatami mat room floors. This is very efficient because at night it is a bedroom but during the daytime the same room becomes a living room. A kotatsu table, a low table with an electric heater built into the underside of the top and a few zabuton, cushions to sit on, is all the furniture you need.

Sleeping on the floor requires a mattress and what is called a futon, a heavy blanket that has a sheet like thing wrapped around it. You can get the idea by imagining a large, very thin pillow with a pillow case. Because people sweat and otherwise get the futon dirty, they are aired everyday. This is a house, the third from my apartment, with all the futon hung out in the sun.

Apartment buildings are very colorful sometimes, with each balcony decorated with multicolored futon.