[steven]

I'll share some of my experience on this one. I'll back it up with the fact that I live in an apartment in the inaka, I've been to friends' apartments, I've been to traditional style houses, I've been to older houses, I've been to newer houses, and I've done a healthy amount of "house shopping" which included looking at a butload of model homes and going to like "house fairs".

MMM, I've seen what you are talking about before... the only time I've seen one was in a city in Mie-ken. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of apartments in cities have bathrooms like that though.

As far as my set up goes, It's pretty comfortable in size anddoesn't differ too much from an older style house in size and layout. Other apartments in this area are quite similar.

As for bathrooms in houses, I've noticed a kind of "public restroom" feel to a lot of bathrooms here. Where you'll multiple stalls in one "bathroom". This is of course separate from the actual bath, shower, and sink (like where you'd shave and brush your teeth). For updated houses, I've seen quite big sink areas and a nice & big shower next to a big bathtub. I've noticed a lot of new bath setups have built in TV's and heaters and all that good stuff.

As far as kitchens go, they vary a lot. In the smallest apartments, I'd imagine they don't even have a kitchen... but I've never seen that. In the small apartments I've been to, the kitchen was literally in the entry hall way. I can't imagine how HARD that would be to work with. Personally, I think paying the extra rent for a kitchen would pay for itself considering you'd be able to do your own cooking instead of eating out every night (which is what a kitchen in a hallway ultimately results in). In my apartment, it looks pretty much exactly as Nyororin's picture (except with a washing machine and a wall on the opposite side of it making it extremely narrow). Most houses I've been to have a very similar setup. However, in newer houses, I've seen a trend in facing the kitchen kind of towards the living area as opposed to away from it. I've mostly seen it in model houses though and have only seen it once in an actual house. (when facing the living area there is usually like a bar protruding out from the stove top to allow people to sit and face the cook).

As far as futons vs. beds go... in this area I find that most people have beds for their bedrooms and they have futons for their guest rooms. To be quite honest, hearing the word futon in English reminds me of "cots" and the like. The real-deal Japanese futon is quite comfortable on tatami (not that I've used one not on tatami). I'd say it beats sleeping in most beds I've slept in.

And Nyororin, I didn't know about the bath water being recycled for wash cycles in washing machines... that's pretty neat.