I'm going to address some of your questions head on here, dogsbody70.
"do they have a stove and oven."
Coincidentally, I just bought an oven last night... I don't know how ovens work in Britain, but "ovens" in Japan are quite different from what I know an "oven" to be in America. For starters, most cheaper "ovens" in Japan seem to be glorified steamers. Sometimes they have oven-like capabilities as well. Expensive models will be a microwave-oven with a steamer built in. It was quite confusing to get my head around this. In America at least, you'll see those like red-hot wire things on the top and bottom of the ovens... but in Japan those are literally non-existant (as far as new models go... although I've never seen an older looking oven here). was told that those are like built-in. This is to allow the user to clean the oven easier. Oven sizes are also extremely smaller in Japan than in America (I imagine Britain has big oven sizes like America). I think Japanese ovens are like big sized microwaves most of the time. I'll let you know how mine works in a month or so... hopefull I'll be happy with it.
The "Stove" in my experience (in an apartment) is like a separate unit with a couple of spaces for pots on top and a small grill tray that slides in and out of underneath the stove top. That seems pretty common in older houses as well. In most newer houses that I've seen there are built in stove tops though. "IH" is becoming more and more popular from what I can tell for stove tops. (
Induction cooker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
I was told that they cook over a fire in the middle of the room. I am sure someone here can clarify this--
I think you might be thinking of what I think is called an "irori" (
Irori - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) [check out the Japanese page for more pictures]. I've seen many of those around here. People with older houses or people who live in temples usually have those. There is a similar arrangment for tea-rooms as well. Most of the ones I've seen might be very specific to the area I live, but I'll explain what they are anyways. It's basically a square cut-out in a tatami room in which you can put charcoal (like things) in. This helps to keep warm as well as cook things. Usually there is a BIG chain that hangs down from the ceiling that holds a giant chunk of wood for balance. There are usually a hook on either side of the chunk of wood to hold stuff. 100% of the time i've seen them, there is a big tea pot connected to it. Another thing you can use the "irori" for is to cook fish on. Specifically, I've seen fish called "Ayu" cooked this way around here. I don't know how often people cook Ayu this way in Iroris in traditional houses though. (
Ayu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) [check out how the fish are being grilled for an idea of what I mean].
Something else that I think you'd be interested is "Nabe" (which I guess you could pronounce naw-bay) (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono). Most of the time I've had nabe, people will take out a little portable one unit gas stove and put a pot (which is the actual nabe) on it. I mostly see "donabe" (which is like earthenwear I guess?). If you've read the wikipedia article (and done some other research... maybe you can find some stuff on youtube) you'll see that eating nabe becomes a group activity.
Along similar lines, having an electric grill becomes handy in Japanese cooking as well. These are used for things like "okonomiyaki" and "yakiniku" etc. Those are also group oriented styles of cooking/eating. I think this food talk ties into the "style of living" quite a bit because it explains certain things such as a lack of what you or I would think of as a "proper" oven.
It has become pretty cold around here recently, so I'll be taking out my "kotatsu" soon (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu). My wife and I can both sit under it and eat nabe for dinner or watch movies or whatever. Then, in the late spring I can put it away and transform my apartment back into summer-mode... during which my nabe probably wont see the light of day. That is one of the more practical sides of the "seasons" that you'll hear a lot of Japanese people talking about.