Japanese rooms and lifestyle

[GoNative]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Regarding house value and the bubble - the bubble really has nothing to do with it. The value of buildings did nothing but depreciate LONG before the bubble. It`s been that way since at least the 1960s - likely long before, as one of the big reasons people cite for not wanting to live in a house someone else has lived in is ancestors. Tradition says not to live somewhere a non-relative has put an altar to deceased ancestors. In other words, pretty much any "used" house.

There's that but Japan is like any other country where supply and demand affect housing prices. With a declining population and thus less demand for housing pricing is unlikely to increase except in isolated highly sought after locations.
I certainly wouldn't want to invest large sums of money into a house when there'd be little likelihood of ever getting at least that amount back when I sold it. This is one reason I guess I find most houses I've been into in Japan to be of a much lesser standard to say houses in Australia where there's a growing population, a shortage of new housing and seemingly almost ever increasing values. Housing there is a real investment and was how I made a fair share of my very modest little fortune over the last 15 years.

I have often wondered how do the Japanese accumulate wealth? Housing isn't a positive investment, the share market for Japanese companies hasn't exactly been performing, interest on saving is almost non existent. How does the average person here get ahead?

[cranks]

Originally Posted by steven

Cranks, incidentally I live in one of the most humid areas of Japan. We get rain virtually every day (even if it's just a little). The room that I have my insulation in has very poor circulation... but even still I have had less mold problems since I hung my fiberglass (I say hung because I had frames built, covered my insulation panels with polyester batting and then with cloth and put them on the frames). I also installed an air conditioner which I run pretty much the whole time whenever I got there (it's a heater during the winter of course).

I've actually read though that insulation can't get moldy... however, dust particles can. So after years and years of particle buildup, mold can actually appear in glass fiber. I'm hoping my polyester batting and cloth covering will alleviate this possibility from becoming a reality!

I remember one time I had one of those particle board pieces of furniture in the room I'm talking about... after a week or so of summer it was literally covered in mold. We also built some bamboo skiis and those got completely covered in mold as well during the summer. I think that is one of the good points of styrofoam insulation... I don't think it can get moldy. That is if I am remembering correctly of course.

I'm not an expert on this but it's not that the glass fiber itself get moldy but the fact it blocks the air circulation and it holds the moisture can be a problem from what I understand it. Running AC all the time probably helps a lot though. I haven't bought a house in Japan but even I know this much so it's probably one of the reasons surprisingly low percentage of Japanese houses are well insulated. My parents' house, which is now more than 20 years old, is completely insulated but it's built 100% with reinforced concrete which isn't very common in Japan or even in the states.

[dogsbody70]

Originally Posted by cranks

Wow, if even Hokkaido, where there is no 梅雨, has the problem, no wonder some houses down there in 本州 are literary eaten by mold.

(LITERALLY)

HI CRANKS-- I suspect you mean some houses are literally eaten by mould. "perish the thought!"

[dogsbody70]

Hello Nyrororin

I hope to get back to you as soon as I can as I find your information of great interest. I shall also comment later so many thanks to you.

[steven]

Originally Posted by cranks

I'm not an expert on this but it's not that the glass fiber itself get moldy but the fact it blocks the air circulation and it holds the moisture can be a problem from what I understand it. Running AC all the time probably helps a lot though. I haven't bought a house in Japan but even I know this much so it's probably one of the reasons surprisingly low percentage of Japanese houses are well insulated. My parents' house, which is now more than 20 years old, is completely insulated but it's built 100% with reinforced concrete which isn't very common in Japan or even in the states.

I think that in most cases (just shy of 100%) glass fiber would be installed inside of the walls. Even for sound absorption/reduction purposes it is very often installed in the walls. I don't know how most walls are made in Japan, but I know that there are many different kinds of walls you can build. The positioning of the studs and the number of layers of drywall all come into play. At any rate, drywall is usually sealed at the seams with tape and putty-like stuff and then smoothed out. Then the whole wall is covered in like plaster I guess. That plaster can be painted on or covered with wall paper or whatever (to my understanding at least).

So in the case of fiberglass, it's usually going to be put "inside" the walls, which are sealed anyways. Most materials will conduct heat or cold to a certain degree, so having a layer of fiber glass between two materials is good for reduction of that conduction passing through the walls indoors.

Incidentally, the same concept works for low frequency sound. If you have more layers for a sound wave to travel through, it should get weaker (unless you use materials that are particularly sympathetic to sound). Low freq. sound can travel through drywall, so a layer (or two) of glass fiber will kind of absorb the sound wave and kind of "trap" it (which gets converted to energy supposedly). Some of that will still probably bleed through, but the next layer of drywall will reduce it even more to an inaudible level (although really low frequency sounds are less of an audible experience and more of a "feeling").

Any breach in the drywall or structure (like a hole or a crack) will cause air to "leak". Air leakage also means sound leakage. But stopping air seems to mean an increase in mold build up... so it's kind of a catch 22 in a climate like that of Japan.

Something I've noticed is that I seem to see more walls with "wallpaper" than I do with straight plaster. The thing is, the wallpaper is usually textured and almost cloth-like in appearance. I wonder if the drywall (or substitute) is sealed (or finished or whatever you call it) underneath that kind of wall paper.

I've also noticed that houses are usually elevated from the land. I'm sure that helps with mold reduction and rot, but I wonder if cold air doesn't sneak in from under the houses.

[cranks]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

(LITERALLY)

HI CRANKS-- I suspect you mean some houses are literally eaten by mould. "perish the thought!"

No, it's a beautiful sight, Japanese houses eaten by mold. It's worth some literary attentions Thanks as always

[cranks]

Originally Posted by steven

I think that in most cases (just shy of 100%) glass fiber would be installed inside of the walls. Even for sound absorption/reduction purposes it is very often installed in the walls. I don't know how most walls are made in Japan, but I know that there are many different kinds of walls you can build. The positioning of the studs and the number of layers of drywall all come into play. At any rate, drywall is usually sealed at the seams with tape and putty-like stuff and then smoothed out. Then the whole wall is covered in like plaster I guess. That plaster can be painted on or covered with wall paper or whatever (to my understanding at least).

So in the case of fiberglass, it's usually going to be put "inside" the walls, which are sealed anyways. Most materials will conduct heat or cold to a certain degree, so having a layer of fiber glass between two materials is good for reduction of that conduction passing through the walls indoors.

Incidentally, the same concept works for low frequency sound. If you have more layers for a sound wave to travel through, it should get weaker (unless you use materials that are particularly sympathetic to sound). Low freq. sound can travel through drywall, so a layer (or two) of glass fiber will kind of absorb the sound wave and kind of "trap" it (which gets converted to energy supposedly). Some of that will still probably bleed through, but the next layer of drywall will reduce it even more to an inaudible level (although really low frequency sounds are less of an audible experience and more of a "feeling").

Any breach in the drywall or structure (like a hole or a crack) will cause air to "leak". Air leakage also means sound leakage. But stopping air seems to mean an increase in mold build up... so it's kind of a catch 22 in a climate like that of Japan.

Something I've noticed is that I seem to see more walls with "wallpaper" than I do with straight plaster. The thing is, the wallpaper is usually textured and almost cloth-like in appearance. I wonder if the drywall (or substitute) is sealed (or finished or whatever you call it) underneath that kind of wall paper.

I've also noticed that houses are usually elevated from the land. I'm sure that helps with mold reduction and rot, but I wonder if cold air doesn't sneak in from under the houses.

It sounds like you've worked on sound insulation quite a bit. I haven't even bought a house in Japan and I'm just talking from general (Japanese) common sense, but yeah, many Japanese houses are elevated. Especially the old ones. I don't know what material is popular for walls though. Drywall isn't as common as it is in the US as far as I know. I vaguely remember someone on this board asking why Japanese houses didn't have a basement. I'd think they would be flooded unless there were some special precautions for water and humidity.

[steven]

Yea I remember the basement thread.

I don't have a 'Japanese common sense' yet so I'll gladly go by what you say and by what I hear where I live.

As far as my experience goes, it's quite limited... I've just kind of worked a room into a studio-type atmosphere which included building sound absorption with glass wool (ボードタイプグラスウールの方が通じるかな）. I covered my walls with two layers of drywall. Needless to say, I've made hundreds of trips to hardware stores and I've only really seen drywall as far as materials to build walls with go. However I wouldn't be surprised to hear of something completely different.

In this area even new houses are built elevated from the ground. I've seen this come into play when the cities in the area decide to build new roads or make the existing roads wider. They will take a whole house off the ground and move it a few meters back. I can't imagine that happening in California... but maybe it happened and I just didn't notice it.

At any rate, to kind of change the conversation, I've noticed in the short time that I've lived here that there are particular smells to particular seasons. Around here early spring means kind of a dry and dusty smell (from sand that comes from the Gobi Desert) late spring means the smell of water being put in and out of rice fields, one of the smells of summer is just the humidity itself and another is those bug repellant swirly green things, the smell of the early fall is burning rice field leftovers after the harvest and plants getting ready for the winter, and the winter is the smell of cold wind and ice and kerosine from heaters. All those smells seem to exist in the Japanese house around here (although I'm sure it differs depending on where you go).

[steven]

Keeping warm at home this winter | 世論 What Japan Thinks

Check this out. It's a survey/article about how Japanese keep warm in the winter and room temperatures and stuff like that. It might be insightful for those who've never lived here.

I thought these questions were the most relavant to where this topic has been going:

Q2SQ1: What methods do you use to keep warm at home?
Q2SQ2: Which of the following items do you want to keep you warm at home?

I wish Q1 was excecuted a little better...
"Q1: Between November and March, what is the average room temperature at your home?"
It seems like there were just two choices-- above or below 20 degrees celcius. I can honestly say that I've felt "warm" air come out of my fridge before. I've been to other peoples' places that weren't exactly "comfortable" by western standards either. If someone's place is at a good temperature, I find myself getting light headed from all the kerosene fumes.

PS: The red underwear part of that survey left me laughing. I'm going to have to ask around about that one.

[GoNative]

Up here in Hokkaido I find most Japanese houses and especially offices to be oppressively warm in winter. I would say on average up here they seem to like to keep the temperature at something around 24 degrees. I find this way too warm. As I say to them if it was that warm in the house in summer you'd want to put the aircon on! I've had many minor battles with Japanese staff over the years about how warm to have the heating in the office during winter. I prefer around 19 degrees but they'll often set it at 28 and still wrap themselves in blankets at their desk!