Tatami help
 

So here's the situation. Two of my best friends in Japan share a large apartment with another guy. The guy has decided to move out, and I've decided I'm going to take his place for several reasons.
However, I know the guy's habits and I know he doesn't air out his room often, and he has the only room with tatami. This causes the room to not necessarily stink, but just give off a really strong smell of like straw/hay. Since he's left the apartment, one of my friends has been leaving the door open and window open to air the place out, and it's worked pretty well, but I really don't want to walk into my room every time and have to deal with that smell. Is there a way to virtually eradicate the smell of tatami without having to douse the place with scented stuff? Are tatami rooms ever capable of being scentless, like normal floored rooms?

nope, there will always be a slight scent of the tatami. Mind you, the Japanese wooden houses have so many gaps in the floors and what have ya, that the smell escapes (together with the heat on windet and the cool air on the summer >.<). you could possibly buy a spray that would reduce that.

Maybe try some febreeze if they have it

There's stuff like febreeze but I'm afraid of putting chemicals on the mats. I don't know if one should, and if anyone with experience would suggest it.

That's the smell of the tatami. Maybe if they are new tatami the smell will settle down, but changes are how it smells it how it is going to smell. Don't you like it?

I think I prefer not having my place smell like a barn when having girls/company over.

I was referring to chemicals that remove smell, not those that add some new one. Quite popular sprays for clothes to remove the tabaco smell, i guess it might work for tatami. Then again, it does come from the inside, and the tatami is rather thick, plus water resistant - to a degree - so it will be rather tricky to apply it. I know that there are special injectors for chemicals that kill ダニ in the tatami, maybe they make similar fgor the smell. I quite enjoy the smell of tatami, in fact, i really would love to move back to a place where i can have at least one 和室, so i can organise my calligraphy studio as it should be.

If your company is Japanese, it won't smell like a "barn" to them. That is the smell of a 和室. Unless cows are using your apartment as a bathroom... then it might smell like a farm.

Yeah, no I get that, I'm just not sure if Fabreeze or similar products would maybe have a reaction to the tatami, maybe discoloring it or something after use. As a young, active guy, tatami seems more of a nuisance for me as I have to constantly worry about not damaging it.

Just because something is the way it is doesn't mean you must automatically like it. Growing up in a poorer family I take pride in all that I've accomplished, and one of those things is having a decent home, as I wasn't always afforded that. Even if the Japanese would be used to the smell themselves, I'm sure it wouldn't bother them if they walked into a tatami room that had a more pleasant smell, or none at all. I associate the smell with uncleanliness, whether anyone, Japanese or not agrees with that.