Model House

I remember visiting model houses with him many times when I was little – even though he had no plan buying it. He just wanted to have a look at the design and the interior. It was kind of his hobby.

Last time I was in Japan, my dad took me to model houses in Otsu (capital city of Shiga). It was like a model house fair or festival near a big hotel, and was only for 1 week. (I don’t know what they did with the house they built afterwards…) There’re many model houses from different housing companies, and all of them looked so nice!   I wished I could live in a house like that, and I’m sure my dad did too. Very expensive, though.

In Japan, you can actually experience “life” in a new house by staying overnight at a model house. The house is fully furnished and equipped with basic and some special facilities, such as IH cooking top, automatic toilet, computerized bathroom, and floor heating. It could be a fun one-night experience.

You know, the traditional Japanese houses were made with wood, and only had tatami flooring.  But nowadays, new houses are more Westernised – there are lots of wooden floored rooms and it has some special rooms such as theatre room (surprising!) .  There is at least one tatami floored room in a house though (called wa-shitsu) to remain the Japanese tradition.   Unlike houses here, Japanese houses are usually 2 stories.  There are more 3-stories-houses nowadays due to the limited land.

As I’ve always wanted my own space, looking at them makes me think about my dream house.  If I had a chance and money (most importantly!), I want to design my own house :).  In my head, it has a genkan where people take-off their shoes before entering the house, and a tatami room where gives me a quiet and peaceful mind.  Hmmm… lotto?a