One of the most exciting parts of moving to a new country is discovering all the wonderful and unique features of the homes in the country. Japanese homes have many great features that homes in other countries don’t have, and it is these features which make living in a Japanese home unique and interesting. Foreigners who come to visit Japan will most likely be surprised after finding Japanese toilets are not only heated, with bidets and have a sink to wash your hands! Some things like this seem normal to Japanese people, but they are interesting and unique to Japan.

Many of these unique features can be found in our Village House rental apartments. If you are considering moving to Japan, please check out our available homes.

Storage Box

Japanese homes have been designed with storage in mind – for example, Japanese homes often have storage built into the walls, with covering sliding doors. This means that you can tidy away all your items and leave the home still looking clean and spacious, perfect for when you are having guests over or you are just wanting to unwind in a relaxing, clean, and tidy space. One type of storage that is unique to Japanese homes is the storage box underneath the floor.

Most Japanese houses will be built on raised foundations, and they have been built like this for centuries to help with dampness and to avoid flood damage. Another benefit of a raised foundation is that you can begin to store items under the house. Today, many houses include a sealed-off extra area that is beneath the floor of a house but sealed from the outside. It may only be small, but spaces like these can be great for tidying away small items and keeping your home clean and tidy.

Fish Grill

The Japanese diet is famous for one kind of food more than any other – fish. Fish is popular in many food types, and meals eaten throughout the day. In Japan, fish can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Because it’s so popular to eat fish, Japanese homes have been designed with a quick and easy way to cook them – the fish grill.

The fish grill is a small compartment built into the worktop hob/cooker in most homes. Foreigners might think it is a mini oven, when, in fact, it has been designed to specifically cook fish. It can become very hot very quickly, so it’s a great way to speedily cook your fish, at any time of the day.

Japanese Bathtub

Japanese bathtubs are unlike those found in Europe or the Americas. Why? Well, to begin with, they are very deep and very short. Bathtubs found in Europe are usually much longer and shallower – people in Europe prefer to lie down flat in the tub, so they don’t need the bath to be so deep. However, in Japan, most people sit upright in the bath, this way they can have much smaller, but deeper, baths. This is great when it comes to saving space, after all, shorter baths can fit in smaller bathrooms!

Another great thing about Japanese baths is that they can regulate their temperatures. Most baths outside of Japan do not have this function, but most in Japan can regulate water temperature so that the water doesn’t get cold and that you can stay in there for longer or keep the water warm for the next person to use. In Japan, you shower before you go in the bath, so you are already clean when you sit in the bathtub water. This means that you can reuse the bathwater the next day by using the heating function in the bath.

Some Japanese homes even have electronic bath taps that you can set to run the bath remotely – so you could be cooking dinner and set the bathtub to run whilst you eat. It is small things like this which make living in Japan such a fun and unique experience.

Clothes Dryer

Clothes dryer machines are rare in Japan. Instead, most people opt for drying clothes on the balcony, or in the garden. However, there is a handy feature in plenty of our Japanese apartments.

Many bathrooms in Japan have a clothes dryer tool. If your home has a fan switch, usually located next to the light switch, you have this feature! If you place your laundry inside your bathroom and close the doors it should help to dry out your clothes.

Toilet Sink Combo

If you are visiting Japan for the first time, it may come as a surprise to see a toilet-sink combo. Many toilets in Japan have a sink above them where water pours through before it is then filtered out to flush the toilet.

The toilet sink combo is an efficient way to reduce the amount of water you use each time you wash your hands after using the toilet. Having a sink attached to the toilet also helps to save some space.

As well as this, the ingenious TOTO Washlets are a Japanese creation that were once unique to the country but are now spreading across the World. Many homes in Japan have these smart bidet toilets with a range of features such as seat-warming, bidet cleaning, and privacy sounds.

From the secret storage box and high-end washlets to innovative baths and bathrooms, many of our rental apartments include these unique features. Our rental homes have low upfront apartment costs, usually without key money, renewal fees, handling fees, and large deposits which are common for most rental homes in Japan.