Stupid
article on modern tatami (found
here), is a fine example of the BS Japanese accept in their garden-shed housing. Everything is always about the 'special conditions' of the Japanese 'four seasons' as an excuse to have neither insulation nor adequate climate control. The 'Native-Wife', who's lived abroad and should know better, tries to feed me the line on Japanese humidity needing drafty buildings to avoid mold, to which I have a one-word answer: "
Vancouver."
Back to the article's idiocy:
Some of these new types of tatami are even washable...
Imagine: a floor you can wash. It only took two-thousand years on these islands.
Material used for the core part of the tatami is not the usual straw but a plate made of wooden chips.
That would be
particle-board. In Japan: walls, ceilings, roofs, floors, and now broadloom.
...excels at absorbing and retaining moisture as well as offering strong insulation benefits.
Let's see: making mold, and they considered insulation?!
“Kirari” washable tatami... are
made entirely of synthetic resin...
'Resin' means plastic, you understand.
Lower-priced Chinese-made rush grass spreading in the market, cultivating rush grass is no longer as profitable for farmers.
Those evil Chinese again, trying to make a living without LDP vote-buying agricultural subsidies.
Consumers are paying closer attention to tatami, which keep rooms cool in summer and warm in winter.
Ha! Only if you heavily use your heating and air-conditioning, as most comfort escapes out the uninsulated roof, or the single-pane windows.
"Imagine: a floor you can wash. It only took two-thousand years on these islands."
ReplyDeleteLOL!
Japan is unique...it has 4 seasons!! no place else on earth has 4 seasons ;)
Tatami is not keeping my room warm right now BTW....a fucking heater is.
Locals are always surprised when I tell them Eastern Canada is warmer than Japan. Though outside may reach -40℃, the indoor temperature of an unheated home won't drop below 14℃ (in my experience). Quite different from Japan. Outside may be only 8℃, but the southern window (the home's warmest place) will probably be only a few degrees warmer. Northern room's are often colder than outside!
ReplyDeleteDerek, 'the Native Wife' lived in Toronto for over a half-decade, and I have taken her skiing to Ste. Anne, so she ought to know better, and yet she defends the shite here. Mind you, her father was a construction engineer...
ReplyDeleteChris, how bad is the heating bill for your school?
Not too bad but I never paid heating in Hawaii so I got no comparison. The Mauka winds at night were natural climate control. If I walk on tatami without 2 pairs of socks I'm asking for a cold.....the tatami bullshit it just bullshit...another myth.
ReplyDeleteWhen we bought some warm moccasins for our daughter, 15 months, my wife seriously worried about what to do when she walks from the flooring room into the tatami room - which she does about 125 times a day! And it's just a rented apartment with the mats being already used when we moved in more than 2 years ago! And yes, both floors are cold,because up here in Karuizawa the temperature drops to 10 degree Celsius below 0, and cold air is circulating below the floor.
ReplyDelete'The Native Wife' has lived overseas much of her adult life, and yet... do they not indoctrinate deeply here! Sure, most of we 'westerners' are saddled with more programming than we think, but you can argue the smarter of us out of it: not usually the smarter of the Japanese.
ReplyDeleteHey, don't be so negative. There are upsides. It does look quite nice and
ReplyDeleteNope, that's all I've got.
not to forget tatami are a great place to nurture your local variant of mukade and gokiburi. Who would want to do without those friendly neighbors?
ReplyDeleteI lived in an old apartment in the 90's that had been rented by the city for one after another AETs. It was in better shaped than you'd expect from this, but I learned I had to gas the place, and inject spray into the mats, to keep down the 'dani' and cockroaches. A fine choice: 'dani' bites and cockroach disgust, or exposure to pesticide.
ReplyDeleteThey do look nice... and that is all.