Choose one term from below. Explain it so that someone who knows nothing about Japan would understand. Your partner will listen and ask questions and/ or add more explanation.
- “2LDK”
- Akachochin
- Amado
- Amido
- “Apart”/ Apaato
- Bonsai
- Butsudan
- Byoubu
- Chabudai
- Chashitsu
- Fusuma
- Futon
- Genkan
- Getabako
- “Heights”
- Hibachi
- Hoshounin
- Ikebana
- Kamidana
- Koban
- Kotatsu
- Kura
- “Live house”
- Machiya
- “Manshon”
- Minka
- Onsen
- Oshiire
- Reikin
- Ryokan
- Sentou
- Shichirin
- Shouji
- Tansu
- Tatami
- Tokonoma
- Torii
- “Unit bath”
- UR
- Washitsu
- “Washlette”
- Youshitsu
- Zabuton
Match these definitions to the words on the previous page.
- A cheap, wooden, usually two-storey, apartment building, and the apartments in it.
- A combined toilet and bidet.
- A gate to a Shinto shrine with a distinctive double curved top, usually red painted wood but sometimes made of concrete or even metal.
- A guarantor, meaning someone who will promises to pay your rent if you cannot.
- A Japanese cottage, often thatched.
- A Japanese-style hotel or inn where people sleep on the tatami floor on futon mattresses.
- A Japanese-style sliding window made from small panels of translucent waxed paper.
- A Buddhist household shrine, usually with photos of your ancestors. You leave offerings of food and light joss sticks and candles there.
- A lobby area in a Japanese home just inside the door where shoes are taken off and put on, usually at a lower level than the rest of the house.
- A paper lantern, usually red, and also the kind of small local bar where this is usually hung outside.
- A police box, a kind of very small local police station.
- A small or medium-sized live music venue.
- A small table used while sitting on the floor.
- A traditional storehouse, which was fireproofed to keep things safely in.
- A wooden chest used to store things such as kimono.
- An alcove in a traditional Japanese-style room such as a tearoom, where a hanging scroll and a flower arrangement is usually put.
- Net screens, used to keep out insects such as mosquitoes.
- Rush matting, used as flooring in a traditional Japanese room.
- Sliding screens, used instead of a door and wall.
- The name literally means “wind wall”. They are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces.
- Japanese-style flower arranging, with a name literally translated as “living flowers”.
- Traditional Kyoto-style wooden terraced houses.
- Two bedrooms and a combined, open-plan living room, dining room and kitchen.
Can you add anything to the descriptions above?
Write similar descriptions of other things, including things like:
- colour(s)
- decoration
- history
- literal meaning/ word-for-word translation
- materials
- parts/ construction
- position/ place
- shape(s)
- size(s)/ dimensions
- uses/ actions/ movements/ functions
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PDF for easy saving and printing: Explaining Japanese architecture
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