Junior Life 2 My House

  Yumi's House

We live in a residential area in the suburb of Fuji City.  This is my house.  It is new.  My parents bought it last year.  It is much bigger than our old house.  It has two floors.  It is a Japanese style house.

  This is a plan of our house.  There is a living room with a dining area, an eight- tatami mat room, my mother's room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet on the first floor.  There is a sewing machine on the table in my mother's room.  

  She makes many things with her sewing machine. There is my room, my brother's room, my father's study and a toilet on the second floor.  My room is bigger than my brother's.  My father's study is the biggest room in the house.

  In the living room, there is a coffee table, a sofa, and two armchairs. In the corner of the living room, there is a dining table and four chairs.  On the wall of the living room there is a beautiful landscape painting.

  There is a bed in my room and in my brother's room.  My bed is wider than my brother's.  There is no bed in my father's study or my mother's room.  My parents sleep on a futon in the tatami mat room.  At night they take out the futon from the closet, and spread it on the floor.  In the morning, they put it away in the closet.

  The tatami mat room has an alcove and a closet.  On the wall of the alcove, a scroll with Chinese writing hangs from the ceiling.  I cannot read the writing, but I think it is beautiful.  The floor of the alcove is about ten centimeters higher than that of the room.

On the floor of the alcove there is a flower arrangement.  My mother arranges the flowers every week.

  We eat breakfast and dinner at the dining table.  We also eat lunch there on Sundays or Saturdays when we are at home.  Mother cooks meals in the kitchen.  I often help my mother cook meals and do the dishes.  My brother sometimes helps my mother do the dishes, too.  My father seldom helps my mother.

  There is a big television set in the living room.  Each member of the family also has his or her own small TV set in his or her own room. Sometimes all the family gathers in the living room and watches the same TV program, but we usually watch our own favorite programs in our own rooms.  

  There is a small garden in front of the house.  There are some trees and shrubs in the garden.  Only one or two of the trees are tall.  The other trees are short.  A camellia tree bears beautiful red flowers in winter. There is a small low table in the garden.  On the table there are many flowerpots.

 

  There is a yard in back of the house. My mother dries the wash in the backyard.  In one corner of the yard there is a flowerbed. My mother and I take care of the flowerbed.  We grow many kinds of flowers in the flowerbed.  There are some fruit trees in the backyard, a fig tree, a persimmon tree and a cherry tree.  Mother makes jam from the figs.

  

  At the side of the house there is a carport for two cars; my father's and my mother's.  My father's car is a sports car with two seats.  The color of his sports car is purple.  He loves sports cars.  My mother's car is a four-door sedan.  The color of her sedan is light green.  

  When I ride in my father's car, I take the passenger's seat and never forget to fasten my seat belt.  But when I ride in my mother's car, she doesn't allow me to take the passenger's seat.  I have to take a rear seat.  Then I don't fasten my seat belt.  It is more fun to ride in my father's sports car than in my mother's sedan.  I want to have a sports car when I get my driver's license.

Koji's House

  We live in an apartment.  Our apartment building is new.  It is one year old.  It is in the center of Sakura City.  It is a tall building with ten floors. Our apartment is on the fifth floor.  We moved to the apartment last year.  Before that, we lived in a house in the country.  The apartment is smaller than our old house, but we like it very much.

 

 This is the plan of our apartment.  It has three rooms, a living room, a kitchen with a dining area, a bathroom with a shower and a toilet.  

  In Japan a central heating system is not so common.  Instead a room air-conditioner with the heater is used to cool and warm the rooms.  In our apartment, there is a heater-air-conditioner in every room and also in the kitchen.

  In our old house there were no heater-air-conditioners.  We used electric fans to cool ourselves in summertime and used kerosene heaters to warm the rooms in wintertime.  

  There are two refrigerators in the kitchen. One is big, and the other is small. There is a dining table and four chairs in the dining area of the kitchen.  My mother is very happy when there is lots of food in the refrigerators.

  The toilet is a Western style flush toilet.  In our old house, we used a Japanese style toilet without flush.  We didn't like it.  Now all of us are happy with a flush toilet.  

  I hear that in the Western countries, a toilet is usually in the bathroom together with a bathtub and a shower.  In Japan, a bathroom and a toilet are always separate.

  There is only one toilet in our apartment.  Everybody uses it in the morning.  Sometimes I have to hold it in a long time waiting for my turn.  When I can't hold it in any longer, I rush out of our apartment and rush into the public toilet in the small park in front of the apartment building.

  In the bathroom there is a bathroom scale.  I weigh myself after my bath.  I usually weigh fifty kilograms.  If my weight is more than fifty kilograms, I try not to eat much the next day.  My father also weighs himself after his bath.  He is careful not to get fat.  

  My sister and I have our own rooms.  My sister's room is a little bigger than mine.  In my room there is a desk, a bookcase and a bed.  There is a closet in the wall.  I study and sleep in my room.  On the desk there is a PlayStation 2.  I play video games on it.  I also play DVDs on the PlayStation 2.  I like watching movies.  I often rent DVDs from a video rental shop in the neighborhood.

  My father and mother share a room.  It is the biggest room in our apartment.  In their room, there are twin beds, a chest of drawers and two desks.  On each of the desks, there is a computer. One is my father's desktop computer, and the other is my mother's notebook computer.  

  My father uses a computer in his office all the time, but he seldom uses his computer at home.  My mother uses her computer very often.  She enjoys surfing the Internet.  She is good at English.  So she accesses the U. S. Web sites and orders CDs and books from the U. S.  Sometimes she orders children's books for us.  

  In the living room, there is a stereo set, a big sofa, two armchairs, a low table, and a TV set.  We often watch TV, listen to music and chat after dinner in the living room.

  In our old house there was a backyard.  My mother could dry the wash there and also air futon.  Now she dries the wash on the balcony and airs futon on the railings of the balcony.  A satellite dish is attached to the railing of the balcony.

  There are many potted flowers on the balcony.  My mother takes care of them.  She waters them every morning and evening.  

Sometimes I water them for her.