Do People Really Sleep On The Floor In Japan

When i was a kid i slept on the floor no futon nothing and was fine.
Do people really sleep on the floor in japan. During my two year stint as a peace corps volunteer i noticed that most cambodians slept on the floor with nothing but a straw mat and a small pillow. I then moved to america and got spoiled with sleeping on a bed. Living in this way is one of the many things that gives japan such a unique culture. Japan s love affair with sleeping on the floor the floor mat that transformed japanese culture.
Tatami are more than mats they represent a lifestyle. What is a shoji screen. At the bottom is a tatami mat followed by a shikifuton or mattress and a kakebuton the duvet and topped off with a buckwheat hull pillow. The paper walls of traditional japanese houses.
The way people sleep with others alone in beds on floors varies widely from culture to culture. A lot of people assume i got into floor sleeping when i moved to japan. The biggest differentiator in the traditional way the japanese sleep is that they sleep on the floor on top of a precisely arranged combination of cushions and mats. And another thing they still do is sleeping and eating on the floor just like in the old days.
People keep warm with kotatsu in japan. I tried sleeping on a futon again when i returned to japan as an adult about ten years ago but it was pretty miserable for me. When you sleep on the floor though all you need are the blankets pillows sheets and the thin mattress to sleep on. Now a professor of territorial studies has published a book saying that japanese married couples are unusual because high numbers of them sleep in separate places.
However my experience with floor sleeping dates back much further. I moved to japan when i was in elementary school and slept on a futon no problem. Not only do you have to get the blankets pillows and sheets but there s the mattress the box spring the frame the headboard it goes on an on and can really add up. Once you get used to them you never want to go back to central heating.