Outside the Home (Page 3 of 4)

While living in Japan, I was surprised how quickly they put up a regular house. So, when I saw that they were going to build a home near a place I passed every so often, I decided to take some pictures of the various stages in the building process. In America we use the acre as the unit of land measurement. In Japan they use a unit that is basically the size of two tatami mats. That is something like 6 by 6 feet. I once asked my students how much land a regular three bedroom house uses. I calculated it out to apx. 1/40th of an acre.



This is the lot where two houses are going to be built. They are going to be the same size as the house in this picture.



Here they have put down the rock foundation for the two houses.



They have now laid the cement on the rock foundation. Note that I spent one summer in the United States laying cement, and the cement I saw in Japan seemed somehow different.



Here they are putting the frame up for the two houses. Note that these homes will not have much insulation in the walls. They also do not use sheetrock. They put up something that looks like chicken wire and put a plaster like substance on it for the walls.



This is the roof being put on. I wish I had a picture of the footwear that construction workers wear. It is shaped like a mitten for the foot. Just as a mitten has a separate section for the thumb, construction workers wear a shoe/boot that has a serarate section for the big toe.


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