For Japanese people live on tatami floor, kotatsu is a special low table covered with kotatsu futon and gets people together as a warm and comfortable place in winter.
When you put your foot in it, an electric heater(used to be coals) warms you and makes you sleepy. You would have a long long nap.
Now Spring has come, I put kotatsu futon back in a closet. Kotatsu table becomes a normal low table… On chilly days, my family including a cat miss kotatsu!
Traditionally Japanese use futon as a temporary bed. At night they lay out futon and put it back into oshi-ire closet next morning.
Lately using bed becomes popular in Japan. Although moving futon every night and morning is bothersome, it makes a room useful daytime. If you have a guest, you can offer a living room as a guest bedroom by using futon.
This week’s Ikebana decoration is the arrange of branches called “gincho” and leatherleaf ferns and Cymbidium. I like it(^^)!
