beeldmark's photostream  

A view up, in the living room. Pictures of deceased parents and husband and the family symbol. And a beam of untreated wood, from the previous, now demolished, house.

Genkan (玄関) is the entrance of a Japanese home. The Japanese for "please come in" is " Please come up".
The elevation is a natural place to take your shoes off.

In the glass pots: Ume: sour and salty plums, used to give the subtle taste of rice some bite.

Danchi, Public housing facilities with low rent, or owned by a company that offers its employees very cheap or free housing.

typically the size is written like this: 3K, 2DK, 3LDK. 3K means three rooms with a kitchen, 2DK means 2 rooms with a dining kitchen, 3LDK 3 rooms with a large dining kitchen. One room is usually 6 tatami mats, which is about 10square meter. Dining kitchen means a kitchen just big enough to put a small dining table in it... 2DK is quite a normal size in big cities.

that's Japanese for convenience store.

Another regular landscape in Yamanashi: a small bamboo grove near a brook, peach orchards on the right, a small vineyard on the left. And the local garage and car dealer...