Living in Tight Spaces: Do You Feel the Same?

[drizzle]

[mine is 500 m2 yeah too big, I can’t stand tight places, it makes me feel like suffocated, I don’t know how some Japanese people manage to live in a really really tight places, some may say it depends on family members, but I truly can’t live in such places, even if I go to visit a friend who live in a tiny apartment I ask to go out some place, but if I had to stay at their place I’ll be like tensed all the time but once I leave I feel relieved. is it kind of a phobia? though I don't feel afraid... what about you?]... nice trick heh

 

[JasonRox]

I live in a small place. I'm curious to know why you need such a big place.

 

[drizzle]

I live in a small place. I'm curious to know why you need such a big place.

I think I did tell why?!

 

[jobyts]

The title reminded me the following video :)

 

[drizzle]

I just saw the title and then closed the link, that was…a sick joke

 

[JasonRox]

I think I did tell why?!

Not really. Seems like you questioned it.

 

[drizzle]

Not really. Seems like you questioned it.

I’ve just questioned if it’s a phobia or so

 

[JaredJames]

Drizzle, japanese people don't choose to live in small places, Japan is extremely overcrowded and they have to get as many flats into the available area as possible. there's no choice about it. When they build new land (reclaimed from the sea) they have massive waiting lists for people wanting to move into the new areas and do lotteries to ensure fairness in deciding who gets them. There are so many people needing homes they litterally take what they can get regardless of size.

I on the other hand, can't say I'm too sure. As much as a big house appeals to me, I always find myself considering running costs and maintenance costs etc. and they never come up trumps. Then again I don't like ridiculously small places.

 

[signerror]

Drizzle, japanese people don't choose to live in small places, Japan is extremely overcrowded and they have to get as many flats into the available area as possible. there's no choice about it. When they build new land (reclaimed from the sea) they have massive waiting lists for people wanting to move into the new areas and do lotteries to ensure fairness in deciding who gets them. There are so many people needing homes they litterally take what they can get regardless of size.

Citation?

edit: No, don't bother.

 

[JaredJames]

Citation?

edit: No, don't bother.

I can't even begin to believe you wanted a citation for that. It's one of the main topics throughout my A Level Geography course. Granted it was a few years ago, but still. Given the population and extremely high population density of japan it isn't difficult to understand.

 

[Danger]

I'm not going to bother with the math. My house is 25 x 25 feet on three levels, plus a 20 x 20 foot one-story addition which is the kitchen and a 25 x 10 fully enclosed porch. I would like to replace the porch with a 3-car garage/workshop.

 

[turbo]

My house is a pretty tiny log cabin. It's enough for me and my wife, but we have had to work hard to maximize storage/utility space.

Since we live out in the country, casual shopping is not an option. You have to plan ahead, stock up during sales, and make use of the chest freezers. If you have to make a run to the nearest supermarket in order to make tonight's supper, you have screwed up!

 

[Borek]

We have slightly over 80 sqm on the ground level, plus over 50 sqm of the floor in the attic - but with slopes on both sides and below 2.05 m in the highest point. I think it counts as about 25 sqm of 'living surface' according to Polish law. Plus garage - something about 20 sqm.

That was more than enough for three of us, since Junior moved we can play hide and seek. And I have a feeling living in larger place would be a waste of space. I would like to rearrange this house as it was designed by some idiot, but that's different story.

This house is made of three modules. They were built somewhere else and transported here. Original desing called for two identical, narrow modules, and one wider, but once developer started to transport the modules they learned that it is too wide - and they should ask for a special permit for oversized transport each time (and they built 54 similar houses here). So they decided to change the desing and make one narrow module (2.2 m) and two identical ones, slightly wider (2.8 m). Thus maximum width of the rooms is regulated by the road traffic regulations. Part of the house is room/kitchen 11 meters long and 2.8 m wide - good proportions for a shooting range, not so good for watching TV comfortably.

 

[signerror]

What's with the antenna, turbo-1?

 

[DaveC426913]

What's with the antenna, turbo-1?

That's not an antenna, that's a winch. He lifts the house up into the clouds during floods.


What I don't get is - being that he appears to live on a piece of land big as all God's Creation - why does he worry about finding storage space??

 

[drizzle]

What I don't get is - being that he appears to live on a piece of land big as all God's Creation - why does he worry about finding storage space??

nice house though turbo-1

 

[Borek]

What's with the antenna, turbo-1?

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=2236665&postcount=55

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Drizzle, japanese people don't choose to live in small places, Japan is extremely overcrowded and they have to get as many flats into the available area as possible. there's no choice about it. When they build new land (reclaimed from the sea) they have massive waiting lists for people wanting to move into the new areas and do lotteries to ensure fairness in deciding who gets them. There are so many people needing homes they litterally take what they can get regardless of size.

I on the other hand, can't say I'm too sure. As much as a big house appeals to me, I always find myself considering running costs and maintenance costs etc. and they never come up trumps. Then again I don't like ridiculously small places.

I lived in Japan for nine years. I got married and started a family there. When my second child was born, I decided I could no longer live in such a small place and came back to the US. The town I lived in was 50 km from the center of Tokyo, and 10 km from the south east coast. My apartment was small, but there were single family dwellings right next to it that were large. They did not have big yards, the houses taking up almost all of the lot they were on.
In my opinion, your description of the situation there is exaggerated. In fact, some parts of Japan are underpopulated. The south east coast is far more crowded than the north west coast. The land in the middle is mountainous. People flock to the 3 big cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya) and their suburbs regardless of the inconvenience. There's a spiral effect, that's where the jobs are and so even more crowding occurs. The business capital as well as the political capital is Tokyo. There had been some talk of moving the political capital to an underpopulated area in order to spread out the population more reasonably, but that went nowhere. I left there 15 years ago. By that time, the only land I know of that was reclaimed from the sea was used to build an airport, not residential dwellings, but I haven't kept up. If it came to that, it seems to me they could more cheaply and safely level some of the mountainous areas.

 

[JaredJames]

I lived in Japan for nine years. I got married and started a family there. When my second child was born, I decided I could no longer live in such a small place and came back to the US. The town I lived in was 50 km from the center of Tokyo, and 10 km from the south east coast. My apartment was small, but there were single family dwellings right next to it that were large. They did not have big yards, the houses taking up almost all of the lot they were on.
In my opinion, your description of the situation there is exaggerated. In fact, some parts of Japan are underpopulated. The south east coast is far more crowded than the north west coast. The land in the middle is mountainous. People flock to the 3 big cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya) and their suburbs regardless of the inconvenience. There's a spiral effect, that's where the jobs are and so even more crowding occurs. The business capital as well as the political capital is Tokyo. There had been some talk of moving the political capital to an underpopulated area in order to spread out the population more reasonably, but that went nowhere. I left there 15 years ago. By that time, the only land I know of that was reclaimed from the sea was used to build an airport, not residential dwellings, but I haven't kept up. If it came to that, it seems to me they could more cheaply and safely level some of the mountainous areas.

I was referring to the big cities as this is where the majority of people live and work. There was a new residential 'land reclamation' just after the airport (can't remember the name). Yep, they should use the mountain areas more.

Well if there's one thing we can agree on, it's that they're not very good at reclaiming land. The airport is sinking. Looks like the sea wants it back!

 

[physics girl phd]

We have a 1040 sq foot (~100 sq m) 2-bedroom apartment, with 2 kids and number 3 on the way. After number 3 turns one though, we'll have to move to a new place.

We live in a tiny place mainly because we want to live "downtown", and in our city, nice (aka. faculty/professional style -- not student-occupied), handicapped accessible (our oldest son uses a wheelchair) places are hard to find. Houses around here aren't often accessible either -- due to lots of hills.

The pluses are that we only have one vehicle (our accessible van)... and I often walk or ride the free trolley to work. Then there's always stuff going on downtown... free concerts, farmer's markets, festivals, etc.

It would either be the city or the country (like turbo) for us (no burbs thank you!)... and for our eldest son, the city is best. I just try to get out a lot (since my husband and sons can drive me batty!).

 

[Mech_Engineer]

500m^2 is almost 5400ft^2

My wife and I live in a house that is about 1500ft^2 (140m^2), and it is a nicely manageable house (but I wouldn't want to live in anything smaller, we have too much stuff). I lived in a family of 6 and the largest house we lived in was about 4300ft^2 (400m^2) and that was very spacious; I can't imagine a 5400ft^2 for a 6-person family, let alone a single person

 

[drizzle]

We have a 1040 sq foot (~100 sq m) 2-bedroom apartment, with 2 kids and number 3 on the way. After number 3 turns one though, we'll have to move to a new place.

We live in a tiny place mainly because we want to live "downtown", and in our city, nice (aka. faculty/professional style -- not student-occupied), handicapped accessible (our oldest son uses a wheelchair) places are hard to find. Houses around here aren't often accessible either -- due to lots of hills.
The pluses are that we only have one vehicle (our accessible van)... and I often walk or ride the free trolley to work. Then there's always stuff going on downtown... free concerts, farmer's markets, festivals, etc.

is it like every where houses near downtown are small? I used to live [with family] in the UK [Newcastle] we moved in twice, the first house was a big one almost 600 m2 with the garden, the other was close to downtown and it was smaller, I do noticed that places there get more crowded. however, I don't think that I noticed such a thing in the US, unless I wasn't aware enough..[I was a kid]

I guess that's why I hated tiny places cause I've never lived in one before

It would either be the city or the country (like turbo) for us (no burbs thank you!)... and for our eldest son, the city is best. I just try to get out a lot (since my husband and sons can drive me batty!).

turbo-1's is like heaven on earth, but I have a question for you turbo-1: is there any bugs around?

500m^2 is almost 5400ft^2

forgot to mention the garden, about 400m2

My wife and I live in a house that is about 1500ft^2 (140m^2), and it is a nicely manageable house (but I wouldn't want to live in anything smaller, we have too much stuff). I lived in a family of 6 and the largest house we lived in was about 4300ft^2 (400m^2) and that was very spacious; I can't imagine a 5400ft^2 for a 6-person family, let alone a single person

sorry didn't mention it before, I'm not alone [it'll be more like creepy to live in such a mansion alone, don't you think]

 

[turbo]

turbo-1's is like heaven on earth, but I have a question for you turbo-1: is there any bugs around?

Hardly any bugs.
This guy was bigger than my middle finger. I showed it to him just after I took his obituary photo and just before "stomp"!

It's bad enough that aphids attack some plants, but these ants gather the aphids and put them on my little fruit trees like a farmer puts cows out to pasture.

Japanese beetles eat everything, it seems.

Why do I have insect infestations when I have assassin bugs like this guy hanging around? He is big and tough enough to kill and eat a bumblebee - I saw him do it.

 

[drizzle]

Hardly any bugs.

just forget about the heaven thing no offence

 

[turbo]

just forget about the heaven thing no offence

Gotta have bugs if you want pollination to occur. I garden organically (no poisons) so I have to learn to deal with the bugs. Notice the white spot on the thorax of the female Japanese beetle? That's the egg of a parasitic nectar-eating fly. Within 24 hours, the egg hatches, and the larva burrows into the beetle and starts eating it from the inside out. The attacked beetle drops to the ground and burrows in, though that is no defense. It actually protects the fly larva by giving it a shelter until it is mature, at which point it can emerge, mate and lay eggs on other beetles. I didn't find that out until recently, so now I have to make a point of looking the beetles over before killing them. I want to leave all the ones that have been parasitised, so they can be food for the next generation of flies.

 

[jobyts]

Hardly any bugs.
This guy was bigger than my middle finger. I showed it to him just after I took his obituary photo and just before "stomp"!

that looks very presidential!

 

[turbo]

that looks very presidential!

He is perched on a jalapeno branch that he chewed off the plant. Death-sentence in my garden. These guys are very "squishy" and slippery when you step on them.

 

[physics girl phd]

Bugs are one of the reasons I wish we didn't live in the city. Our middle child (a 10 yr-old boy) is deathly afraid of bugs. When my siblings and he were young, we were catching bugs to feed to spiders, hatching mantis pods, watching aphids on the nasturtiums in the garden (they at least keep them off other plants), pushing garden spiders webs out of our paths in the blackberry patch, rasing catpillars to butterflies, etc. I think our son needs a good dose of bug-experience to balance him out... he's too wimpy!