So this past week I was scheduled to sub at the high school only one day which was fine but I ended up subbing for 3 days... this will definitely keep me busy! So on Friday I was the substitute for only half the day for "Japanese 3" and "Japanese 4" ummmmm yeah I obviously was no help there... Thankfully the students were all really good about staying on task and didn't ask me for any help with their Japanese homework... hahaha The reason I am even mentioning this is because I think it is really cool that these student have the opportunity to learn the language of their host country (Japan) and also because they learn to read and write it as well... and good for them because that is super difficult! 
Anyway, in the classroom I had their was a little tatami room and I thought I would use this blog to teach you a little bit about that. It was kind of neat to see a big piece of Japanese culture right there in the school. The room was pretty big, but not nearly as nice as the one in the picture above. A tatami is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms and traditionally made of rice straw to form the core. The word tatami means to "fold" or "pile" because the early tatami mats could be folded or piled when not in use. Tatami were originally a luxury item for the nobility and finally made it to the commoners by the end of the 17th century. Very often even in modern day Japan, rooms are described by how many tatami mats fit... for example instead of saying a room is 9 x 12 feet, they might say this room is 6 tatami (saying you could fit 6 tatami mats in it). This is what most Japanese families sit on instead of couches and dining tables... they are pretty comfy, but I think I'll keep our big plush couch for now! Japanese Word of the Day:
Tatami (ta-ta-me): To fold or pile
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