My House

　I live in a house in Minami-mitsuya. Minami-mitsuya is a suburb of Hikone, it's a farming village. My house is a traditional Japanese style house. It was built in 1968, it's just 30 years old. It's a wooden, two-storied house and it has ceramic tile roofs. We have two living rooms. One is downstairs and is a Japanese-style room with six tatami, and the other is upstairs that is Western-style room. And we have a zasiki, it's a traditional Japanese-style room with fourteen tatami, partitioned with sliding doors named fusuma. This room faces the small garden. There is an alcove named tokonoma about one tatami mat size, and a family Buddhist altar named butsudan on the right side of the alcove. We have also four bedrooms, a dining room with kitchen, and a bathroom. My house's garden is very small, but there is a detached house with a large garage next it. There is a big raccoon dog ornament made of Shigaraki pottery at the Entrance.

　I live there with my wife, three children, and my father. We have a Labrador Retriever dog named Leon. Leon is clever, but he is a greedy dog like my son. Although my son is 12 years old, he is eating meals the same quantity as mine. And we have six hamsters. Three days ago, a hamster gave birth to her two babies. My two daughters were very glad of her efforts. I don't do much housework. That's my wife's job. But sometimes I wash the car, and I do gardening, etc. At the dinner table, we talk about the events of the day. Everyone in my family is cheerful, and laughter is heard all the time.

　I like living in this house, and I like living in the country. It's very peaceful, the air and water are clean. Our neighborhood is quiet and nice. It's a good place to live and raise a family. But the country people are too conservative. Sometimes I want to move to the city. The city, especially big city, it has their good points. The social and cultural life is exciting. But the city has its bad points, too. It is very crowded, noisy, and expensive. I think that can go to the city when I need. Another thing I like this house is its location. My house is stands overlooking the Lake Biwa. We can have a good view of the lake from the upstairs windows. In the summer, we can go swimming in the lake on our bicycle. My wife sometimes says, the kitchen is not large enough for good cooking. She hopes the kitchen is larger and more modern. But we love our house very much.