Below is a photo of the house. Not large by U.S. standards - maybe 800 square feet split between two floors. But seems to be a common size by Japanese standards. We would probably call it 3 bedroom 1 bath in the states, but the bath situation is different. There are separate rooms for the toilet and for the bath.
Bath situation is similar to what I explained in my Ryokan update. There is a changing room which you walk in to and strip. Then you enter the bath room, where you wash and rinse yourself before you get into the bath tub. And baths occur in the evening (either before or after dinner, depending on your preference). The family has been nice enough to understand and allow me to keep to my preference of a shower in the morning.
Some of the toilets here are interesting from a water savings standard. They have a spigot on the top of the toilet's tank. Rather than just fill the tank with water, they first run the water through the spigot on the top, which then drains into the tank. This is more water efficient - it lets you wash your hands with the same water that is being used to fill the toilet tank. Also saves a lot of space, which is important in small houses.
I do sort of have my own room. But with 5 people in such a small house, it is not uncommon for one or both of the kids to be playing in the room while I am working away at the desk.
In the entry for the building (as in for all homes), you change from shoes to slippers. Most of the rooms have hard wood floors. Two of the rooms have tatami floors. In these rooms, you take your slippers off before entering (bare feet or sock feet only). If you walk out on the deck or the patio, you change into outside slippers. There is also a pair of slippers in the toilet room which you change into when entering that room. The process is actually a little more complicated in all these slipper changes - you don't want the slipers for one area to hit the floor in the other area. For example, you step out of your regular slippers outside of the toilet room and step over the door thresh-hold and into the toilet room slippers. But you have to step out of your regular slippers in a way that they aren't left in the way of the toilet room door.
This week is Golden Week. Many companies have the whole week off. Not uncommon for workers to still go in to work, even on holidays. For example, the otoisan (father) went in to work on Saturday and is going in again on Monday, even though both days are company holidays. And he seems to put in lots of hours during the week. All quite usual in Japan, it seems.
Had a slight translation problem today. I went with my host family to the kodomo matsuri (children's festival). The festival was close to one of the larger hotels in town, so I thought I would split off for a few minutes to see if the hotel's gift shop had postcards (Okazaki is not a tourist destination, so I haven't been able to find postcards for the town). I tried to say to them Hoteru e ikimas. Hagaki o kaitaidis (I am going to the hotel. I want to buy postcards). They heard Hoteru e ikimas. Shitagi o kaitaidis (I am going to the hotel. I want to buy underwear). They were wondering what had hapenned, and only when I returned from the hotel did this get cleared up. Guess I speak with a bit of an accent.