Although Japanese rooms are small, they don’t feel so small if you don’t have a bed there. Therefore, Japanese people tend to sleep on the floor and put their mattress into their closet when they aren’t using it. Similarly, you can actually do a lot with a little space if everything is well organized. Therefore, finding a place for everything has become really important in Japanese society. In fact, Netflix just started a show called "Tidying Up" about Japanese ways of organizing. Before I came to Japan, I used to leave clothes and papers all over my room. If I did so now, I would have no space to move around. Therefore, I have created a place for everything, and I put stuff back in its place when I’m done using it.
The culture has also been shaped by mountains is in terms of religion and exercise. In Shintoism, it is believed that kami, or gods, exist in natural objects. Therefore, many mountains are kami, and there are shrines to those gods on the mountains. There are also many festivals that have to do with mountains, such as the Daimonji Festival in Kyoto where people light fires on the top of mountains in Kyoto to commemorate their ancestors. Finally, as I mentioned before, Japanese society values exercise, and I have seen many elderly and very young people hiking mountains. Therefore, even though the mountains can pose some difficulties for day-to-day life, Japanese people have found ways to turn them into fun activities to do with family and friends.
