Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • This is a day in the life of a Japanese housewife.

  • This is Tomomi, a 38-year-old housewife living in Tokyo with her husband and daughter.

  • And this is how she starts her day.

  • Oh, and this is Tomomi's daughter, Karin. She's about to turn three years old.

  • You may have noticed earlier that they were all sleeping in the same bed. In Japan,

  • it's common for children before elementary school to sleep with their parents in the same bed.

  • And that's Tomomi's husband. He works as a freelancer and has a meeting this morning, so he's in a bit of a hurry.

  • As a Japanese housewife, it's Tomomi's first task to prepare breakfast. In Japan,

  • it's typical to prepare miso soup as it's a traditional Japanese breakfast dish.

  • So they live in a 2LDK apartment, meaning two bedrooms, living, dining, and kitchen. In their second room

  • they even have a kamidana which is a mini shrine.

  • Every morning Tomomi's husband follows a traditional Japanese custom of changing the water

  • providing an offering and then praying.

  • It looks like Karin's already watching Japanese children's shows on YouTube.

  • Apparently it's pretty common these days in Japan to allow kids to stream their favorite content on their mobile devices.

  • And in fact, this is Karin's own phone, which is one of her parents older devices.

  • So they're eating gomoku umami, which is an assorted stir-fried dish leftover from last night and natto miso soup and rice.

  • It's also typical to eat natto,

  • a fermented soy bean for breakfast in Japan. And since kids start eating it from when they're babies, they learn to love it.

  • It's customary in Japan to say itadakimasu

  • before every meal which loosely means "thank you for the meal".

  • Parents will ingrain this custom in their children as soon as they start eating normal food.

  • Uh oh

  • She's not supposed to watch YouTube during meals, but she couldn't help but tap that play button. Tomomi, does she often watch YouTube?

  • It's important for Tomomi and her husband to teach Karin proper eating manners but it looks like Karin's picking up quickly.

  • When did she start using chopsticks?

  • To help kids learn how to use chopsticks these days, some are given practice ones like this and help hold the chopsticks in place.

  • How long does it take you to wear makeup?

  • How old are you?

  • Are you really one?

  • I guess she's still a little shy so in a couple months Karin starts Youchien which means

  • Kindergarten. This is usually between the ages of three and five just before elementary school. In Japan,

  • there's also less formal nursery schools called Hoikuen intended for working parents, which accept children from zero to five years old,

  • but since Tomomi is a full-time housewife, it would be difficult for her daughter to enroll. In fact, in Tokyo,

  • it's been a massive problem where children are placed on enrollment waiting lists because simply there aren't enough

  • nursery schools for the demand and if you're a healthy housewife like Tomomi, it's almost impossible to enroll your child.

  • Karin, which one is your favorite toy?

  • KARIN: Banana...Apple

  • I noticed that Karin knows many English words.

  • Do you make her study?

  • So Karin is practicing getting dressed all by herself these days.

  • It seems like dressing a kid is the same all over the world.

  • After dressing up Karin and getting ready herself, she finally has time for the house chores.

  • She vacuums the apartment and washes dishes from breakfast.

  • At this age, Karin is old enough to play on her own, so Tomomi can focus on the chores.

  • So after finishing her morning chores, Tomomi has a little bit more time to hang out with Karin.

  • Let's see what they do for the rest of the day.

  • So, what do you do when you want to have a date night?

  • Using babysitters in Japan is uncommon so

  • Tomomi asks her mom once a month to help with Karin so she can go out with her husband.

  • So it looks like they're having a coloring session right now. While they're doing that

  • let's explore the house a little bit and let me show you around.

  • In Japanese homes, it's common to have many fish grills below the stove.

  • But wait, what's this? You don't use the fish grill?

  • Because Karin is likely to play with it,

  • she's turned off the gas completely and uses IR stoves instead.

  • And this is their bath unit, with an automatic bath to fill the water to a desired level

  • and temperature.

  • So while Karin is playing on her own, Tomomi takes advantage of this free time to work on her blog.

  • So what's your blog about?

  • Once in a while, she even teaches seminars

  • on how to manage and be mindful of one's emotions in order to live a more positive life

  • for that person and for the people around them.

  • Oh! It looks like Karin wants to play with her now. As part of being a mother, Tomomi consciously

  • prioritizes Karin's needs so she often must quickly shift her focus in order to take care of her daughter.

  • Uh-oh, she doesn't want to clean up her toys.

  • Now they're ready to go to the park.

  • So Karin's at the age where she wants to do everything on her own

  • so Tomomi must exercise some patience to allow her daughter to grow into these experiences.

  • This could take some time though.

  • Finally! Out the door.

  • This is a "mamachari" meaning mom's bicycle.

  • It's marked by a lowered center frame allowing for easy mount and dismount.

  • In fact, people don't drive much in Tokyo so it's common to have a bike

  • and in recent years a lot of the newer mamachari's have been outfitted with electric pedal assist

  • motors making it even easier to transport kids.

  • In fact, you'll often see mothers with a baby in a child seat on the front handlebars and older children in the back.

  • As part of raising a child, Tomomi believes it's important to let her child play outside.

  • So she takes her daughter to the park regularly.

  • So, how long does she play in the park?

  • Wow, that's a lot of playtime. So moms do sometimes talk to other moms in the park

  • but, in Tokyo, people don't regularly talk to strangers. So it is harder to make friends.

  • Also, Karin often makes friends on the playground, but I guess she's not feeling it today.

  • So Karin wanted to bring her white shoes to the park

  • and her mom did want her to bring it because

  • they would get dirty.

  • And look what happened.

  • Now they're stopping by a local butcher shop

  • to pick up meat for dinner.

  • Awww. Karin's wiped from all that playing.

  • Do you have a policy on how to raise Karin?

  • Now she gets a little bit more time to work on her own stuff

  • so she uses it to build her new website for her business.

  • Oh! Her husband's back home. Tomomi says she really appreciates him being around to raise Karin together.

  • In fact, it's common in Japan for most housewives to do it alone.

  • So common that there's a term for it: "wanope ikuji". Short for:

  • "one operation child rearing" which also includes all of the house chores.

  • In point, recent surveys show that men in Japan on average do

  • 18.3% of the house chores and child-rearing while women 81.7%

  • This is the highest percentage out of 33 major countries in the world.

  • Oh! It looks like they're making cake now.

  • Tomomi also believes it is important for her daughter to learn how to cook

  • so she involves her in the process; giving her mini-tasks that she can complete on her own.

  • Are you making a cake using a pan?

  • It's rare in Japan for kitchens to have built-in ovens due to the lack of space

  • so you'll find many innovative products like this as well as other creative ways to cook.

  • Oh no! Karin is a little fussy because she doesn't want to eat it without milk.

  • Maybe she's still a little tired from playing outside. Tomomi seems to be handling it really well though.

  • Now it's time to make dinner.

  • Karin volunteered to help so Tomomi is more than happy to accommodate and let her rinse the rice.

  • So before getting married, Tomomi almost never cooked,

  • but she says she later learned from her experienced mom friends.

  • So how do you decide what you're cooking every day?

  • So Tomomi's husband has to go out for work again, but someone's not happy about that.

  • (KARIN CRIES)

  • It's okay - Tomomi's around to comfort and play with her daughter.

  • And now, Karin's asking her to be a camera person.

  • The thing's moms will do.

  • TOMOMI & KARIN: Itadakimasu

  • For dinner, Tomomi uses the pork from the butcher shop to prepare a dish called pork hokusai mille-feuille (?)

  • and a cute little onigiri for Karin.

  • So in Japan it's typical for families to share the same bathwater

  • even when there's several children with varying ages.

  • In the past, it was customary for the father to use the bath first and the wife last

  • but these days, the rule is less followed.

  • Now she puts away Karin's laundry for tomorrow and gets ready to put Karin to bed.

  • Oh no! Tomomi's having a hard time brushing Karin's teeth.

  • Apparently Tomomi must often find different ways to convince Karin to brush her teeth

  • It usually takes her about 15 to 20 minutes to put Karin to bed.

  • Once asleep,

  • Tomomi finally has a chance to complete the rest of her house chores

  • and any time after this, she can use it for herself. Such as planning for her next seminar, Gokigen Life.

  • And she also has time to work on her Instagram.

  • She tries to post every day to raise awareness about what she does.

  • So that's pretty much a day in the life of a Japanese housewife.

  • As you can see, she has her own free time right now.

  • Her daughter's already asleep.

  • So she has about two hours before she goes to bed at 12 o'clock.

  • If you guys want to see what she's doing, then I'll definitely leave links in the description.

  • Also if you guys wanted to see kind of my regular life,

  • I recently created a channel called Tokyo Zebra

  • and that channel also has my wife Maiko

  • and if you guys don't already know from the previous videos,

  • we have a baby on the way

  • so that channel have all of that stuff that's coming up

  • and if you want to see more, I have so many more Day in the Life videos to come

  • so definitely hit that Subscribe button and the

  • Bell button and I'll catch you guys in the next one.

This is a day in the life of a Japanese housewife.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it