Tatami mats are a traditional Japanese flooring material. They are made from compressed rice straw covered with an outer layer of woven igusa rushes. These days, new building materials like styrene foam are often used instead of rice straw. The distinctive feature of tatami mats is that they are cool in summer and warm in winter.
The size of tatami in the Kanto Region is 176 centimeters long and 88 centimeters wide. In the Kansai Region, they are a little bigger.
Tatami have long been used in Japanese houses, but as lifestyles have become westernized, the number of houses with tatami-floored rooms has decreased. However, quite a few Western-style houses and condominiums still have at least one Japanese-style room with tatami mats.
The size of a room is often described as the number of tatami mats it can contain. If you can immediately imagine the size of a room hearing "six mats", you are a real authority on Japan!
