Bleh.  The formatting on this might be odd--the email didn't send, then I had 
to copy/paste the failed send and retry.  Quite annoying.  Anyway.

On 1 Dec 2003 at 4:23, Jourdan M. Bickham wrote:

With a yawn and a groan, he threw off the warmth of the blanket
and sat up on the beaten up old futon.

It might beat sleeping on the ground but not by much.

The Tendos didn't have the slightest clue of how good they had it here.
There had been times on the training trip when Ranma would have happily
kicked somebody else's ass to be able to sleep on a real mattress.

What the hell is this?  First why is Ranma's futon old and beaten up?  The
Saotome's were guests from the beginning of their stay at the Tendos and as
such would most definitely been given decent bedding.  Even a year or so
later, the Saotomes are still guests...even if they are close like
family...they aren't.  For the Japanese that is how it is... until it has
been formalized, ie Akane been added to the Saotome register they aren't
family.  Second... while *I* may feeling that sleeping on a futon ina tatami
room sucks and Shade may think so too if he has ever had that pleasure, but
Ranma would not.  Ranma would *not* lust after a mattress.  Sleeping on a
futon is *perfectly* acceptable in Japan today... it is very much common
still.  And everyone would sleep on one when they stay at a Ryokan (Japanese
Inn) when they go to the hot springs (as the springs are built into the inns
and the hot spring water is piped in).  So Ranma would not complain that the
futon is barely better than sleeping on the ground and he would not happily
kick somone's ass to be able to sleep on a real mattress.

I went to Japan over the summer and slept in a futon on tatami for 
about three out of five weeks.  I thought it was rather comfortable.  
If the fic is going to state otherwise, I'd like some form of 
description that indicates why.  Otherwise 
it seems like author interjection or ignorance to me.

Just for reference, the futons I slept on were all the same. We used two soft 
pads that were a few inches thick and about the width and length of a twin-
sized bed.  Along with the pads would be a thick comforter (this was over the 
summer, but they weren't uncomfortably warm).  The pillows (for futons) were 
round tubes that were filled with little pellets of hard foam or something.  
They weren't completely full, so the slack could be  used to manipulate 
the shape a little bit.

All of the above items went into a large closet with sliding doors.  
The pads were folded and stacked on top of each other, and the 
comforters were treated the same way.  The pillows were just tossed 
together into a little pile.

I don't know how often any of the above is cleaned, but for the sake 
of Japanese cleanliness, each guest was given two simple white sheets 
and a matching pillow case.  This would keep the pads, comforter, and 
pillow from getting 'dirty'.

Every morning after waking up the guest was expected to replace all 
of the items into the closet, folding as appropriate(some of us just 
left the futons out for laying/sitting on during the day--tatami are 
hard).  If the stay was a short one, the same sheets and pillow case 
would be kept for the duration, going into the closet with the other 
stuff (you're supposed to keep your sheets separate from other 
guests', though).  Otherwise you would regularly leave the sheets and 
pillow case in a pile outside the room door or deliver them to some 
specified location.

Because of the SARS scare, I didn't get to do homestay, so I don't 
know if this stuff applies exactly to a private residence.  The two 
Tenri church dormitories I went to were set up that way, and so was 
the other place or two we stayed at that had traditional rooms (I 
can't remember where).  I expect a private home would be about the 
same, but maybe not.

The futons I slept in were at the very least much more comfortable 
than a bed at Holiday Inn.  All mattresses are not created equal--the futons I 
ran into were.  ^_^;

Considering the Tendous' relative wealth, I would certainly expect 
the futons they own to be in acceptable shape.

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