DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS
In some parts of Japan to this day, members of a family living under one
roof will conceptualise their unit as a continuing ie. This is particularly the
case if the house has been passed down through several generations, and
even if all the generations are not present a scattered family may see themselves as only temporarily separated. In other cases, couples of two generations may live in close proximity, an arrangement not dissimilar from an
older one found in certain regions of Japan where an inkyo ¯-ya, or retirement
house, was built close to the main family home. It is said that one needs to
be near enough to be able to carry hot soup from one house to the other
without having to heat it up again