English
What is a Share House?
A share house can be either an apartment or house where several different people live together. Traditionally everybody has their individual room while the kitchen, living room, toilet, and bathrooms are shared.
Share houses conceptually provide an alternative to single people living alone. The typical choice for a single person living in Japan is a cramped bathroom with a small toilet and no Japanese-style bath (“ofuro”), miniscule kitchen, tiny bedroom, and in many cases no washing machine.
By contrast in a share house, residents enjoy their own private (and often spacious) bedrooms, nice “ofuro” bathtub, large kitchens and dining areas with room to enjoy cooking, eating, and relaxing together. These luxuries common to share houses that are often impossible to experience while living alone are the luxuries that Grace House is pleased to offer.
What is a Share House founded on Christian values?
Grace House is a share house founded on Christian values. Basically, however, Grace House is still a share house with share house lifestyle.
Rather, both staff and residents are encouraged to share in Bible study, praying together, and enjoying dinner parties and other events with residents of other Grace Houses.
Most residents of Grace House are Christian but that is not a dividing line. We encourage those who have heard of Jesus and who have interest in knowing more about Jesus to come stay at Grace House. We welcome all people to visit but we never obligate people to participate in any event or activity in which they do not feel interested in or comfortable participating.
Additionally, we do not cater toward specific denominations. At the core of our values we strive for Grace House to embody the core biblical values of loving each other, forgiving each other, helping each other, and encouraging each other.
Appeal
One of the major appeals of share houses is getting the opportunity to share a house together with different people of different walks of life and with different lifestyles, and then making a home together. It is an enjoyable way to broaden one’s horizons.
A great example of this is mutually beneficial system comes from the fact that share houses provide a safe environment for exchange students and foreigners living in Japan. Japanese residents can assist foreign residents adjusting to life in Japan and foreign residents can teach Japanese residents about culture and living abroad.
A private bedroom is a haven residents can retire to at any time, but likewise, shared cooking, dining, and relaxing spaces also allow residents to enjoy a community environment and avoid the feeling of isolation at nearly any time. In this way share houses provide the best of both worlds.
The Ideal Share House Resident Mindset
・I want to change my lifestyle! I am motivated to mingle with others!
・I want to meet and greet people from around the world!
・I want to live and make friends with Christians, learn, and continue learning more about Jesus!
・I want affordable rent but I don’t want a tiny house!
・I have come from out of town and I want to make more friends!
