As you may already know, we Japanese love everything tiny.  Tiny car, tiny phone, tiny purse, tiny boo... :) anyway,  specially in old town Kyoto, there are still lots of this kind of style houses called Unagino Nedoko (うなぎの寝床）, means Eel's Bed. They are only 5.4 to 6 meters wide, but about 20 meters deep. That is why, Eel's bed! How cute.

And, you must have heard Kyosho Jutaku （狭小住宅）before,right? It means narrow/tiny house.There is no specific size to be called as Kyosho jutaku, but most of them are built on less than 500 SF properties!

The one of the most famous Kyosho jutaku, designed by Tadao Ando.

This was built 45 years ago, designed by Takamitsu Azuma.

This one is my favorite.

The building area is 24㎡ and 17m height!  Ka-pow!! 

狭小住宅素晴らしい！実は昨年、日本に帰った時に電車から見た風景に衝撃を受けました。あの住宅がひしめき合ってお隣さんに手を伸ばせば届くという感覚が新鮮でした。　しかも、そのひしめき合うビルディングの間を走る高速道路に線路。それはまさにテレビゲームの世界！（特に私は日本の田舎出身なので都会のそれに衝撃を受けた）それにしてもいろいろ調べてると本当に素晴らしいデザインの狭小住宅がありすぎてどれもこれにも目が輝いてしまいます。いやー、素晴らしい発想力と知識があればこそのデザインですな。

image via forM, 東京街歩き, おじゃま荘, HeT