Won't Miss #232 - low sofas

For reasons I'm sure that I can only guess at, the sofas in Japan seem to be built for munchkins. I'm not talking about the kind of furniture which has  you sitting essentially on the floor with a back support (of which there is plenty in Japan), but about Western-style sofas and sometimes cushy chairs that are just about 4-6 inches too low to be comfortable to sit on (because there is increased knee stress). They make you feel like something isn't quite right and are harder to haul your tired carcass off of. This might be because Japanese have shorter legs, tend to be shorter in general, or that they find the height just fine compared to sitting flat on the floor.

I won't miss sofas and easy chairs that are too low for comfort.

Won't Miss #225 - tiny office chairs

The chair on the right would make an airplane seat seem roomy by comparison. For reference, even the chair on the left was small by Western standards (and no, these aren't kid's furniture!).

About a year ago, my venerable American office chair that I bought at Costco about a decade ago blew out a caster and I had to get a new one. Unfortunately, Costco no longer carries Western furniture so I had to turn to Japanese shops. Here is the thing about most Japanese office chairs; they come in two types: too damn expensive and average in size, and too damn small. The more reasonably priced (cheaper) ones seem to be designed for people the size of a child, or a tiny, tiny Japanese woman. They are so small because of the size of the offices and homes, not because of the size of the people. The chairs aren't for comfort or ergonomics, but rather to cram as many people into small, expensive-to-rent spaces as possible.

I won't miss having to choose between chairs that cost far too much and ones that are too small for long-term comfort.