Japanese Toilets are Amazing in 2008

January 18, 2008

Before my regular entry today, I want to shout out to the people back home who are starting the Culture Club - Boy George excluded. In addition to learning something about the featured culture, the group will (mainly?) imbibe in the culture's finest spirits during their meetings. I'm sure it will involve countless pizza bites, FIFA 2006, and somehow I feel like Scotland and Jamaica are going to be featured more than a few times. I wish I could be there with you guys, but I will be at the Sumo tournament.

Toilets
The Japanese toilet experience is probably the most bizarre part of Japan for me so far. There are so many varieties of toilets, from the squat basin to the RoboToilet.

In public bathrooms I have seen the standard smelly, you-flush, don't-sit as seen in the US, and the squat basin that Jill warned me about, which I do not understand and have not had to use yet.

At school, in the hotel, and in some of our apartments, we have RoboToilets - automatic sensor for when you enter the stall, which automatically begins heating the seat. Any change of weight on the toilet seat results in flushing. On the wall next to you, there are two panels: the first has one button labeled "flushing sound" and is attached to a speaker. This literally ONLY makes a flushing sound. I am not sure of any other purpose.

The other panel has all kinds of buttons, including the bidet activator (or as John calls it, the arse shower button, where a hose pokes its head out and sprays water upwards onto... well, your arse) and toilet shower (a hose pokes its head out and sprays water downward to rinse the toilet). There are controls to make the seat hotter and cooler, and even deodorizer and heaters for some bathrooms. The Japanese seem to always be in a hurry, so I'm surprised that the toilets seem engineered for a day-trip to the bathroom. Maybe that's where they're going in such a hurry?

So, while the Japanese are surely very proud of the toilet technology, I personally find the idea of a warm public toilet seat a little foul.

The Complaint

Where is the soap, and why don't they care about drying their hands?

I probably will never research it, but we all wonder whether they have compromised immune systems because they seem to be so overly germ-conscious here. They wear face masks (which we relate to bird flu and surgery) when they are sick or when they don't want to catch something on the crowded public transportation. It's very common to see them sold in convenient stores for JPY 100, and men, women, and children wear them.

They are also very clean - at restaurants, you get an individually wrapped moist hand-wipe (hopefully antibacterial, but likely not) before and after the meal. Sometimes you eat with a full-body bib (see one of first Tokyo entries). People definitely look neat and clean. There are (frustratingly) no garbage cans on the street because you should dispose of all your garbage before you leave, and there should be no eating in public, so garbage cans aren't necessary. There is no litter - anywhere.

So, with all this concern about cleanliness and germs, the lack of soap and paper towels or even an air dryer in bathrooms seems contradictory. This makes using public bathrooms an annoyance, since the priorities seem all backwards to me. Warm, hose-equipped toilets, but tiny stalls that force you to come into contact with every part of the bathroom just to get in the door, and cold, wet doorhandles.

The toilet paper pretends like it will be helpful in drying your hands but it only mocks you and results in gross, soggy messes. A sign showing you where the toilet is at the bar near school.