Toilet Observations

I am in constant amazement at Japan's bathrooms. This may sound odd since our own restrooms are so mundane but there is a surprising variety here. First off all, everyone should know that they are amazingly clean. I'm talking eat off of the floor kind of clean- totally different set of standards.

There are two different types of restrooms here, high tech and low tech. The high tech ones are usually the Western style toilets that we're used to but they come with an entire control panel just for the toilet! You can change the temperature of the seat, use different angles of water for the bidet function as well as change the water temperature and strength. There is also a fake flushing sound that you can activate if you don't want others in the restroom to know what is going on in your stall! I broke out laughing when I saw that one but I've since heard several people use it. There are some other buttons too but since they're all labeled in Japanese, I haven't figured out what they do yet.

There are also the very low tech type of toilets. I've taken to calling these squatters. Yup, you actually get to squat over these to do your business. I'm really glad that I've gone camping a lot so I have plenty of practice :) I'm savoring the Western toilets now because I'm pretty sure I'll only have access to the squatters once we leave Japan. These are also tough if you have bad knees which Sean is a little worried about.

There are two other things of interest in the bathrooms here. One is that the more high tech sinks automatically give you soapy water first before switching to plain water- ingenious. The other is also a great idea. In many of the women's stalls there is a high chair looking thing on one of the walls so that women can pee in peace with out trying to juggle their baby along with the toilet paper. Man, all bathrooms should have one of those!