Ah it’s been a while since I posted something about toilets….
I hate it when traveling in Asia and find that the toilets don’t have clear signs for which door is for who, they just write the word “female” or “male” in the local language and I have to take a guess (yes I should try to learn the language, but hey, guess what, i’m lazy).
Anyway, thankfully none of those issues at Gimpo airport last Friday, I was left in no doubt whatsoever:
Well, I figured I was over my jetlag in record time, it normally takes a good week and a half to get back to normal, but I’d been sleeping well and staying awake in the office (even after lunch!!).
Then, yesterday morning, something happened….
I’d arrived at the office and popped straight into the toilet to brush my teeth (Starbucks breakfast on way to work), I finished brushing, rinsed and decided i’d have a pee while I was there.
So I unzipped and assumed the position; now, you know that feeling you get when something is wrong but you just can’t place it? Yeah, anyway, when I looked down to figure out what was wrong there was no urinal, just the bin….
The toilets in Japan are nothing short of amazing, heated toilet seats, inbuilt deodorisers, noise generators to disguise the fact that you are laying bum-spuds (something which shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to the casual observer who sees you going into a cubicle, whistling and carrying a newspaper) and a drinking fountain. Yes, you heard me right, a drinking fountain!
Robotoilet – Turn on, Tune in, Drop out
Basically, when a gentleman is going for a “standing evacuation” you press one of the buttons on the side on the control panel and with a mechanical whirr a pipe appears and delivers a jet of fresh water straight to your mouth. Well, except in my case it was poorly set and delivered the water directly onto my chest, fortunately I was naked (calm down girls) so no great disaster. I noticed a pressure adjuster and with a few clicks was able to lift the jet towards my thirsty mouth. It was a tad warm for my liking but I guess that’s how the locals like it
Toilet Drinking Fountain
One thing I found a bit odd is that the toilet seat has to be down for the fountain to work, normally when I’m standing I’ll put the seat up so I don’t sprinkle it, bit of a design flaw if you ask me..
I was talking to a girl in the bar last night about this miracle of Japanese engineering, she was equally impressed, she described it as “an eloquent display of gaijin barbarism”, I’m not really sure what she mean’t but I can tell she was impressed.
Other stuff:
Japanesish View from my Hotel Room
Don’t Ask, it’s Probably “Bad for the Health” or Something
Never defecate in solutide again with this triumph in fecal management by those crazy guys in Korea, family toilets! (I’m assuming, I’ve never seen these anywhere else)
Grandpa, you’re not invited, you’ll have to wheel yourself somewhere else to empty that bag!
Throne Room – Father and son privies
If only we’d had these a couple of years ago when I was a young kid in the UK, what a fantastic bonding experience it must be between a father and son. I can just imagine sitting at the kitchen table having just finished my gruel, excitedly waiting for the moment my father folds the newspaper, stands up and says “grab a comic son, let’s go and make some bum-spuds”
As if the dual outhouses is not enough they also have a selection of toilet papers for every occasion, a smoothish one for every day use and a heavily profiled one for cleaning up after the most viscid of stools.
A selection of personal-tissues for the discerning fecal hobbyist
