After drinking all that beeru, it’s inevitable that you’re going to have to use the facilities sooner or later. Hopefully you are still sober enough to figure things out.
Toilets in Japan come in two main varieties: holes in the floor, and super-high-tech-crazy-toilets. The holes in the floor are common in public places, like at temples, but often there is also a choice of a “Western-Style” toilet (i.e., one with a bowl). Luckily we didn’t end up having to use the “Japanese-Style” ones very often.
The much more interesting toilet phenomenon in Japan was the super-high-tech-crazy-toilet, often called a “Washlet” (this is one of the common brands). These toilets come with control panels full of buttons labeled in Japanese. If you are lucky, there are also little icons that gave you an idea what each button does.
For example, I quickly learned that the button with the musical note on it would play a recording of flushing sounds. This was apparently developed to save water, as some Japanese flush the toilet continuously to cover up any sounds that might be emanating from… other places.
By far the strangest aspect of these fancy toilets was that fact that for many of them, the control panels could actually be removed from their positions on the wall and used as remote controls. Huh? Scott and I amused ourselves endlessly at our hotel by sneakily stealing the remote control and trying to stealth-bidet whomever was using the toilet. Alas, the remote didn’t seem to work through the closed door.
If, after reading this, you are still confused about using the toilet in Japan, please watch this, followed by this.
The toilet training video is one of the funniest I’ve ever seen! Thanks for sharing.
Oh my gosh! Stealth bidet–that’s hilarious:)
ew, yuck
When we lived in Singapore we just called the holes in the ground “squat toilets.” It was only later that I realised some of the locals were squatting on the Western style toilets and wrecking the lovely seats!
I brought home a sign with instructions on how to use a western style toilet. It has a little drawing of used toilet paper and some arrows pointing to the toilet. Ever saw one of those? Priceless!
plz give us more….
my gf is fromthere and when she told me what happens with toilets i couldnt stop laughing!!!
so cute tey r 😛
I was just looking through your old posts about Japan. I plan on going there soon! My experience there last time was a good one, even with the bathrooms. They keep your bottom quite cozy.