Fun with Toilets

Matt and I were recently in SE Asia. On the way home we had a 12 hour layover in Tokyo, so we took a train into the city and did a bit of touring. I had extremely limited battery power left in the camera, so I was careful to only take photos of things that were *really* compelling. I ended up with a small collection of photos of cabs, various food products, ducks, and toilets. I'm tempted to say that weariness from travel had affected my judgment, but most of the people who read this blog have known and loved me for years, which means that most of the people who read this blog have already suffered through hours of viewing vacation photos chock full of pictures of things like street signs, fire hydrants, and those metal utility plates embedded into streets. So I won't bother making excuses, I'll just move on to showing the toilet photos. :)

The gist of the story here is that public toilets in Tokyo are *awesome*!

Here's a view from above:



Notice the very special arm rest next to the toilet. I spent so long playing around with that arm rest that Matt got a little worried about my extended absence. (He foolishly used a urinal and missed an opportunity to fully experience the glory of a public toilet in Tokyo.) When I offered to wait so that he could go back into the bathroom to check out the toilets, he indicated that he would prefer to spend his time checking out the art in the museum, rather than the toilets. Silly silly man.

Here's a close-up of the special arm rest of gadgets-and-great-adventure:



We're going to go all Japanese-style here and start with the right side of the armrest and we'll move to the left. Way over on the right there are some indicator lights, one of which reassures the user that the seat is heated. And it was indeed heated to a lovely lovely temperature.

Next is the small button down low on the right side. It is labeled "POWERFUL DEODORIZER". This button needs no explanation, and is a very considerate offering in a public restroom.

Moving to the left, take note of the large round button with the musical note on it. You might be tempted to think that pressing this button will cause the toilet to play music, but it does not. The text above it reads "FLUSHING SOUND". I pressed the button, and sure enough, the toilet produced a very realistic flushing sound, though it was not actually flushing. Right below it are a couple of buttons to control the volume of the flushing sound. These three little "flushing sound" buttons are PURE GENIUS. Oh what I would give to rest easy in public restrooms, knowing that the option of producing a flushing sound loud enough to cover up any other, uh, undesirable, sounds is available for use at any time without offending mother nature by flushing with actual water when no water is needed. Also of note, the flushing sound continues until the user presses the "STOP" button on the far left of the armrest. This degree of control over the duration of the flushing sound allows the user to relax, and take his or her time knowing that the flushing sound will not go away until the user is good and ready for it to go away. How very considerate of both mother nature and the average public-toilet-user!

Next in the line up are two round buttons, one labeled "BIDET" and the other labeled "SPRAY". Honestly, I'm not sure what the difference is between the two buttons. With a spirit of adventure, I tried them both. I kind of cringed, unsure of what was coming as I have very little experience with bidets, and was pleasantly surprised to note that with the use of either button, a warm, gentle (but still useful) spray was directed with surprising accuracy to the, uh, "action zone", providing gentle but thorough cleansing that was *far* superior to what can be accomplished with toilet paper alone. Also, the small buttons below the larger buttons allow the user to adjust the pressure of the spray. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

I feel compelled to explain that this particular toilet was found in an art museum, but it wasn't just a special art museum toilet. I saw similar toilets in the airport and train station. Not all of the toilets offered the "powerful deodorizer", and some of the toilets had a dial to adjust the pressure of the spray instead of buttons, but they were all surprisingly similar overall. In general I found them to be surprisingly reassuring. In addition to being a source of fun-times and adventure during our short stay in Tokyo, they were also all warm, comforting and considerate--a surprising find in a public bathroom.