Japanese Toilets

Japanese toilets can take a little getting used to. There are many kinds and many features. My apartment comes with a "western-style" toilet. These are very common in Japan, and most large public bathrooms will have a few. In most homes there is one room for toilets and another for sinks, baths, and showers. This, I think, is an ingenious design that prevents someone from having to wait forever to use the bathroom while someone is in the shower. Likewise, since shoes are left at the entrance of Japanese homes, oftentimes plastic bathroom slippers are provdied in the toilet. At Ryokans, traditional Japanese inns, and frequently at izakayas, Japanese restaurant/bars, slippers are also provided for the bathrooms.

The actual toilets themselves can take some getting used to. Many public bathrooms will also contain "Japanese-style" or "Asian-style" toilets. These look similar to urinals, but lay flat on the ground. One uses them by facing the wall, lowering ones pants to the knee and squating. They can be used for any bathroom need. Many foreigners struggle with them at first, and even some of my Japanese friends prefer to avoid them. Some people even remove there pants entirely rather than risk having an accident.

Perhaps even more exciting than differnt styles of toilets, Japanese toilets often have four or five buttons. After four months in Japan, I am still ignorant of all their functions. One button, labeled with a music note, creates a flushing sound when pushed to cover any embarrassing bathroom noises, which for many Japanese women, is any bathroom noise. The others mostly relate to the integrated bidet, which both sprays clean water and blow dries, right from the toilet. Travelers beware, the shock of pressing a strange button and suddenly feeling a jet of water can lead to jumping and soaked pants. My favorite feature of Japanese toilets is especially useful in the coldest nights in winter. Modern toilets mostly come with a heated seat now. In Japan, even toilets are high-tech.