Japanese Toilet Technology
By the time we left China, I had soured on international travel so
much that I had privately promised myself that I wouldn't leave the US
again for a long, long time. Though I had been looking forward very
much to seeing Japan a few weeks ago, by this time it seemed like a
chore. I was exhausted, dirty, injured (by the squatty shower), and
spotted, and I wanted to go home.
Before I get to Japan, let me first state that in the entire four
weeks combined that I have spent in China, I have never once used a
squatty potty there. There are many reasons for this, including the
following:
1. If I wanted to have to squat every time I used the bathroom, I'd
rather use the woods - it's cleaner.
2. The squatty potties in China are filthy. The one time I ventured
into a Chinese traditional bathroom with the intentions of using it,
the smell was so bad that I could almost taste it. And this was at a
university.
3. There is generally no toilet paper. Students have to carry their
own, due to a scarcity of paper in China. Mao apparently chopped down
lots of trees (?)
4. When I said there was no toilet paper in the bathrooms, I meant
there was no CLEAN toilet paper. There's plenty of used toilet paper,
because Chinese plumbing is weak, and instead of flushing the paper,
you put it in a small wastbasket next to the "toilet". Hence, the
smell.
Anyway, you get the idea. I mention all this because when I got to
Japan, I was so dazzled by the cleanliness around me that I
immediately did the previously unthinkable: I used a squatty potty for
the very first time.
Japan has an odd mixture of squatty potties and western toilets, but
they all have one thing in common: they are clean. Now, perhaps it is
unfair to compare the plumbing of a developing country with a fully
developed one, but the comparisons were inevitable, given our
travelling schedule and the stark contrasts between the two countries.
Where Japan has western toilets, they are stunningly evolved wonders
of technology that leave US toilets far, far behind.
I'll get to this in a minute, though. We arrived in Japan, noted that
it was clean, were met at the airport by our host (a former TESOL OSU
student who is now teaching at Gunma Prefectory Women's University in
Takasaki), guided through a series of clean trains full of thin, fit,
orderly, quiet, polite, fashion-conscious people, and treated to
dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant. Not only was the food
delicious, but we had ICE WATER with the meal. This was an incredible
relief after being in a country with unpotable water for two weeks.
We tried to shop for clothes, briefly, since the stay in China had
left us with little clean laundry. The stores were full of
interesting clothing, but most only carried up to size "medium", which
is more like a US small.
We proceeded next to our hotel, where we were checked in efficiently
by clerks who spoke English and bowed politely and welcomingly to each
of us individually. The onsen-style baths, we were told, were closed
to us at present, since it was the "men's turn", so we were given sort
of rose tea bags to put in our own baths. (Onsen-style baths, by the
way, are naked public baths. In Takasaki, these were natural hot
springs, and they were segregated by sex. Since our hotel was a
business hotel, and supposedly most of its clientelle were male, the
baths were only open to women on certain hours on the weekends. This
I found unbelievably sexist, and they would never get away with doing
this in the states - although it is possibly something like giving men
the prime tee times at golf clubs - but we were somewhat relieved not
to have the option at the time. If the naked baths had been available
for our use, we would have naturally had to use them, and there may
have been subsequent awkwardness) We went happily up to our hotel
rooms (about which our hosts had only said that they were perhaps a
bit too small), and were delighted to find them sparkling clean.
Upon further investigation, we noticed that the bathtub was about
three or four times as deep as a traditional US bathtub, and the
toilet had an alarming number of buttons on it. I wish I could
reproduce the full set of instructions here (thoughtfully posted in
English on the wall), but let me summarize the features of the
STANDARD Japanese toilet. It has a HEATED seat, "front" and "back"
washes, which can be adjusted to different pressures, and options for
flushing at different water pressures (depending, of course, on how
much you need - this increases water efficiency without sacrificing
flushing power when you need it). Other public toilets I saw while in
Japan (and the western toilets, without exception, always had heated
seats) included a sink on the top of the toilet (so you could wash
your hands in the water that has to go into the toilet in order flush
it, rather than having it go to waste) and an odd button on the wall.
I had heard rumors prior to visiting Japan that Japanese toilets
included a "flush button" which gave you the sound of flushing without
the actual flush, to camouflage other noises that you might be making
in the bathroom. This button was apparently developed in the interest
of saving water - apparently people were flushing the toilets
repeatedly for the noise rather than for the flush, and this way you
get the desired effect without wasting the water. Anyway, having
heard this, I was eager to find one of these buttons, and I thought I
saw my chance at the women's university just prior to our presentation
on the use of simulations for language proficiency development. I
pressed the button, and nothing seemed to happen, so I pressed it
again. Twice. Nothing. I exited the stall and stood at the sink,
observing a rush of excited people into the bathroom (odd, since the
Japanese are generally orderly in their entrances and exits) and
gradually becoming aware of a high-pitched beeping noise that seemed
to grow in volume. I suspected at that point that it may have had
something to do with the button I had pushed, and realized that as the
only foreigner standing around in the bathroom, I probably looked
guilty. I exited the bathroom and resolved to bring up the matter at
dinner.
We had dinner at a Japanese Italian restaurant, which sounds
frightening, but it was really quite good. They make a nice,
thin-crust, almost gourmet pizza, and the pasta looked good, too.
Plus, with a nice tall glass of ice water at meals, how can you go
wrong? The faculty at the university in the foreign studies
department was taking us out on our last evening in Japan, and they
were a pleasure to talk to - all fluent English speaker, all had
studied abroad, and all the permanent staff had their PhDs.
Furthermore, I thought they could clarify some points of interest for
us - namely, the nature of the button in the bathroom.
I eased into the conversation by asking them what their most shocking
moments in the US had been. One of them, who had lived in LA,
recalled being surprised by the segregated neighborhoods of the large
cities - not what he had expected from a "melting pot". Another
recalled an incident in an NYC bathroom where a complete stranger had
reached under his stall for some toilet paper. This was particularly
alarming to him because in Japan, the stall walls and doors are very
tall with little space between the doors and the floor. Thus, in the
US, there is less privacy - and no bidets or heated toilet seats,
either. We can compare this observation with Chinese foreign exchange
students, who were most shocked by the finding that in the US, toilets
don't have to smell bad. They had previously taken the smell of
Chinese toilets for granted.
As we were exchanging toilet stories (during which I found out, among
other things, that the flush buttons do indeed exist, although they
are more common in women's restrooms, and that some toilets have
musical toilet paper dispensers - odd, when you consider the obsession
with toilet privacy), I brought up the subject of the button. It
appears that many public toilets have emergency buttons in them, like
the one I had pushed. Why the Japanese see fit to put emergency
buttons in their bathrooms, I have no idea. Elevators, yes. Toilets,
generally, no. What American would ever think to put an emergency
button in a public toilet?
That's the beauty of Japan. All your basic needs are provided for,
plus some that you didn't even know you had (upon arrival at the
Minneapolis airport later, I was shocked when I sat on an unheated
toilet seat - it had only taken me 2 and a half days to get used to
the heated ones). What's more, the customer service is unparallelled.
At some department stores, there is one person whose job it is to bow
and welcome every single customer who walks in. Compare this useless
job to the following useless Chinese job - there are people whom you
can pay to hold your place in line for visa applications, as waiting
in this line is always at least an overnight undertaking. It is
mind-blowing that there are people out there who make a living from
standing in line. Standing in line so that other people can get out
of China.
All the efficiency in Japan has its dark side, too, of course.
Shortly before we arrived, there was an incident where a train was one
minute late in departing from the station, and the driver killed
himself and eighty passengers while speeding to make up the time. One
minute late. ONE MINUTE. However, you have to admire his attitude.
From my brief visit, I have to conclude that the Japanese are a clean,
efficient, organized, hospitable people, well ahead of us Americans in
all four of these areas, and I'd like to go back and visit at length.
I do not plan to go back to China.**
**Note: the author was cranky when she wrote this particular post, and since she enjoyed herself enough the first time she was in China to go back again a second time, it is a safe bet that she may go back for thirds in the future. Also, for everyone who's been complaining that I went to China and wrote only about the toilets, please see my other 8 or 9 posts on the country in this blog. And, for the record, I recommend going to China precisely because it is so different from anything we have experienced in the US. Finally, I do not wish the description of the toilets to in any way be an inspiration for people to start throwing around racist terms for a people who have a long history of beautiful art and a truly fascinating culture.
much that I had privately promised myself that I wouldn't leave the US
again for a long, long time. Though I had been looking forward very
much to seeing Japan a few weeks ago, by this time it seemed like a
chore. I was exhausted, dirty, injured (by the squatty shower), and
spotted, and I wanted to go home.
Before I get to Japan, let me first state that in the entire four
weeks combined that I have spent in China, I have never once used a
squatty potty there. There are many reasons for this, including the
following:
1. If I wanted to have to squat every time I used the bathroom, I'd
rather use the woods - it's cleaner.
2. The squatty potties in China are filthy. The one time I ventured
into a Chinese traditional bathroom with the intentions of using it,
the smell was so bad that I could almost taste it. And this was at a
university.
3. There is generally no toilet paper. Students have to carry their
own, due to a scarcity of paper in China. Mao apparently chopped down
lots of trees (?)
4. When I said there was no toilet paper in the bathrooms, I meant
there was no CLEAN toilet paper. There's plenty of used toilet paper,
because Chinese plumbing is weak, and instead of flushing the paper,
you put it in a small wastbasket next to the "toilet". Hence, the
smell.
Anyway, you get the idea. I mention all this because when I got to
Japan, I was so dazzled by the cleanliness around me that I
immediately did the previously unthinkable: I used a squatty potty for
the very first time.
Japan has an odd mixture of squatty potties and western toilets, but
they all have one thing in common: they are clean. Now, perhaps it is
unfair to compare the plumbing of a developing country with a fully
developed one, but the comparisons were inevitable, given our
travelling schedule and the stark contrasts between the two countries.
Where Japan has western toilets, they are stunningly evolved wonders
of technology that leave US toilets far, far behind.
I'll get to this in a minute, though. We arrived in Japan, noted that
it was clean, were met at the airport by our host (a former TESOL OSU
student who is now teaching at Gunma Prefectory Women's University in
Takasaki), guided through a series of clean trains full of thin, fit,
orderly, quiet, polite, fashion-conscious people, and treated to
dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant. Not only was the food
delicious, but we had ICE WATER with the meal. This was an incredible
relief after being in a country with unpotable water for two weeks.
We tried to shop for clothes, briefly, since the stay in China had
left us with little clean laundry. The stores were full of
interesting clothing, but most only carried up to size "medium", which
is more like a US small.
We proceeded next to our hotel, where we were checked in efficiently
by clerks who spoke English and bowed politely and welcomingly to each
of us individually. The onsen-style baths, we were told, were closed
to us at present, since it was the "men's turn", so we were given sort
of rose tea bags to put in our own baths. (Onsen-style baths, by the
way, are naked public baths. In Takasaki, these were natural hot
springs, and they were segregated by sex. Since our hotel was a
business hotel, and supposedly most of its clientelle were male, the
baths were only open to women on certain hours on the weekends. This
I found unbelievably sexist, and they would never get away with doing
this in the states - although it is possibly something like giving men
the prime tee times at golf clubs - but we were somewhat relieved not
to have the option at the time. If the naked baths had been available
for our use, we would have naturally had to use them, and there may
have been subsequent awkwardness) We went happily up to our hotel
rooms (about which our hosts had only said that they were perhaps a
bit too small), and were delighted to find them sparkling clean.
Upon further investigation, we noticed that the bathtub was about
three or four times as deep as a traditional US bathtub, and the
toilet had an alarming number of buttons on it. I wish I could
reproduce the full set of instructions here (thoughtfully posted in
English on the wall), but let me summarize the features of the
STANDARD Japanese toilet. It has a HEATED seat, "front" and "back"
washes, which can be adjusted to different pressures, and options for
flushing at different water pressures (depending, of course, on how
much you need - this increases water efficiency without sacrificing
flushing power when you need it). Other public toilets I saw while in
Japan (and the western toilets, without exception, always had heated
seats) included a sink on the top of the toilet (so you could wash
your hands in the water that has to go into the toilet in order flush
it, rather than having it go to waste) and an odd button on the wall.
I had heard rumors prior to visiting Japan that Japanese toilets
included a "flush button" which gave you the sound of flushing without
the actual flush, to camouflage other noises that you might be making
in the bathroom. This button was apparently developed in the interest
of saving water - apparently people were flushing the toilets
repeatedly for the noise rather than for the flush, and this way you
get the desired effect without wasting the water. Anyway, having
heard this, I was eager to find one of these buttons, and I thought I
saw my chance at the women's university just prior to our presentation
on the use of simulations for language proficiency development. I
pressed the button, and nothing seemed to happen, so I pressed it
again. Twice. Nothing. I exited the stall and stood at the sink,
observing a rush of excited people into the bathroom (odd, since the
Japanese are generally orderly in their entrances and exits) and
gradually becoming aware of a high-pitched beeping noise that seemed
to grow in volume. I suspected at that point that it may have had
something to do with the button I had pushed, and realized that as the
only foreigner standing around in the bathroom, I probably looked
guilty. I exited the bathroom and resolved to bring up the matter at
dinner.
We had dinner at a Japanese Italian restaurant, which sounds
frightening, but it was really quite good. They make a nice,
thin-crust, almost gourmet pizza, and the pasta looked good, too.
Plus, with a nice tall glass of ice water at meals, how can you go
wrong? The faculty at the university in the foreign studies
department was taking us out on our last evening in Japan, and they
were a pleasure to talk to - all fluent English speaker, all had
studied abroad, and all the permanent staff had their PhDs.
Furthermore, I thought they could clarify some points of interest for
us - namely, the nature of the button in the bathroom.
I eased into the conversation by asking them what their most shocking
moments in the US had been. One of them, who had lived in LA,
recalled being surprised by the segregated neighborhoods of the large
cities - not what he had expected from a "melting pot". Another
recalled an incident in an NYC bathroom where a complete stranger had
reached under his stall for some toilet paper. This was particularly
alarming to him because in Japan, the stall walls and doors are very
tall with little space between the doors and the floor. Thus, in the
US, there is less privacy - and no bidets or heated toilet seats,
either. We can compare this observation with Chinese foreign exchange
students, who were most shocked by the finding that in the US, toilets
don't have to smell bad. They had previously taken the smell of
Chinese toilets for granted.
As we were exchanging toilet stories (during which I found out, among
other things, that the flush buttons do indeed exist, although they
are more common in women's restrooms, and that some toilets have
musical toilet paper dispensers - odd, when you consider the obsession
with toilet privacy), I brought up the subject of the button. It
appears that many public toilets have emergency buttons in them, like
the one I had pushed. Why the Japanese see fit to put emergency
buttons in their bathrooms, I have no idea. Elevators, yes. Toilets,
generally, no. What American would ever think to put an emergency
button in a public toilet?
That's the beauty of Japan. All your basic needs are provided for,
plus some that you didn't even know you had (upon arrival at the
Minneapolis airport later, I was shocked when I sat on an unheated
toilet seat - it had only taken me 2 and a half days to get used to
the heated ones). What's more, the customer service is unparallelled.
At some department stores, there is one person whose job it is to bow
and welcome every single customer who walks in. Compare this useless
job to the following useless Chinese job - there are people whom you
can pay to hold your place in line for visa applications, as waiting
in this line is always at least an overnight undertaking. It is
mind-blowing that there are people out there who make a living from
standing in line. Standing in line so that other people can get out
of China.
All the efficiency in Japan has its dark side, too, of course.
Shortly before we arrived, there was an incident where a train was one
minute late in departing from the station, and the driver killed
himself and eighty passengers while speeding to make up the time. One
minute late. ONE MINUTE. However, you have to admire his attitude.
From my brief visit, I have to conclude that the Japanese are a clean,
efficient, organized, hospitable people, well ahead of us Americans in
all four of these areas, and I'd like to go back and visit at length.
I do not plan to go back to China.**
**Note: the author was cranky when she wrote this particular post, and since she enjoyed herself enough the first time she was in China to go back again a second time, it is a safe bet that she may go back for thirds in the future. Also, for everyone who's been complaining that I went to China and wrote only about the toilets, please see my other 8 or 9 posts on the country in this blog. And, for the record, I recommend going to China precisely because it is so different from anything we have experienced in the US. Finally, I do not wish the description of the toilets to in any way be an inspiration for people to start throwing around racist terms for a people who have a long history of beautiful art and a truly fascinating culture.
posted by jessica rabbit at 6:46 AM
20 Comments:
Actually, I spent three months in China. It was different, but I think the peope were wonderful. Yes, the toilets were mostly terrible & some of the quisine made you have to visit them more often then not, but all in all, I would go back.
i have plans of going to China this summer, but because of your posts i am having second thoughts. i find your insights very helpful. now i just hope i can return these airline tickets.
USA!!! USA!!! I would hate to go to other countries, I want everything to be like it is at applebees. How much longer do we have to wait until our culture takes over the world? It wont happen soon enough.
It gets worse than the squatty potties. I was travelling in rural china and stopped at a local restaurant. After eating i went to use the facilities only to find that you pissed into an open stream. Usually i wouldn't mind, but i quickly realized the stream ran directly into the fish pond the restaurant used and i had fish for lunch.
I took a trip to china for my spring break one year and i have to say that i never ran into a problem with the toilets. with a little effort and planning you can find accomidations in most larger cities that have western toilets. Most public places are not spotless, but that is no differnet then here in the states. And to be honest, the beauty of the countryside more than made up for any problems the bathrooms presented
I'm half korean, an army kid, lived in Korea from birth to age 5, then moved to Japan until age 12, then a year in virginia, then back to korea for a handful of years, then japan for a short while, now I'm back in VA.
During my time in korea and japan we visited china a lot. Never liked it either.
Japan is the best place to live, Korea is a very close second, then the U.S. is third, and right below that is China. I was dating a chinese guy a little while ago, and I razed him a lot on how much his country sucks.
kinda funny how everyone wants us to accept someone elses culture, then bashes ours. acceptance and diversity isn't the rule, its the exception. By the way, ask some of the Japanese are some of the most racist on earth. They laugh behind your back the way tourists do to them here.
For the one who ended his post with "Damn I hate yoo yanks":
Fuck man, I'll do you a favor and piss in that stream for you if you convince all your goofy looking relatives to leave my university. Hell, if you can't do that.. lets step it down.. teach them the concept of personal space. I can't being to tell you how many times I've been the only person on a bus, riding to class, only to have one of you (I mean ‘you’ in a derogatory way) odd little fuckers to come and sit down next to me instead of using one of the other 20 seats. I bet you might be able to convince your *insert correct racial slur* buds here to tone it the fuck down while they talk. It’s one thing for the short little fuckers to be walking on my heels as I go to class, but using a series of beeps and yelps to talk to their equally-as-short bud gets under my skin. Now if anyone acts like a decent American regardless of race, I’m perfectly fine with them.
The “money grabbing” comment.. what have you been reading? I consider most of my political views based on the exact opposite of that statement, id est.. I tend to be a libertarian
Also, “aint centred around shopping malls, fast food holes, paranoid news reprts of killer badgers and Oil”. Microsoft Word has the ability to spell check.. I am impressed that you knew “aint” but couldn’t spell ‘you’. That is just a poor attempt to look clever/funny. It just made it seem you’ve been talking to some hippies instead of reading up on world news.
Ah, don't cancel the plane tickets. All in all, it's worth going to China. It's one of the most interesting places I've ever been (even though not the most comfortable). Always memorable, NEVER dull, but a bit uncomfortable at times. In fact, even though I said I don't plan to go back, I probably will :-)
Question: if you're going to other countries, especially ones that you know are less "developed" by our standards, what exactly are you expecting? It seems to me that if you are traveling to other places around the world you would WANT to see different things, not some manufactured version of America. Otherwise, why spend exorbitant amounts of money you are privileged enough to have in traveling? I'm going to be in Beijing for a year beginning September and I'm thrilled and extremely grateful to be given a chance to learn about other peoples' lives and listen their stories. It is a shame that rather than taking this opportunity to better understand the world and appreciate your privilege, you chose to post a blog entirely about bathroom conditions. Indeed, what a depressing statement you have made for the future of America.
Please see my addendum to the bottom of the "Japanese Toilet Technology" post. This is not the only post I have on China - I have several others within this blog which are not entirely devoted to the, um, facilities. In a post with the word "toilet" in the title, however, it is to be expected that I will say a bit about toilets.
all smell is particulate, so if you can smell it you can taste it as well.
It disgusts me how racist some people can be. I understand that you may disagree with certain comments that are posted, but you don't need to resort to name calling. Of course that is just me being optimistic... When you piss people off it puts them on the defensive rather than actually getting a meaningful unbiased opinion. I'm a Canadian and although I've never been to Japan or China but been the States, I won't go into anything saying that I'm better; every country/culture has its pros and cons and you should remember that when posting. Don't overexaggerate.
Anyway, I think the blog was just a statement about how different things can be (halfway around the world) and how surprising that can be; I doubt it was meant to be an attack on a culture. It's not that one would want it to be like a mini America, it's just a culture-shock to see/experience something so different than what you're used to.
In any case this blog should be further motivation to visit some of these countries to expand what you know. If anything it should be taken as knowledge about what to expect but not an attempt to demean the culture and give you reason not to visit the country.
-Janet
Squat pots=really, really gross. I went to China last summer and I can't believe anyone would say the countryside is beautiful. Every few miles there may be a really awesome pagoda but it was hard to see through all the damn pollution. I really liked my time in China but bring Benadryl if you are going to be there long or you can have an allergic reaction to pollution. Western toilets are a rarity but I would say that most places in the city are relatively clean. Always carry toliet paper wherever you go. Go to China, buy cheap crap, laugh at engrish shirts, don't drink the water unless it is really hot and try to become a bit more cultured.
Japan has great bathrooms in general. When I was there in 1996, they had those automatic dispensing paper towels at McDonald's in Tokyo. It was amazing. Japan is the UK of Asia.
I think a lot of people post extremely racist comments here to provoke people. There is a "typical" American (or any other country for that matter) opinion but there are always differing ideas; stereotypes do not include everyone.
Wow, some of these comments do really fit with this blog, in that they belong in the toilet. I hope that maybe some of these people would just get over themelves and find that things are just different and exciting, not horrible. But then that's human variation for you. By the way, Turkish and Greek squatty potties are probably just as bad as the ones you experienced in China. The plumbing is just too old in certain parts of the world, but you get over it......eventually.
Why is everyone getting so bent out of shape over this. It was obviously not the intent of the author to be racist about anything. They simply had a funny story to tell about some 'awkward' situations abroad. In no way were they demeaning the people of the countries.
I dont know, I just think that sometimes people find things to fight about when they have nothing better to do.
Thanks, babe. That's in this blog, too, under "Japanese War Crimes in China". Obviously, since this has nothing to do with toilets, it wasn't included in this post.
To lighten up the mood and change the subject... GO BLUE! DOWN WITH OSU!
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