The Many Wonders of Japanese Toilets

Japanese toilets have a reputation for being very advanced and equipped with extra features. So, when our plane landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport, I was eager to find a lavatory for numerous reasons. Outside each entrance to the men's and women's toilets, a handy map was displayed on the wall.

How do I get out of here? Oh, thank goodness there's a map.

I'm sure this comes in handy if you become so totally lost in the bathroom that you can't find your way from the loo to the sinks. Or perhaps it's so you know you're waiting in line for 5 Western toilets and 2 squat potties.

On the outside of each stall, there are icons showing you what's inside. Door #1: Squat potty. Door #2 Western potty. I bet you can guess which one I was waiting for. But wait! What are all those other icons? I chose the one with the most signs.

Top to bottom: Western toilet, baby rest, washlet

Moms of babies and toddlers will surely appreciate the baby rest. I've seen a few in the USA, but these seem to be better constructed. Plus, it frees up your hands to play with all the washlet functions.

My girl was bummed that she was too old to try this out.

Ahhh, the washlet. The highlight of the Japanese toilet experience. For some reason, I actually looked into installing one in my Texas bathroom. It was over US$1000!!! That's just for the fancy seat, not the toilet itself. Needless to say, I decided against it.

Who needs to read on the throne when you can play with all this?

The controls are within easy reach just to the right of the seat. Information overload. What do all those icons mean? Never fear. "How to Use" instructions for "Equipment to cleansing the buttocks with warm water" are posted on the wall.

I can attest that the pink button, 3rd from the left, does not raise you up into the air on a geyser of water as the picture suggests. The musical note button, furthest to the right, plays a recorded flushing noise. Supposedly, Japanese women would be so embarrassed by the noise of any bodily function that they would continuously flush the toilet to cover up the sound. Now, they can just play a recording without wasting water. The washlet is 100X tidier than the flexible hose of Malaysian public toilets.

The toilet at our hotel was even fancier. It actually kind of surprised me when I opened the door, and the lid opened all by itself. I was going to post a video, but I'm guessing you can probably imagine it. There were complicated controls mounted on the wall. At first, I didn't try them out because it was all in Japanese. When you're dealing with that area of the body, you should exercise a little caution. Luckily, our other room had English translations on it.

Controlling the most magical toilet in the world

Its many features included:

• Unisex soft spray or regular "almost an enema" spray for cleansing of the backside
• Bidet cleansing for the ladies
• Oscillating water action
• Water massage (pulsating action)
• Water pressure control
• Adjustable nozzle position
• Power deodorizer
• Seat warmer (plus a warning not to accidentally burn yourself)
• Gentle air drying
• Dual action flushing
• Button for raising/lowering the lid
• Button for raising the seat
• Automatic flushing
• STOP

My kids tell me that if you don't sit on it just right, you can shoot water across the room.

Given how hi-tech their toilets are, I was glad to see that at least I understood the basic usage of the Western toilet. Those who are accustomed to squat toilets (also available in many Japanese public restrooms), may have had a harder time with the rudimentary details, so signs were posted for those as well.

What to do? Oh, I see. Lower one part and sit on it.

This one's my favorite. It's from the Mount Fuji First Station lavatory that featured foam flushing instead of water flushing.

Does the person in the top right have
any chance of successfully hitting the target?

Malaysian Public Toilets

There's a good chance that one of the first things you'll experience in Malaysia is using the public toilet. You could ask someone "Tandas di mana?" or just look around until you see the universal male/female signs for the bathroom. (On a side note, I once almost entered a room clearly labeled "Perempuan" which means "Woman" to use the toilet before realizing it was the gender-segregated Muslim prayer room.)  When you walk into a stall, you may see this.

It's a squat toilet!

If you're not in the mood to try out a squat toilet, 99.9% of the time there's at least one stall with a Western-style sitting toilet. Just wait until one is available, and indicate to others in line that they are welcome to use the stall with the squat toilet. You may notice that the stall doors go all the way down to the floor. I guess that if people are squatting, they don't want people peeking under just to check if the stall is empty.

The only time that a squat toilet was my only option was in a more rural town than Penang. That experience had me going home and Googling "How to use a squat toilet." Believe me, for a lady, it's not as intuitive as it sounds.

Some people accustomed to squatting have the opposite culture shock problem when faced with a sitting toilet. Upon occasion, you'll notice footprints on the sitting toilet's seat. I guess that's the reason some places post this sign.

Please don't squat on the sitting toilet.

It's interesting that the Western versus Asian toilet styles diverged long before the onset of modern sanitation.  When we were visiting a mock-Edo period village in Japan last week, I noticed that their pretend outhouse literally had just a hole in the wooden floor that was best used while squatting. Compare this to a Texan outhouse.

This outhouse had bench seating for two people.

All toilets whether they're for squatting or sitting usually have a flexible hose next to it. The nice places also have a sprayer attachment on the hose's end. The less fancy places skip the hose and sprayer entirely and just have a bucket of water with a ladle.

Hose off to stay fresh.

Many locals, especially the Muslims, feel that you need to rinse with water down there in order to really clean everything off. Typically the floor and seat are both wet from the spraying down process. Sometimes the walls are wet, too. If you have a hang up about splashed-on potties and floors, get over it before you visit Malaysia! I am sooooo glad that my kids are no longer toddlers because I suspect that they would have hit me with a jet of water or dabbled their hands in the water bucket. When a public restroom doesn't have a hose or bucket, I've seen locals fill up a water bottle at the sink and then bring it in with them for a little squirt cleansing. If everything else gets this wet, I don't understand how they keep from soaking their clothes with water, too.

All that water spraying around is the reason why you rarely find toilet paper in the stalls. Look for it by the sinks or next to the entrance/exit before finding a stall. Many times, it doubles as the way to dry off after hand-washing, too. I carry around tissue paper with me for all the times that the toilet paper is completely absent from the facility.

At hubby's work, numerous companies shared a public bathroom. For a while, toilet paper was never stocked in the bathroom because no one wanted to donate it for another company's use. Instead, hubby's company kept their stash next to the door closest to the bathroom hallway. Employees were supposed to grab what they needed for that one trip on their way out the door. I hear that this especially galled the males since it announced to the world if they were intending to do #1 or #2. Not cool. Due to employee feedback, the revolutionary decision was made to start keeping toilet paper in the bathroom itself. Now all they need to do is invent quick-drying stalls.