Sunday, September 02, 2007

Please Enjoy Japanese Public Toilet

The meaning of the word "enjoy" gets stretched a bit by tour guides. "Thanks to hydroelectric power, we enjoy electricity in our homes." "Please enjoy this promotional video." However, the architecture of some of the public restrooms is surprisingly enjoyable.

Here's one in Tokyo shaped like a fountain:

I think I may have posted it earlier, but it's the one that got us looking at others, and started a running joke of "collecting" them. Also in Tokyo:


In the mountains, somewhere around Nikko:

and Kegon Waterfall:


In Takayama:


Finally, this one's only semi-public. It's actually an outhouse attached to the farmhouse I wrote about earlier:


Except for the outhouse, which has a plank and a hole, inside a public toilet you'll find a commode that's either the more familiar western-style sit-upon variety or the Japanese style which is set in the ground and you squat over it. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the commode itself.

Soap for hand washing is fairly rare as are hand drying facilities which, when present, are inevitably electric hand driers rather than paper towels. (They have a high pressure hand drier here which is considerably more effective than the "press button, wipe hands under warm air" variety common in the U.S.)

No comments: