October 25, 2004
Everything you ever wanted to know about japanese style toilets but were afraid to ask.
This is an actual quote from my chatting today:
(Dad) (10:36:35 PM): we're going to the jello hall of fame today
Makes one kinda miss home, huh? ;) My family is so strange. I hadn't known that Jell-o was invented so close to my hometown. Wheeee. That means for local interest, we have Fredrick Douglas, Jack London, Susan B. Anthony and Jell-o. W00+.
This week has been rather uneventful... Well, not really. Apparently there were some huge earthquakes in Tokyo last night. Three within about 15 minutes? And they were very very big - Tokyo shook for a minute, I heard. I guess you could feel it minutely in Nagoya, but I was on the subway at the time it would have happened.
Yesterday I went to Otsukaya, a really well-known fabric store near Kurumamichi Station. I was very proud of myself for finding it. I went to go get a small piece of craft fur... and they had the most amazing selection of craft fabrics I've ever seen. They had every color I could want, in many textures. I did stick to what I'd planned to purchase, though I had fun browsing the selection.
Oh, I thought I'd include a picture of a pit toilet. This is the one at Sakae Nova. It's funny - there's a stall with a pit toilet right next to a stall with a western toilet. Hnn, which should I pick? Tough choice.
I have yet to use a pit toilet. I avoid them like the plague, though they are in all the trainstations. I just see them and can't help but shudder and go "Guuuuh." Basically, what you go is face the wall, drop trow, squat, and do your duty. If you want more detail, I recommend this or link.
When I went to Chikusa for Kids Training last week, they had a super modern fancy toilet. It had a built in bidet and a "Sound Princess." It was really sort of impressive, for a toilet. GAH! TRAUMA! When I was looking up a picture of a fancy-style japanese toilet, I found some stuff on the one in our apartment. The one that makes my skin crawl. It has a spigot on top that we've long pondered over..... and it's for washing your hands! My western mind can't... handle that. Ewww! Anyway. This is the section about the high-tech toilet. Scroll down to read about the Sound Princess.
Now don't you feel enriched?
Posted by Aimee at October 25, 2004 01:06 AMMaybe it's my very early childhood in the Philippines that makes me think that the weirdest thing about the "pit toilet" is that it's not more.... "pit-ier." Not that I distinctly remember going in a pit, because I'm pretty sure I was still in diapers when we moved. But.... the fact that my mom's childhood home didn't have indoor plumbing (well, it got plumbing in the late 70's, I think) makes it seem not so odd. Because in spite of the fact that it's very low down there, it just seems so sanitary. Although, now, if I were to try to use one, I'd probably fall in, or something. ^^;;;
Posted by: Kathy at October 25, 2004 03:20 AMdaughter,
i never realized you had such an obsession with toilets. i don't believe that's anything from MY side of the family. ;o))
re: the jello hall of fame...if you haven't seen it, don't knock it! i learned many important facts today. for example, i learned that you have coffee jello in japan although it didn't go over in the us. and, that rochester is 7th in national consumption of jello. did you know that strawberry is the #1 favorite flavor?
makes you wonder how you got through the day without such information, huh?
So... you crouch whether you're going 1 OR 2? *ponders* Wow.
Wow.
That hand washing thing--I guess it wouldn't seem TOO baaaaaaaad, if only... welll... I dunno. I have splash phobia... I close toilets before I flush them, I don't want anything coming back UP. Oh wait, that's in the top of the back part right? Okay then the only flaw in that to me is that I want to wash my hands and not touch anything related to the toilet afterwards... so as long as it was some sort of sensor and I could wash and RUN... I'd be okay.
Too much toilet pondering and you're wondering where I came from anyway right? Hehe, I've been reading since the beginning of this blog, fascinating stuff! Thank you for sharing all of this, I'm going to ravenously take it all in to vicariously live in Japan.
Posted by: angrybutter at October 25, 2004 06:47 PMHmm, that pit toilet...at least it flushes! I remember the "toilets" in the college that my uncle taught at in the Philippines...I had to go really bad and went to the "comfort room" (as they call it) and was horrified at what they called a toilet there. Each stall had wooden seats...well, a hole in the wooden board and inside, there was running water that contiously ran down this built-in gutter to a the side of each of the stalls to carry, er,...you know what away. Needless to say, I decided to wait until I got back to my uncle's place.
At least the pit toilet looks clean in the subway, right?
Posted by: nikita at October 26, 2004 03:38 AMOh my...that pit toilet looks pretty welcome compared to some I've seen in China (some were not flushable and others were communal types with 2.5 feet tall dividers between each stall *eeeek!*). ^^; And being the phobic foreigner, I always roll up my pants' legs before going in. :P
Have you come across the toilets with padded, self-warming seats yet? :D
Posted by: miva at October 26, 2004 03:54 AMaimee--i never knew there was so much to know about toilets -- my vote goes for the 'western' one! is halloween celebrated in japan or just a local thing here in america?? glad you got 'some' of your treats!!
Posted by: judy at October 26, 2004 11:37 PMHeh,
I'm surprised by how many of you commented on the toilets. ;) Heh, and thanks for the toilet perspective, I know it could be much worse. That said, I'm still going to really avoid the pit toilets... public restrooms in general!
We all have a little button somewhere in our brains that is labelled "Neurotic." The pit toilets and the spigot on top of our toilet just push that button for me. ;)
Posted by: aimee at October 27, 2004 01:55 AMThe toilet info and pictures were very facinating. I don't think I myself would ever dare to try one out either. No thanks. Also I never knew about the jello hall of fame in Rochester, where abouts?? I hope your doing good and I will continue to check back periodically.
We miss your help around the office, keep in touch!