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Wade in the Water...Japanese style
Trying to keep up my posting momentum here. Seeing that today I had a plumber tracking down and fixing a leak in one of our bathroom pipes, I thought I'd go with the day's theme.
If it's one thing the Japanese excel at, it's creating innovative consumer products. For example, here's the toilet and shower area of our small hotel room in Tokyo:
Toyoko Inn bathroom
I'm standing in the doorway, so you're seeing the entire thing. Every one of our bathrooms was basically a complete plastic module that was just popped into the room, simple to replace when it wears out. Believe me, I wish I had one of these babies today after the plumber cut holes all over my nicely wallpapered walls looking for the leak. See how the shower head is part of the sink faucet (a bit of hose is to the right of the basin)? Water switches between the two with a diverter knob. Clever.
Check out the toilet, a thing of beauty and a joy forever. For one thing, that seat is gently warmed at all times. No more cold asses for me, no sirree! Also, when one sits down, the water starts running (in other places, there was a recorded sound of running water) because Japanese women find the sounds of peeing too embarrassing to endure. Finally, there's a built-in bidet that can be aimed at different girl-parts and the pressure adjusted. Wow! I was impressed, but when I started finding these bad boys in public places like subway stations, all in proper working order, I was flabbergasted. Yay for creature comforts!
Asunaro Ryokan toilet
Here's another one from a Japanese-style hotel (a ryokan). This one's got a cool faucet on top of the tank, so after you flush, you can rinse your hands from the clean water filling the tank through a small drain in its little basin. And check out the vinyl slippers, properly labeled "W.C.". You are meant to take off your indoor slippers and put these on for use only in the toilet. Seeing that the entire floor is about 12" x 12", there really wasn't a whole lot of walking room. It's a faux pas to walk out of the toilet with these on, BTW.
What is utterly mysterious in light of this luxury is that what is called a "Japanese toilet" is also widely available – public toilets will have about a 50-50 split between Western and Japanese stalls (happily labeled in English). There were times I had to opt for them and the difference is dramatic (and not in a good way). It made me glad I do lunges in exercise class because there's nothing to hang on to; you just do kind of a balancing squat and hope you don't pee on your shoes or worse. And since everyone's aim is not all that accurate, the smell becomes worse as the day progresses. Why are these things still in existence given the alternative?
Japanese toilet
The public baths and onsens (hot springs) make up for the Japanese toilet, though. All of our ryokans had them, some with more pools and tubs than others. They're gender-separate. You undress in a locker room and leave your stuff in a basket, then sit on one of these little plastic chairs and scrub yourself completely by filling the buckets and using hand-held spray heads. I was the only one in this bath so I could take a few pictures. I steamed up the place pretty well, huh?
Chaya Ryokan public bath
Here's the hot tub. Mmmmm, great way to relax after walking a million miles. Strangely, the night before, this was the men's side, which confused the hell out of me at first. These doors were labeled only with different colored banners (and Japanese text), and at first I thought I'd gone in the wrong one because it clearly had a different lay-out than the day before.
Chaya Ryokan public bath
If it's one thing the Japanese excel at, it's creating innovative consumer products. For example, here's the toilet and shower area of our small hotel room in Tokyo:
Toyoko Inn bathroom
I'm standing in the doorway, so you're seeing the entire thing. Every one of our bathrooms was basically a complete plastic module that was just popped into the room, simple to replace when it wears out. Believe me, I wish I had one of these babies today after the plumber cut holes all over my nicely wallpapered walls looking for the leak. See how the shower head is part of the sink faucet (a bit of hose is to the right of the basin)? Water switches between the two with a diverter knob. Clever.
Check out the toilet, a thing of beauty and a joy forever. For one thing, that seat is gently warmed at all times. No more cold asses for me, no sirree! Also, when one sits down, the water starts running (in other places, there was a recorded sound of running water) because Japanese women find the sounds of peeing too embarrassing to endure. Finally, there's a built-in bidet that can be aimed at different girl-parts and the pressure adjusted. Wow! I was impressed, but when I started finding these bad boys in public places like subway stations, all in proper working order, I was flabbergasted. Yay for creature comforts!
Asunaro Ryokan toilet
Here's another one from a Japanese-style hotel (a ryokan). This one's got a cool faucet on top of the tank, so after you flush, you can rinse your hands from the clean water filling the tank through a small drain in its little basin. And check out the vinyl slippers, properly labeled "W.C.". You are meant to take off your indoor slippers and put these on for use only in the toilet. Seeing that the entire floor is about 12" x 12", there really wasn't a whole lot of walking room. It's a faux pas to walk out of the toilet with these on, BTW.
What is utterly mysterious in light of this luxury is that what is called a "Japanese toilet" is also widely available – public toilets will have about a 50-50 split between Western and Japanese stalls (happily labeled in English). There were times I had to opt for them and the difference is dramatic (and not in a good way). It made me glad I do lunges in exercise class because there's nothing to hang on to; you just do kind of a balancing squat and hope you don't pee on your shoes or worse. And since everyone's aim is not all that accurate, the smell becomes worse as the day progresses. Why are these things still in existence given the alternative?
Japanese toilet
The public baths and onsens (hot springs) make up for the Japanese toilet, though. All of our ryokans had them, some with more pools and tubs than others. They're gender-separate. You undress in a locker room and leave your stuff in a basket, then sit on one of these little plastic chairs and scrub yourself completely by filling the buckets and using hand-held spray heads. I was the only one in this bath so I could take a few pictures. I steamed up the place pretty well, huh?
Chaya Ryokan public bath
Here's the hot tub. Mmmmm, great way to relax after walking a million miles. Strangely, the night before, this was the men's side, which confused the hell out of me at first. These doors were labeled only with different colored banners (and Japanese text), and at first I thought I'd gone in the wrong one because it clearly had a different lay-out than the day before.
Chaya Ryokan public bath