All About Japanese Toilets
For whaever reason, Japanese toilets seem to hold a special fascination for us gajin. Whether it's the convenience of toilet seats that wash and dry your butt for you while emitting negatively charged ions and playing music via a dedicated SD card slot, or the cultural challenge of using a traditional Japanese-style seatless toilet without falling in, Japan's porcelain altars never disappoint. Japanese toilets can even save you from the embarrassment of others hearing the various bodily sounds you make when you use them, thanks to a device known as an Oto-hime (a play on the name of a princess from a famous Chinese fairy tale with the characters rearranged to mean "Sound Princess"), which is an electronic box that makes chirping noises or white noise when a toilet is being used. I noticed that a smart iPhone developer has brought this concept into the 21st century, with OtoKun (iTunes store link), a .99 cent software application that makes these noises for you. I'm sure the person will sell a ton of copies here in Japan.
Japanese toilets are the most advanced in the world.
posted by Peter in Japan at 9:28 PM
6 Comments:
Japanese toilets can indeed be fascinating for outsiders like myself. I really like the fountains that allows you to wash your hands with the water that's being used to fill the flushing reservoir. Smart thinking!
The fancy toilets - for all the luxury they offer - do have a disadvantage: there's more stuff that can break. I once had an unfortunate encounter with a toilet with a heated seat, which could not be turned off because the knob was broken. Now, a heated seat is probably nice when it's mid-winter, but it was mid-summer and almost 30C outside...
6:39 AM
Ah, but you should check out incinerator and composting toilet systems.
6:42 AM
I totally want a high-end Washlet at some point. Hard to get code-compliant wiring near that much water, though. Hmm...
Also, *I* bought that Oto-kun iPhone app! What better conversation piece could you buy for 99 cents??
11:51 AM
Ah, heated toilet seat in the summer would be bad. I like the trend of toilets in hotels having the washlet, I think every one I've stayed in over the past few years here has had them.
Greg, yes, one of the issues is that American homes (or wherever you are located) don't have little plugs right by the toilet like they always do here.
4:05 PM
I've been in a couple of Japanese homes in the U.S. where they've modified their bathrooms to that they've installed these ultra-cool toilets. I want to say that it cost a fair amount to do the remodeling though.
8:22 PM
I got a bit of a shock when staying in a Japanese hotel, and, half asleep in the middle of the night, stumbled into the bathroom only for the toilet to talk to me. Gave me a fright, but the warm seat in winter was nice, if less than environmentally friendly.
You've gotta be careful of the ones which rinse, since I was trying to flush it, but couldn't read which button was which and so pressed everything, only to have water shoot out at me.
We went to an electronics store, and the fancy toilets were rather expensive, but there may be a market for them for older people here.
3:46 PM
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