japanesetoilets
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Japan's high-tech toilets are getting less intimidating
Japan is famed for its elaborate, high-tech toilets; and these elaborate, high-tech toilets are themselves famed for being nigh impossible for foreigners to decipher. Aware of the confusion many visitors face in getting to grips with the country's "beautiful toilet culture," nine manufacturers of luxurious thrones have put competition aside to agree on a new standardized and simple set of icons for common features.
A Westerner's guide to Japanese toilets
Dirt, stains, effluent, material, the load, waste, matter. These are the words my tour guides at Toto's toilet factory and research center in Kyushu used to verbally pirouette around what exactly its porcelain thrones deal with: shit. Japanese toilets are probably the best in the business at getting rid of your business, but for many Westerners, that first moment of contact can be terrifying. There are so many buttons, so many unknown symbols and open-to-interpretation stickmen figures; not to mention the (unfounded) fear that you could be sprayed with toilet water by merely approaching one. The Washlet, as Toto's combination bidet/toilet is called, doesn't come cheap. And yet, in Japan, they are everywhere. In fact, compared to plain, old, featureless toilets, washlets occupy the majority of restrooms.
