The Japanese Experience
Sunday, November 18, 2007
On Thursday I was in 3 hours of traffic on the nightmare freeways of Seattle. As I was pushing the clutch in and out and in again I started thinking about my mission, which I do often, but today I was particularly thinking about all things Japanese. Things I loved. Things I didn’t love. Friends I met. Places I traveled. Food that I ate… well, I think you get the point. But one particular memory of things Japanese gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling and I longed to have this item back in my life again. When my dad came and picked me up he told me I could get anything I wanted from Japan and this is the one item I really wanted but didn’t take home with me.
What is this item you wonder? Well… a Japanese toilet. Yes, I repeat, Japanese toilets. You probably wouldn’t think I would describe a toilet as warm and fuzzy but they are the most wonderful things imaginable. These particular toilets are engineered in a way that only that Japanese can design and could possibly go down in history as the best invention that ever came out of that smart, little country. Now, when I refer to Japanese toilets I mean ones like this.
zoomed in to the control panels.
Not the "squatters" like this, which I had to use often, but is for a whole other post.
and get these suckers in American households:
Bum Heaters
These magical toilets have a heater so when you sit down your rear doesn’t get cold. My first city was on the north end of Honshu and super duper cold so you can imagine how happy I was to run from my futon to the warmth of the toilet in the early morning, winter hours in Hachinohe. Plus, who doesn’t hate a cold toilet seat? I didn’t realize how cold toilet seats were until I had a warm one! Burrrr….
Bum Washers (Please note there will be some frank talk in the next paragraph - please stop if can't handle frank talk)
Yes, my friends, these babies have a bidet built right in for his and her cleaning pleasure. Scott and I have been having conversations with other couple friends about men’s wiping habits. It seems as if men have more wiping issues than women and are more concerned about “feeling clean”. I know many men that need to shower after a poop or some men use up a good amount of toilet paper just to keep that “fresh feeling”. After a few of these funny conversations, I think the majority of men would absouletly love this feature on the toilet. Not just men, but women too could benefit from this at any time of the month (wink, wink).
Scott even showed me this interesting article about how much a family of four spends on toilet paper a year. If a house invested in a bidet, it would pay for itself in 1 year just by decreasing the amount of toilet paper that is "flushed" away every year. Well, if you had a Japanese toilet than you wouldn’t have to worry about installing a bidet. You have it right there on your toilet seat.
You can even adjust the water pressure. If you like a strong hit of water, you got it. If you are more of an easy-going person, no need to put it on full throttle. Just decrease the pressure and you got yourself a clean bum. Most of these toilets have a built in dryer too so no need to use toilet paper to dry off.
Hand Washers
On the top of the toilets, after you flush, there is a faucet that turns on and allows you to wash your hands. Saves time from having to walk to the sink!
Distracting Noises
The toilets make noises to distract from other noises that may be coming from the bathroom. Genius.
A sink, hand washer, noise maker, bum washer and warmer all in the one. The Japanese think of everything!
Mark my words, that on my next trip to Japan I will be writing "Toilet" on my customs form coming home.
9 Comments:
K. Sign me up for one of these, they sound wonderful. Jason had badeas(no clue on the spelling)in uruguay and loved them! The things people learn from other countries. Speaking of you and Japanese, the wiggles on the disney channel have been singing songs in japanese and we have definately thought of you. We can't wait to see you guys!!
Could you put in a caption for this fine Japanese toilet? I'm not sure what I'm looking at. I mean is that a top view of the control panel? The graphics are pleasant enough...not too explicit. Where would you sit down on this thing?
I like a cold toilet seat. Warm ones gives me the heebe geebe's cause I picture the person spending way too much time on it before me. The rest of it sounds pretty cool though as long as it has the air blower. Wet bum doesn't seem very cool.
your right, bridget. I didn't explain that picture well. That is just the side of the toilet with all the buttons. The seat looks like a normal one but the features are totally different!
I'm really surprised we wouldn't have used this idea from the Japanese yet? I wonder why? Aimee you could start a business! Put one in Oprah's house and you'd be set with the publicity you'd need!
I was laughing my head off, until I realized that yes that would be nice! Sign me up!
OK, so I totally relate with the squatters. I must say I started to think they were more sanitary than the sit downs that were so filthy. At least you didn't have to touch anything,cause the flusher was done by foot, too.
As for the Japanese toilet, I saw one of those in a hotel in China and didn't know how to make it work. A working one would truely be awesome. Want a business partner?
My thought was the same as Shan's. Why don't we have these in the good old U.S. of A.? I mean we have all their cars why not the toilets too?
Oh my gosh! Bum heaters? This is a dream come true plus all of the other features I'm surprised this little dream machine hasn't made its way over to the 48. Jake and I have had the wiping convo and yea, I bet we go through what a family of four goes through as a family of two! I need to forward this on to my other Japan mission serving friend Kimi---I'm sure she'd love this post!
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