Every time I start my day and venture down the street...I know for sure it is going to be a day full of adventure. It never fails, no matter how insignificant or silly...something confuses me, makes me laugh, surprises me, embarrasses me, etc. That is due to the fact that I do not read, write, speak or understand Japanese. And actually, even if I knew the language I still wouldn't understand some of their 'ways of life'......hahaha

NOTE: This blog entry contains information about JAPANESE toilets, nifty gadgets around the toilet, etiquette while on the toilet...etc. *Don't say I didn't warn you* lol

Have you ever held out on going to the bathroom because you simply don't like using public restrooms....for OBVIOUS REASONS?

*Ok, so I am trying to consider my 'audience' when writing this blog entry......but seriously? How do you write about this stuff?.......haha What would YOU do if this is what you saw when you were on the toilet........

Lets talk about the different buttons on this HI TECH toilet gadget.....

• Stop: Stop What?
• Spray: Nice "Butt" symbol
• Bidet:Umm what EXACTLY is the difference between the 'spray' feature and the 'bidet' feature? I thought a bidet was a bidet was a bidet? Shoots water umm in that region.
• Music Note/Flushing Sound: Umm, karaoke while on the toilet?? *keep reading* lol
• Water Pressure: ok c'mon folks...just spray the water..don't make me choose how powerful a blast I get....lol
• Volume: Again....karaoke?? (Nope, read on)

So I tried them all out....hesitantly....and well, I don't need to share the particulars(but there IS a difference between bidet and spray haha...but lets discuss the MUSIC NOTE. I was curious why they had a flushing noise....I mean you push the button and it makes this ridiculously FAKE flushing noise. Well, when in doubt....GOOGLE it OUT. And I did. I typed the following JAPANESE+TOILETS+MUSIC ... hoping to find some information on the hi tech toilet gadget I experienced from earlier. But--NOT surprisingly, it gets soo much better. Please read the following article about TOILET NOISES...and why the Japanese people are NO LONGER embarrassed to poop in public. *LOL*

When Naoko Ito uses a public bathroom, she cringes in embarrassment at the thought that other patrons can hear the sounds coming from her stall.That's when she turns to the "Sound Princess".Ito, like a rapidly growing number of Japanese women, presses a device installed in public toilets to simulate the sound of water flushing - and mask the cruder noises of nature."I usually use the flushing sound when I go to a public bathroom, such as at a department store, because I get a bit self-conscious," said Ito, a 60-year-old waitress.
The Japanese word for clean - "kirei" - also means beautiful. The device - a curious mix of Japanese bashfulness and modern technology - is spreading rapidly through public buildings and has now become standard equipment for new construction.Leading toilet producer Toto has sold 500 000 of their Sound Princesses - "Oto-Hime" in Japanese - since 1988, and the company says orders surged 125 percent in 2003 alone."The core of our clientele is schools and companies," Toto spokesperson Kumi Goto said. "Japanese women are very embarrassed by the sounds they make in a toilet."There's another reason behind the increase in the gadgets: ecology. Women in Japan have traditionally flushed several times to cover up their noises, so the Sound Princess is saving water and cutting down on public building operators' utility bills.The Sound Princess is fairly simple. The user passes her hand over a sensor, and the convincing sound of a torrent of water comes from a speaker.
But for now, "Oto-Hime" seems too likely to remain for women only. Such gadgets might seem a dainty, modern excess of a shame-obsessed society, but the Sound Princess has deep roots in Japanese culture.The Japanese are notoriously fastidious: the daily bath is practiced with near-religious fervor, and walking inside with your shoes on is considered filthy. The Japanese word for clean - "kirei" - also means beautiful.And what happens in a bathroom stall is, well, among the dirtiest things that humans do.Going to the toilet has been considered embarrassing and even shameful for women since ancient times in Japan, said Noriji Suzuki, a parasitologist at Kochi University Medical School."Sometimes you see people talking to each other over a stall in Western countries, but that would never happen in our culture," he said.The trend is not limited to women these days. Some schools have done away with urinals because boys are increasingly too embarrassed to use the stalls, since going there would tell onlookers exactly what's going to happen next.

Labels: japan