Toilets in Japan

Not a very good topic eh? Well you have to listen to my story.. But first I’m going to challenge you to think of ways you can use technology in the toilets? I mean you go to the toilet to do a certain job, use toilet paper and you are done right? How can technology really be used in toilets? I come from a developing country and my needs in a toilet are pretty simple. Technology, for me, would be better used to address bigger issues.. and that perhaps is why I can’t think of ways to use technology in a toilet..

The toilets in Japan are electronically operated. There are so many buttons on the panel, you would feel comfortable in a Cesna’s cockpit..

The one in my apartment has a motion sensor and opens up when it senses someone in the toilet.. Although that is how it should work it kinda is faulty or over sensitive and opens up if someone is the vicinity of the bathroom.. It was all creepy the first day I was here.. it was opening and closing all by itself..

The panel has a button for a water jet. When pressed, a water jet inside the pot jets water at a speed into your bottom to clean your.. More buttons for adjusting the speed of water, of course, are available :)
You can imagine my shock when I first saw it..

There is this other button for girls called “Bidet”. My roommate tells me it is for cleaning something else that is part of female’s anatomy.

There are pictures on these buttons for those who can’t read Kanji and need I say they are interesting..

They have a button that heats up the toilet seat. It isn’t even cold here.. :)

My roommate also told me that she saw a button that makes flushing noise in girls’ toilets. Apparently, Japanese girls are very shy and they don’t like to be heard when they pee, so they keep flushing while they pee which alerted the scientists to invent this “flushing sound machine” :). Things don’t seize to amuse me here..

There are many other buttons and did I mention lights? But I will tell you about one last button and close this topic.. The “Powerful Deodorizer” button.. I just couldn’t believe it.. I wanted to see what it does and pressed it, it does work.. don’t know where the Jasmine smell came out from but there was one in the air.. :) Oh BTW I didn’t need to push that button, I was just curious.. :)

Later friends..