Japan is a complex mix of ancient tradition and modern technology. Nowhere is this more evident than in the bathroom.
In America all public bathrooms are pretty much the same. Cleanliness and state of repair may vary but the basic design of sink, soap dispenser, hand dryer and throne-like toilet enclosed in a small stall with space around the top and bottom remains pretty much the same.
In Japan, all bets are off.
Many Japanese bathrooms do not have soap dispensers or hand dryers. The sinks are made to scale with the people, which means they rise to somewhere about thigh high on the average American. Though the Japanese are, as a cultural group, the cleanest people I have ever met, their bathrooms often smell like the bathroom of a frat house after an all-weekend kegger when some well-meaning-almost-sober person has sprayed the whole place with disinfectant and then passed out from the fumes. This is especially true if the bathroom features squat toilets.
"What," you ask with some disgust, "is a squat toilet."
"This," I answer with more disgust, "is a squat toilet."
And in case you harbor some confusion as to how someone would go about using such a device, the bathrooms at the Mt. Fuji visitors center featured a handy sign.
For many older Japanese people the squat toilet is the only hygenic facility. They may stink like fermented amonia but at least your nether regions never touch a seat.
For those people who may be confused by the Western style facilities Mt. Fuji offered another handy reference.
Now I don't want to give you the impression that Japan is completely backward in the bathroom. There is another extreme. For instance, I strongly recomend using the facilities in the Narita airport. The toilet seats are heated. And each stall comes with an array of buttons that control features like, "flushing sound for masking of bathroom noises" and a bidet which is a french term that I understand to mean, surprising jet of water. Let's not think about the hygene issues raised by pushing buttons inside a toilet stall.
I even once used a bathroom at a gas station where the toilet cover went up and a running water noise started when you turned on the bathroom light.
Large bathroom facilities often have maps showing you where the sinks are and which toilets are western or squat style.
But the best inovation I've seen so far is this.
A red light means the stall is in use. A green light means it's vacant. This, my friends, is genius. I leave you today with a quote from Shakespeare, "Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court."
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