I was still inside the Akihabara Station on my way to buy some adapters, when I felt the need of a toilet. My instinct tried to instruct me to leave the station, go to a cafe or a bar to drink something and use the toilet. It happens that in Germany, toilets in the stations cost money and aren’t necessarily clean; then I’d rather spend some money in drinking something.
But just some meters before leaving the Akihabara Station, I remembered that in Japan, the toilets are free and reasonably clean. I also remembered the variety of the toilets, as well as their technology.
A traditional Japanese toilet is like a hole on the ground and resembles a bit the French toilets. Although it may be scary at first look, it’s very pragmatic and I consider them hygienic -there is no physical contact with surfaces- and according to wikipedia, even healthy -squatting may reduce the hemorrhoids risks.
The more high-tech toilets are like this one at the office. In the right arm there are some buttons and not all of them are self explanatory, they include things like warming up the seat, the bidet function, deodorizer and whatnot.
At the end of the right arm, there’s a lid which can be open to show more interesting functions.
I guess it’s already possible to buy these toilets abroad.
The toilet at home is not as high tech. It’s got some additional engineering though.
When the water is flushed, the tap refills the container, and the user can wash their hands; top idea for recycling water.
Bathrooms are beyond toilets. Also in the office I found this sink.
It’s for brushing the teeth; the left tap dispenses water so that the user can rinse their mouth, the right handle flushes water in the tap in the middle, to clean the sink. I guess I’d like to have one of those at my work in Germany.
To end, a nice surprise which I had in a restaurant in Shinjuku, there was in the bathroom, next to the sink, some little disposable cups and a bottle of Listerine, to rinse the mouth after eating.
yamanoterider 