Of mice and men…and toilets
As a westerner, I am quite used to toilets where you are able to sit down and relax. They exist in all our homes, in the shopping centres, schools and libraries. We would be beyond astonished to see anything other than our lovely ‘wet-toilet’, our beloved plumbing fixture which we use to dispose of our bodily waste.
So step into an Asian country, like China, where the majority of toilets are squat toilets. It may look super disgusting, or it could be super clean. But the fact remains that that it is a squat toilet. You have to squat. And I cannot do the asian squat (where your heels are down when squatting), so it is quite oft uncomfortable for me to squat (at any time).
I spent over a year in China, and it was only in the LAST month that I had to succumb and use a squat toilet at the nearest store, courtesy of a dicey stomach after a dodgy dinner.
Yet, come to Japan, the land of toilets which clean your bum and all technologically wonderful things.
Yes, that is a control panel. A control panel to clean your bum.
I’ve only used the one at home, which has direct, diffused, female and a dryer options. You can choose the angle and the strength. Fun eh? There likely are more souped up versions with more options. But I mean. The toilet cleans your bum!!
So in a land of all that bliss, WHY is it that I had to use a squat toilet. They really are uncomfortable. Most shopping centres, schools, etc had TWO toilets, one normal one and one squat one. Which is good. The really posh places have toilets that clean, but normally they’re just, well, normal sit-down toilets.
Yet, on that woe-begotten day, the toilet, my normal toilet, my sit-down and relax toilet, was out of order. With not another toilet in sight, or ‘need-to-go-to-the-toilet’ walkable distance, I had to succumb and use the squat toilet. I shall endeavour to use squat toilets as little as possible for the rest of my trip.
Well, that was a little random, but a necessary rant about toilets. We’ll go back to our normal broadcast tomorrow.
