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The coolest thing about toilets here is how computerized they are! Here is an excerpt from Ugly Americans about toilets in Japan: "The seat beneath me was vibrating softly, the cushiony material warmed electronically to my exact body temperature. I surveyed the dials, knobs, and buttons on the console using tiny pictures above the Japanese script to make out the controls of a DVD player, a CD changer, and something that was either a sophisticated remoter control bidet or a miniature geyser. I finally found a small red button that seemed promising and hit it with two fingers. The familiar sound of a toilet flushing echoed off the marble floor. It took me a full second to realize the sound was synthetic, like just about everything else in this futuristic place; the space aged toilets mechanisms were actually whisper silent, the audible flush had been added separately to coddle the expectations of anxious foreigners like me. "Seconds later, I watch the toilet-seat cover close automatically, readying itself for the next customer. I shook my head, amazed. I’d always believed you could tell a lot about a culture from its toilets. In Europe, the toilets were little more than holes in the ground, symbols of a continent mired deeply in the past. In America, there were sturdy white bowls with masculine, military industrial flushing power. No frills or frosting. Pure utility. Here, in Tokyo, the toilets were magnificent constructs of advanced technology. It was a society moving quickly into the future, as impersonal and whisper silent as that future might be." |
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