Posted on 04/01/2015 1:01:32 PM PDT by lulu16
It may not have been the Japanese who came up with the saying “cleanliness is next to godliness,” but the Land of the Rising Sun certainly has its share of neat-freakiness. After all, the word for “pretty” in Japanese, kirei, also means clean. This cultural obsession with keeping things tidy has resulted in the development of some uniquely Japanese habits regarding one of the more delicate aspects of daily life: the bathroom. For anyone planning a trip to Tokyo who doesn’t want to be caught with their pants down when nature calls (or anyone just looking for a little bathroom reading), here are some essentials for potty talk. Ahead, five things you need to know when you gotta go…in Japan.
1. Japanese bathrooms come with their own footwear. Remember that one friend you had growing up — the one whose mom would always nag you to take your shoes off at the door when you went over to their house? Welcome to Japan. The nationwide no-shoes rule extends to offices, schools, fitting rooms, and even drinking establishments. This came about not because of some kind of widespread foot fetish, but because in Japan it’s traditional to sit on the tatami floor — and no one wants to lounge around on all that crap stuck to the bottom of your shoes (not that anyone litters or lets their dog poop on the sidewalk in Japan).
Private homes and public spaces alike usually have a row of comfy, inside-only slippers awaiting guests near the door. But, the shoe swap doesn’t stop there — when you visit the bathroom, you’ll find yet another pair of slippers to change into. And, lest you confuse them for the others, these will probably be decorated with a smiling cartoon character and the word toilet. Like the old "skirt tucked into the underwear" or "toilet paper on the shoe" gags, it’s a classic Japanese faux pas to accidentally walk out of the bathroom with the toilet slippers still on.
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http://www.refinery29.com/bathroom-culture-japan?utm_source=email&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=everywhere&utm_campaign=150401-april-horoscope
1. Japanese bathrooms come with their own footwear. 2. Japan has toilets and bathrooms — and never the twain shall meet. 3 Japan loves its Washlets. 4. But, Japan also loves its squat toilets. 5. Japanese women don’t have bathroom gossip sessions.
Grandma called it ‘doing your business’.
I am really wanting to go over there just to try these out.
Been to Japan scores of times. Nobody but foreign barbarians walk around eating food. The concourses at the airports are spotless. A native will go to Starbucks and consume their entire purchase in the store.
You train out of Tokyo and pass a cement plant which is without cement dust. Workers are all about the facility sweeping and vacuuming up particles. The cleanest manufacturing places in the world.
My grandma called it “Watering the ducks.” My grandpa called it “Dumping your mud.”
I’ve always made a habit of taking my shoes off at the front door. It just makes sense not to track stuff through your house. I don’t impose it on guests though.
Most also have Western commodes, all divided by stalls.
There’s a direct relationship between a country’s level of civilization and advancement and the cleanliness of their bathrooms
The digital toilets were pretty funny. squat toilets not so much.
And yet...the Japanese have taken scatological porn to the most disgusting limits imaginable.
once you have used a bidet ... you will never go back.
its like the difference between washing you hands and cleaning them off with a paper towel.
I was over there on business 15 years ago. They had both types of toilets at work in different stalls. The electronic one had fans and water jets but only japanese instructions! I was afraid a fan would come out and cut something off. I used the hole in ground ‘squat’ toilet instead. Call me chicken.
“Chastity and I have talked it over, and we agree that civilization is nothing more than an effective sewage system”—Ron Nasty, The Ruttles, All You Need Is Cash.
I worked with a Japanese man who always washed his hands before urinating. That way he does not transfer germs from his hands to his male part. That is not a bad idea.
I get the impression that my size 13 feet, would cause problems for me in Japan.
We need a thread on middle eastern toilets, then.
Might explain a lot.
I intend to install a squat toilet and urinal in my personal workshop, when I plumb it.
In my time in the Service we were sent to Hong Kong for a visit by Spiro Agnew. We were put up in a French oriented hotel. The guy I had with me was from Arkansas, WAAAAY back on the hills. He was astounded by the opulence of the acommodations and while having beer sent up to us,I happened to look into the bathroom where he was lapping up water from the bidet. He thought it was a water fountain, which, in a way I guess it was.
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