COOL THINGS IN JAPAN YOU MUST SEE
My first encounter with one of Japan’s high-tech toilets, sometimes referred to as washlets, was in my Tokyo hotel. I opened the door to my room and began inspecting the interior. Very nice. When I walked into the bathroom the toilet seat-lid raised by itself with the low whirr of a motor.
Needless to say, a toilet of this high caliber will cost you. Prices on these high-end units range from the high $300s to over $5,000 and beyond.
So, are they worth it? If you ask people that have never been exposed to them, like most Westerners, they’ll say, “Are you kidding?! Of course not!” But I asked Western ex-pats living in Japan how they felt about these toilets. Every single person I asked said they loved them.
Think the toilets are the weirdest thing in Japan? Maybe not: Another interesting aspect of Japanese toilets is the signage surrounding them.
Of all the weird things in Japan, this sign has to be one of the strangest. When I am expressly prohibited from working on my laptop while on the toilet, well…now you’ve just gone too far, “thems fight’en words.” And what does the single red line– versus a cross – even mean? …that I can use the laptop only sometimes but not others?