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What to Do with the Japanese-Style Toilet? Different countries have different types of toilets. A type unique to Japan has the toilet bowl built in the floor and you straddle it and squat down, instead of sitting on it. This is called the “Japanese-style.”I heard this story from a friend in Okinawa, who is married to a blue-eyed, blonde woman. When they just got married, he wondered why his wife would take so much time in the toilet. His mother who lived with them was also concerned that there might be something wrong with her daughter-in-law. One day, my friend saw something scattered in front of the toilet. It looked like his wife’s clothes…. It turned out that she had stripped off all her clothes before going to the toilet. She didn’t straddle the toilet bowl and squat down on the raised part of the floor, her back facing the door. Instead, she faced the door and directly sat on the toilet bowl. Come to think of it, Western people only know the Western-style toilet; the Japanese-style requires them to sit backwards. If you insist on sitting on the Japanese toilet in the Western way, your butt will certainly get dirty. I’ve heard that even in Japan there are more children who can’t use the Japanese-style toilet well because the Western-style has become more common in individual households. Some schools even teach first graders how to use the Japanese-style, whereas some mothers have their children practice using it in department store restrooms and such, before they start school. Oddly enough, Japan has produced the world’s most advanced Western-style toilet—the Washlet. I am curious about the future of the Japanese-style toilet in Zipangu the Wonderland. “It used to give me change” |