I remembered that time on March 12, 2014 when I landed from Japan Airlines Boeing 777-200ER (yes, that same plane) to Narita Airport. After brief passport-checking and luggage-claiming, nature called. Two of my friends and I then headed to public airport lavatory. It looked normal, as normal as any decent international airport would look like... until I sat down there.
The... toilet... is.. ELECTRIC!!!
I don't know the right word to describe.. electric? automatic? electronic? It actually felt like pooping on a gadget rather than a toilet! So, instead that a normal Indonesian (world?) sit-down toilets which usually are occupied with a few manual handles to spray some water of flush some organic product.. Japanese toilets lets you ELECTRICALLY control EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of your "business" experience by a few button clicks away.
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| Looks innocent. |
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| What sorcery is this??!!! |
Needless to say, it was new to me. And shocking. Actually, on the plane I encountered a similar control-toilet, but that time I thought "oh, maybe it just because of this advanced aircraft type I am flying with". But, no. As I stayed in Tokyo, visited Asakusa, lived with host family in Chiba, experienced its private university, flashed through its restroom, shopped at their malls... the super hi-tech Japanese toilets seemed to be the standard of the nation for sit-down toilets.
Now, let me tell you how is it like to process nature business there (and how awesome it was).
So, first of all, you sit. In the vicinity of winter/spring transition that time, you would expect a cold-dead seat, since its like 10 centigrade outside. No, baby, the seat is heated. Proceed to pee or poop, then you can spray some water to your "launcher". But this time, you have option from which direction the spray would go, say, you can choose to hygiene your (sorry) anus more or genital more. Needless to say, the water is heated. Furthermore, you can control how many water pressure or how many water volume you need. Then grab their soluble toilet papers. Still feel a bit wet? There is air blower option. Afraid to smell bad? proceed to deodorizer option. Then, flush. You may have three options: full flush, half, flush, or eco half flush. Sometimes, you will have a more advanced toilet type which requires you to wave on the sensor bar to flush, instead of pressing a button. Oh, you want to poop but too ashamed to be associated with the "boom" noise? The toilet has mp3 option which can play flushing sound. Some toilets even automatically plays mp3 sound whenever you sat down on it.
Okay, Japanese toilets are hi-tech and awesome, but so what? Dude, it is not just "so what". You know, toilets are the forgotten place where a status of a place (or a society or a country) are honestly reflected. Clean toilets mean clean society, why? because it is the place where people will visit at least 7 times a day. It is a place of repertoir. It is the place where you can see how exactly somebody cares about higienity and cleaniness, and how they respect themselves by keeping clean place they visited most a day. Furthermore, for public toilets, it is also the place where you can see how a society portrays its fellow members; whether a person cares that somebody will use the stool afterwards and therefore leaves it polished so other people don't get hard time. Japanese people in general are intrinsically justice and respectful, they don't want to cause their fellow human being inconvenience, hence strict garbage-classification rule, do-not-disturb-neighbor/coworkers/passengers-with-your-loud-mouth norm, and the ultra clean, ultra dry toilets also.
And also, when a country can place so much energy, technology, and effort to develop these kinds of toilets, and how it catch the wind throughout the nation.. that proves Japan is hi-tech by heart and soul, isn't it.
Now, since the title is investigation, now let me unveil the company and the toilet type which is responsible for the futuristic lavatories of Japan.
Ladies and gentlemen.. give applause to TOTO WASHLET series!
So, TOTO, Japanese toilet products company, introduced a specific line dedicated to these electrice toilets "WASHLET". You can find the english version of the product line profile here. Apparently, the model so scatteringly serves as urban standard in Japan is the "basic" TOTO WASHLET B100.
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| the TOTO Washlet B100 (USA ver.), basic model. (Gosh, their "basic" is our "advanced") |
The one with panels attached to a wall is a more advanced E200 (as I've seen in Daishin Ryokan, Chiba). To learn about green concern of the company, click here. But apparently, they have different coding for different region, for example asia.toto.com gives TCF6411A for B100. The authentic webpage from TOTO Japan is at toto.co,jp but it is fully in Japanese (still can be roughly translated if you use Chrome's web translation) I can't find the hand-sensor flush type on those three regions, though. According to Taipei Times, TOTO held 65% market share of toilets in Japan followed by INAX of 25%.
Actually, there is almost zero English explanation for each button of the toilets. So, when you are going to visit Japan, this throughout guide will whisk you away from shameful wrong-button-push toilet experience. Hilariously, I came there with a super-thin knowledge about its bathroom facilities or Japanese language, so yeah... it was quite a fun experiment pressing all the buttons.
And YOU should visit Japan. Really. If you ever dream or plan to enjoy abroad vacation, make sure Japan is in your priority list. This is the country when you can be inspired in a way you never think before. This is a country that will inject you with a belief in humanity. For introverts, this is a country when you can thrive because of the way you naturally are, not in spite of. I personally find peace and serenity in this beautiful and justice country, where people much less think about crushing each other for the sake of worldly desire (will wrote further about this topic).
Visit Japan. Experience its toilets. Get inspired.
