Some Bathrooms Are Better Than Others

FUCK. I can’t find the charger for my computer. I could have sworn that I brought it with me (as opposed to leaving it in Tokyo). I really hope I didn’t lose it because I imagine that the only place to get a new one is probably the Apple store in Tokyo.

Well, my troubles aside, I’m here to tell you that Japanese bathrooms are better than American bathrooms. Here are the top three reasons:

3. The toilet stalls are way more private than in the US. The walls are way higher and go all the way down to the ground so that they’re basically fully enclosed. I appreciate that. The toilets also flush super hardcore, it’s almost scary. If you’re at all familiar with Japan, you’ve probably had a good laugh at the expense of Japanese “super toilets” with their bevy of, shall we say, “advanced” features. Well, pretty much every public toilet in Japan is like that. I really wish I had taken a photo of the toilet we had in our bathroom in Tokyo because the little diagrams on the buttons were very entertaining.

2. The soap is better. There are two varieties of hand soap that I’ve encountered thus far. The first is the pre-foamed stuff, like they have at airports and train stations in Chicago, but way, way better. The second is this soap that looks really kind of weak and watery but man, does it ever foam up well.

1. The most amazing thing by far is, however, the hand dryers. I really think that they will be a constant source of amazement for me as long as I’m here. When I use a hand dryer in America, it always feels like such a pointless endeavor. My hands never really get dry unless I stand there for like 2 minutes drying my hands so I invariably end up just sort of wiping them on my pants or something. Not so in the land of the rising sun. The hand dryers here blow air out super rapidly and your hands are seriously completely dry in just a matter of seconds. Some hand dryers even have a sort of enclosed area where you put your hands in and it warms them while you’re drying them. I swear, these guys really have it all figured out sometimes.