One of the more fascinating (and unexpected) things I learned in Japan was how much further we have to go to match their toilet technology. Have a laugh, but until you get up on a cold morning and sit on a warm, toasty toilet seat, you just haven’t lived. That’s right, most of the toilets in Tokyo are heated. Terrific! Here’s a brief tour…
Starting with the picture on the lower-right, we see a common configuration: a small console that sits by your right hand to control the built-in bidet. Though I wasn’t brave enough to try it, I did appreciate the the friendly, gender-specific imagery on the buttons. Look closely and you’ll see a baby-blue button, complete with a set of ass cheeks getting a refreshing spray, and above it, a pink button for the fairer sex.
The other two pics actually belong to the same toilet, which I found in the lobby bathroom of the Park Hotel in Shiodome. As I approached the device, the cover raised automatically, revealing a bowl illuminated with white LEDs. No, that’s not my camera flash–this toilet shines lights on your poo. The LCD screen (top photo), which was mounted on the wall beside it, came complete with a clock, a dizzying array of buttons and a jog dial for the easy input of information. Thankfully, the flush button was marked clearly, and in impeccable English.
Ideas for the toilet of the future:
- While-u-wait nutritional analysis
- Hydraulically-mounted “kneeling” toilets for small people and children
- Public toilets that play a sound to conceal the user’s unsavory noises. Pick your own personal tune from a list of Top 40 hits. Better than ringtones!
Have your own ideas for the toilet of the future? Send them in.
What about Japan’s great hand blower technology? I’m thinking that a lack of marketing in the US is short changing Japan’s thought leadership in the tech bathroom. Is this dyson guy really out-innovating the Japanese or is he just benefiting from the generally accepted Japanese conservatism with respect to potty marketing?
Dyson Airblade on Gizmodo
Good point. I saw some pretty funky hand blowers in Japan, and most of them used the same “windshield wiper” method as your man dyson’s–his just looks better. I’ll hand it to the guy for his vacuums, but damn if he’ll take the hand blower crown from the Japanese. Not on my watch.
I can’t speak for the men’s toilets in Japan (or in most places, truth be told), but I did see a primitive version of the last of your future toilet suggestions in Tokyo in early 2001. On a metal plate next to an impeccably clean public toilet was a picture of a woman reading a book while sitting on a rock in a lovely meadow. She was passing the non-book holding hand over what appeared to be a sensor. No English instructions were to be found. But when I passed my own hand over that sensor a surprisingly loud flushing noise was repeated about 20 or 30 times, apparently to disguise any tinkle sounds (because Japanese women would never go #2 in public) from the other restroom patrons.
Hope you’re well -
AOK
Ha! That’s great. More proof that there’s no stopping the japanese innovation machine. All I can say is that the next president better throw some serious federal subsidies towards the recovery of America’s dominance in the toilet industry.