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Japan To End Tourists' Toilet Trouble With Standardised Buttons (theguardian.com)
The Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association, a consortium of companies producing plumbing products has agreed to unify the iconography used on the often baffling control panels for Japanese toilets. From a report on The Guardian: Navigating the array of buttons on Japan's high-tech toilets can be a disconcerting experience for the uninitiated, who, expecting to hear a familiar flushing sound, are instead subjected to a sudden, and unwanted, cleansing of the nether regions. As Japan prepares for an influx of overseas visitors during the 2019 rugby World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics the following year, the country's sanitation industry has agreed to standardize pictograms on toilets so users know for certain if they are about to receive a blast of warm air or a jet of water. Nine manufacturers belonging to the Japan sanitary equipment industry association will soon start using the same eight symbols to explain the buttons found on their state-of-the-art WCs. At a launch event this week, the firms said they had agreed to simplify the pictography in response to complaints from tourists that they are confused by symbols that differ depending on the make of toilet. In a survey of 600 foreign visitors, a quarter said they could not understand some of the symbols that appear on the toilet buttons.
Replace the buttons with 3 sea shells.
You mean nobody explained to you the importance of men not pushing the ATR button?"
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I can think of three, maybe four, but beyond light flush, heavy flush, bidet, and drier, what are the other four functions?
After my first trip to Japan, I bought one of those superseats. Mine features a heated seat with different settings, front bidet for the ladies, back bidet for us all, settings for water temperature. And I didn't even buy the iffy-spiffy one.
Home Depot sells them. Once you've used them, you'll wonder why we use paper. Think about it: if you get poop on your hand, would you just wipe it or properly clean it with soap and water? Nevermind, I know the answer. So why do you settle for just wiping down there?
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
I can think of three, maybe four, but beyond light flush, heavy flush, bidet, and drier, what are the other four functions?
After my first trip to Japan, I bought one of those superseats. Mine features a heated seat with different settings, front bidet for the ladies, back bidet for us all, settings for water temperature. And I didn't even buy the iffy-spiffy one.
Home Depot sells them. Once you've used them, you'll wonder why we use paper. Think about it: if you get poop on your hand, would you just wipe it or properly clean it with soap and water? Nevermind, I know the answer. So why do you settle for just wiping down there?
In the US there is more space. Plenty of space for a bidet. Incorporating the bidet function into the toilet seat is just a space saving method that is appropriate for the tiny bathrooms in Japan.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Jesus Christ, that thing's more complicated than the Moon Lander!
And if you get it wrong, it pisses right back at you!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
5) morph into land, sea, or air vehicle
6) join with four other vehicles to create a larger machine
7) join your larger machine to two others the create the Might Flushtron
8) intimate function to assure very satisfactory toilet experience...
please remain seated
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Japan turned toilets into rocket science. Let's hope they don't turn rockets into toilet science.
Table-ized A.I.
Google has these fancy toilets when I worked IT help desk ten years ago. On several occasions I had the double shock of my balls touching the ice cold water in the bowl and my ass catching on fire on the toilet seat at the same time.
Years ago, while on vacation in Japan, I stepped into a bathroom only to find a large room with a row of holes in the floor and trapeze like handles (such as on a subway car) suspended from above.
I really didn't need to go that bad.... and used the tree in the corner instead.
I've not spent a lot of time in Japan but on future trips I will have a little nostalgia remembering coming in after a long night of Karaoke and trying to figure out how to relieve myself without flooding the bathroom.
Of course, that option is a lot better than the ubiquitous hole in the floor with a shell that you squat over that my wife always wondered why I took pictures of.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
So why do you settle for just wiping down there?
Because I don't use my butt for typing, shaking hands, conveying food to my mouth, scratching...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
If the tourists can't figure out which one is flush, that's a GREAT reason to standardize the pictograms!
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Every toilet that I've seen in Japan had the regular metal button or lever on the water bowl for the flush. The pictograms are for the advanced functions.
obligatory Futurama reference
If I'm pushing a button that I think means flush I have already stood up and adjusted my clothing beforehand in order to avoid *any* possible complications from that operation. These certainly include unexpected jets of water coming from the bowl.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
As Japan prepares for an influx of overseas visitors during the 2019 rugby World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics the following year...
What good is standardizing the pictographs now? Toilets stay in service for decades before being replaced. So unless they are going to have some sticker campaign to relabel all the ones already out there, it's too late.
I personally don't like the idea of any water coming up from the _toilet_ onto me. How clean are the spray nozzles? How well maintained is the tubing running to the spray nozzles?
No: I'll settle for wiping off what I can... and doing my own proper cleaning that evening in the shower with soap.
Ok, I've never been to Japan, but seriously, how complex is it for a toilet?
You sit, you shit, you wipe, stand and flush.....?
Nope. Sit, shit, flush, wash, dry.
If you get a western room in a hotel they'll provide toilet paper but the cleaning staff will know you have an unwashed sphincter and while they will be outwardly polite to you, they will internally hate you and your dirty dirt hole.
The food in Japan is awesome though.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
"Because I don't use my butt for typing, shaking hands, conveying food to my mouth, scratching..."
Apparently I'm doing it wrong.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I used to live in a town with artesian water - stuff from very deep underground that comes up hot and under pressure. The water pipes in town were on the surface or close to it in a lot of places.
In the height of summer the "cold" tap would range from cup of tea temperature to scalding if you let it run long enough.
In my house the "hot" tap was fed from a tank at the back of the stove. In summer it was too hot to use the stove, so the town water would sit in the tank and cool down to room temperature.
Thus the "cold" was burning hot (sometimes 70C or more, the bore the water came from a few blocks away was at around 90C) and the "hot" was cold.
In winter the "cold" water would actually be cold from those shallow pipes unless you ran it for a long time, while the "hot" was actually heated by the stove and was hot.
So of course this really confused infrequent visitors.
You find this a lot more in the US than elsewhere, it's an artefact of the use of bath + shower vs. a standalone shower, which is more common outside the US. What you describe is very true though, every hotel you go to presents a new puzzle in how to make water come out of the shower head. Sometimes it's relatively easy (turn or pull a locking knob on the bath faucet, typically), other times I've come close to calling the front desk to report a faulty shower until I finally figured it out (turn the decorative moulding around the front of the faucet about 45 degrees, then pull it down to lock it into place). The problem with the latter is that a well-disguised switchover mechanism is indistinguishable from a fixture that looks like it might do the job if you just push/pull/twist it a bit harder.