Everybody Has to Go Sometime

Ecologists study problems, or rather, how organisms solve problems. How to find food, water, and shelter; how to find a mate, and convince them to mate with you; how to avoid being eaten. And, where do you leave your waste.

All organisms have these problems, and studying the solutions is pretty much what ecologists do. My training has made me an observer, a voyeur of sorts, or a storyteller, in search of a story. It is always interesting to look through an ecologists eyes’ in a new culture, because humans everywhere have the same basic problems, and solve them in basically the same ways. It is the differences that are fascinating.

Hamamatsu- the Bridgeport of Japan. The ACT building
(the tallest one) looks like a harmonica from the side. 

I’ve already written about how my first impressions were of how similar Japan is to other places I’ve been or seen (Hamamatsu is Bridgeport CT!). My eyes sought the commonalities, maybe to keep my internal compass balanced. But the differences are readily apparent, too.

Public bathrooms are a good place to start, because it is one place an observer has the privacy to take a good, long, look around. I’ve made a handy chart:

	Japanese bathroom	American bathroom
Scale	Narrower, smaller* *Handicapped stall about the size of typical US stall.	Wide, larger
Sink	Yes, often in separate room* *once we had one that was built into the tank on the rear of the toity; when you flushed, it turned on the sink tap.	Yes, in public bathroom in separate area within same room
Towels	Bring your own	Paper or air blowers
Flush type	Two power levels	One mega level
Heated seats	Sometimes	Never
Sound machine to mask embarrassing noises	Sometimes, often in women’s public restrooms	Nope
Various functions for bidet type washing	Often- toity has a separate arm with many buttons, sometimes pictures to help explain.	You must be kidding
Toilet paper	Thin and scratchy; two regular sized rolls with a flap that allows you to tear it evenly	Thin and scratchy; often one or more mega rolls
Separate and different facilities for males and females	Yes, even on airplanes* * my 3 yr old pointed this out to me as I took her into the ‘mens’ room for the second time.	Usually
Squat style available	Usually some in multiple stall public restrooms, most people prefer Western style	Nope. Most Americans would fall in. Not that I have. Yet.
Urinal available* *data from field assistant. Same rules of etiquette apply, ie., Never stand next to someone if space allows	Usually, though small	Usually, often large, but American aim may be poor.  Insufficient data.
Color palette	Beige, or usually pink in ladies	Usually white, can vary
Lid	Always	Never in public restroom
Cleanliness	Ranges from reasonable to icky	Ranges from reasonable to icky
Level	Often have to step up to go into potty chamber	All on one level
Sanitization	Paper seat covers, dispenser of gel that one uses to wipe seat off with a piece of TP	Paper seat covers occasionally; weird slidey plastic thing at O’Hare

Guest house ladies. Felt seat
stickers.  I don't even want to think
how that gets cleaned

Traditional squat toilet. we have yet to
master this, but how do you learn? 

So there you have it. The only dicey bathroom moment we have had was when Jane loudly complained that she wanted to use ‘the little potty’ (squat toilet) in the government office building. Apparently, so loudly that everyone could hear her and my attempts to head off her 3 yr old hissy fit. Well, that and the weird stares I got on the airplane for using the men’s room, but I’ve made that mistake in the States. Sigh.