Bathrooms Around the World
When I traveled for three months across Europe, Asia, and a little bit of Africa and the Middle East, I encountered many different kinds of toilets. Some I dreaded, some I loved. I chose this unconventional topic because toilets oftentimes reflect a country’s culture and its economic condition, and it’s something everyone encounters.
After using so many different kinds of bathrooms and toilets around the world, I would say that the American bathrooms are above average in terms of cleanliness, amenities, and ubiquitousness. Here’s a highlight reel of my toilet encounters around the world (And no, there’re no gross photos here).
Japan has the most user-focused bathrooms
If you’ve been to Japan before, you’ve seen first-hand how a bathroom can be improved and perfected for the user. A Japanese bathroom has the most number of amenities and is the most pleasant to use. A typical public bathroom comes with a nob to hang your bags, a seat-cleaning foam dispenser, and oftentimes an ambient noisemaker to mask any unpleasant sound, in addition to the high-tech toilet itself. The bathrooms are generally very clean and they are ubiquitous: they are present in a lot of public areas including most major subway stations in the big cities and they can be found in tiny restaurants as well. I think the Japanese bathrooms are one of the best examples that reflect the Japanese people’s penchant for cleanliness, modesty, and innovation for everyday convenience.
The high-tech Toto toilets are packed with advanced features that might induce decision paralysis. When I went to Japan for the first time in college, I was overwhelmed by the myriad buttons on the control panel next to the toilet: just tell me how to flush this thing! I was so afraid that I might accidentally spray myself. The choices are still a bit overwhelming for me even to this day. A typical Japanese toilet can warm the seat, automatically deodorize, wash your bottom, adjust the water pressure and can even produce ambient noise to mask any unpleasant sound so that the person next to you won’t hear anything. I still haven’t tried the “shower” option, it’s outside my comfort zone :P
Southern Italy: A curious case of seatless toilets
In both Athens and Southern Italy, we encountered a lot of toilets without a toilet seat. I was surprised and confused: Where are all the toilet seats? A seatless toilet is uncomfortable to sit on since the porcelain rim is narrow and cold to the touch. While in Italy, Chenkai and I played the silly game of “seat or no seat” every time we went to a bathroom, and as we traversed to Southern Italy, the answer was almost always “no”, so there was no point in continuing to play.
We did some Googling, and some people claimed that some owners chose to remove the seat so that the toilet is easier to clean. Other people claimed that too many people stand on the toilet seat so that they break easily, so the owners just remove the seats altogether. Since toilet seats are made of softer, more porous material, there’re more germs and harder to clean. I’m not sure if I buy that logic, since Japanese toilets (and really, anywhere else) also get a lot of use, and they choose to install seat-cleaner dispensers as a solution.
While the toilets in hotel rooms come with a toilet seat, they also come with a washbasin-looking thing with a faucet, which we later learned that it’s a standalone bidet. While the Japanese toilets use a built-in bidet, the Italians use a standalone one. We had assumed that it’s for washing our feet.
Dubai: Bathrooms that incorporate religious practices
The first bathroom I used in Dubai’s airport includes a separate ablution station, which is used by Muslims to cleanse parts of their body before prayer. I didn’t see a separate ablution area in bathrooms in the other Muslim-majority countries such as Morocco, Indonesia, and Malaysia, so I thought that it’s neat that some bathrooms in Dubai had its patrons in mind and made the cleaning process more comfortable for them.
China: The land of squat toilets
Of all the toilets I’ve used, the ones I dreaded the most were perhaps the squat toilets that reign supreme in China and other parts of Asia. In a typical Chinese bathroom (excluding hotels and fancy malls), there’s usually no toilet paper inside the stall, so I’d have to remember to always have a pack of tissues with me. There are no hooks to hang my bag on and the floor is usually dirty so I’d have to wear my purse or backpack with me as I do my business. My legs were not accustomed to squatting in that particular position so it was not comfortable and I had to constantly worry about falling over/in (yikes!). I had to really pay attention to where I aim so that there’s no splashback. While a lot of squat toilets in major Chinese cities now have a working flush system, some outdated ones still require you to get a bucket of water from outside the stall to flush. As a result, those stank quite a bit since not everyone is courteous enough to do it for the next person. I dreaded the squat toilets so much that I would actively seek out the disability toilets or fancier malls so that I could use a sitting style toilet. Interestingly, most local women actually prefer the squatting style toilets since they don’t want to make contact with a toilet seat. The grandmas here in China must have some serious quads.
Interestingly, we saw a very different kind of toilet inside a lounge at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport. This toilet not only cleans your bottom but also your rectum 😂. The instructions are hilarious:
- Seat on the press rectum cleaning. Follow your feeling to direct spray at the entrance with nozzle position
2. Adjust up the water pressure gradually with ‘Water Pressure’ button and keep relaxed to accept water in
3. Water in and feel more and more intense, stay the course so as to do deeper cleaning
4. Press stop and hole on for 2 seconds spray-hiding then enjoy emptying all toxin and water inside out
Conclusion
And with the rectum-cleaning toilet exhibit above, I hereby conclude the curious sightings and commentary on the bathrooms around the world. In addition to reflecting a country’s cultural practices and preferences, the bathrooms also often reflect a place’s economic conditions through attributes such as cleanliness and amenities.
