
photo: Tania Amochaev
Ten Ways to Know When You Are in Japan
By Tania Amochaev
- If the beds are hard and cold, and the toilet seats are soft and warm, you are in Japan.
- If breakfast looks like pickled cocktail party snacks that would go well with sake, you are in Japan.
- If everyone bows 15° when they approach you, or 30° if you seem important, you are in Japan.
- If there’s a vending machine every hundred meters with both cold and hot bottled drinks, you are in Japan.
- If the public restroom has many indented holes and only one recognizable toilet, and the toilet is the only thing with instructions on use posted above it, you are in Japan.
- If the gardeners trim the lawn with manicure scissors, you are in Japan.
- If everyone on the escalator hugs the left side, you are in Japan … unless you are in Kyoto where everyone hugs the right side.
- If the busy shops along the street are full of beige and green small round pasty-looking things, you are in Japan.
- If there’s a 7-Eleven on every corner but you recognize none of the goods inside, you are in Japan.
- If toilet lids raise in welcome as you approach, you are definitely still in Japan.
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Grrrr … the header is showing that I wrote the story. NO. Tania wrote the story. I just posted it. I’ve got to find a way to fix that. Any ideas?
I’ve never been to Japan, but now I know the ten reasons to go there (rising toilet seats!) I’m definitely going.
Thanks for sharing this.
No, no, no … raising toilet seats, Joanna. Think about it.
Raising, rising, … either way, that’s not the best part about Japanese toilets. Think heated seats, music that plays when you sit down, and an automatic wash cycle.