Young Writers Society

Porcelain Beauty

I found Tokyo to be a new mode of urban life. The hallmarks of several American cities that I visited aren’t common there: no cracked, beaten down streets with litter and dirt shoved into corners and crevices. No packs of cars abusing their horns. And no nauseating puffs of gasoline fumes. Instead the sidewalks were pristine I could eat off them, People swept the sidewalks, and Tokyo had quiet atmosphere in public spaces. People kept to themselves in a polite distance. Additionally, the volume of cars were greatly reduced because of the punctual, preferred subways and trains, the sleek circulatory system efficient as the one in our own body. One of the iconic examples of Japan’s acceptance of technology. Through these observations, I noted cleanliness, self-consciousness, and technology are Tokyo’s hallmarks.

However, these characteristics revealed themselves on the first day, the first hour of my trip in a small cubical, where the moment I opened the door, a symbol of Japan automatically opened its mouth at me.

Minutes later when I joined my mother outside, I exclaimed, “Mom, these toilets are amazing!”

Her eyes darted to the stream of people. She bent down and whispered, “Anna, you said that really loud.”

At that, my stomach dropped as I saw the remaining glances. They seemed irritated by another loud American excited over their toilets. With a face still flushed after my outburst, we followed the flow of people to the train station.

However, I felt my bewilderment valid. It was an encounter with a major shift in culture. I just didn’t realize it yet.

The advanced features emphasize Japan’s obsession with sanitation. On the control panel, there was a built in bidet for posterior, frontal, and rectum cleaning, and features for the toilet to self-sterilize. Ultimately it eliminated the nation’s hygiene horror: hands in close proximity to bodily functions.

To be fair, contact with bodily fluids cause diseases. Japan’s fanatical cleanliness is understandable because it is deeply rooted in Japan’s history and religion. Public baths emerged in Buddhist temples during the 17th century. For Buddhism and Shintoism, major Japanese religions, bathing is crucial. These religions associate purity and goodness with cleanliness and evil with defilement. Therefore, this mindset developed in the language. Clean or Kirei is synonymous with pretty and dirty or Fuketsu mean ugly.

With relief, I observed there were no cracks in the stall door for curious children to peak through and the walls extended from the floor to ceiling, so I don’t have to awkwardly catch my stall neighbor’s pants pooled at the end of their legs. This reminded me of the cultural dichotomy of public self-consciousness and private indulgence. The walls created an individual space. Furthermore, other toilet features were purposed for comfort: seat warmers and white noise. Initially, I thought the button with the musical note would play elevator music although when I pressed the button, it turned out to be a false flushing noise. I later learned the flushing sound was considered relaxing (flushing noise makes me irrationally anxious), yet it played an even greater social purpose: It fulfilled the desire to prevent public disturbance. Companies implemented this because bathroom goers, mostly women, wasted several gallons of water by flushing multiple times to cover any unsavory sounds. The white noise prevents impeding on anyone else’s personal space, which is a commodity on the small island nation.

Finally, the Japanese toilets exposed me to their acceptance of technology. In addition to the features I mentioned previously, I also discovered that were newer models that measure blood pressure and body fat percentage. These were more so implanted in work environment to analyze worker’s health during their time in the bathroom. This highlights their aspiration for efficiency. Their heightened dependency on machinery and automation likewise exemplified their fearlessness of it. Vending machines are on practically every street. Why? It’s because it’s easier and cheaper to pay one person to maintain 30 machines than it is to pay for 30 workers. To United States, a society of automation is a blurry vision. In a few years, they aim to implement automated cashiers whereas in Tokyo, it’s already a reality.

The modern Japanese toilet gave me as much insight into Japan’s way of life as walking the street did. I think because the business of doing our business is an taboo moment, we disregard the cultural significance. However, I realized through scrutinizing over Japan’s porcelain beauty that culture expresses itself in the most unexpected of places.

Anna Palagano is a senior at Mid-Pacific. She loves English and writing just as much as she loves traveling with her family to the places around the country such as Atlanta, Boston, New York City, the Grand Canyon, and Kaui, and she has been to a few places outside the country as well such as Bora Bora and the Caribbean. Her favorite things to do when she journeys to a new destination is to read and write Harry Potter fanfiction to eat a lot of food and walk it off visiting attractions.