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The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

nytimes.com

41–50 of 406 posts

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#41

These are neat, but not an option for those in rentals/apartments. Instead, on the advice here, about five years ago I bought a “bum gun” from Home Depot, the fancy stainless steel version for maybe $60 at the time. https://www.homedepot.com/b/Bath-Bidets-Handheld-Bidets/N-5y... These deliver 90% of the benefits for under 10% of the cost, and less maintenance. It’s like a small metal garden hose with gun shaped valve…

They're totally installable in a rental, takes about half an hour to install the first time, and about ten minutes to remove when you move out.

The only thing is that one will typically need to run an extension cord to reach the toilet, but typically apartment bathrooms are pretty small anyway so it's not a particularly long extension cord.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#42

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

>If its not aimed correctly, where does the splash go? If you're lucky it stays in the toilet boil. However if your aim is off, you can completely miss your anus and either shoot to much under or over which will shoot the water outside of the toilet bowl.

so slowly squeeze the trigger to confirm the aim is correct, rather than going full blast at the start?

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those wet wipes shouldn't be flushed down the down the toilet, even if they're labeled "flushable", here's a nice PDF infographic from the city of Los Angeles explaining why: https://sanitation.lacity.gov/san/sandocview?docname=cnt0365...

It's a good thing not everyone lives in LA.

This is a rather glib reply that doesn't address the substance of the post you're replying to.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#44

I've used less advanced versions for a few years. The quality varies; the most recent one we put in is pretty horrible to use (but better than nothing). I've always wanted to try a real Toto, especially with the drying feature. A word of warning for female users: > Habitual use of bidet toilets aggravates vaginal microflora, either by depriving normal microflora or facilitating opportunistic infection of fecal bacter…

[deleted]

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#45
post #26
post #22

This isn't the first thing that comes to mind when I read "Japanese toilet", what is the name of the toilet that is in the ground, that long oval shape with bump in front (or back?) Update: "washiki" is the name

Washiki literally means “Japanese style” and can be used in other contexts but, in general conversation has come to mean “Japanese style toilet”.

Yes but it is fundamentally different what article pictures as "japanese toilet", so the article is about "japanese western toilet" not "japanese squating toilet".

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#46

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

Those hand sprayer versions are bad to use and unhygienic too, because fecal matter gets sprayed beyond the toilet bowl. I know why Arabic countries prefer hand sprayer versions: istinja practices of Islam.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#47
post #21

I've used less advanced versions for a few years. The quality varies; the most recent one we put in is pretty horrible to use (but better than nothing). I've always wanted to try a real Toto, especially with the drying feature. A word of warning for female users: > Habitual use of bidet toilets aggravates vaginal microflora, either by depriving normal microflora or facilitating opportunistic infection of fecal bacter…

From https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/are-bidet... > Over washing the anus risks removing the sebum, which lubricates the surface. There have been reports of problems caused by over drying of peripheral areas > This leaves the body vulnerable to dermatitis and possibly invasion of staphylococcus aureus bacteria. From https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8553346/ > Outbreaks of resistant bacteria…

Seems like some of those problems could be partially addressed. Such as a retractable metal nozzle that is sanitized with heat or steam after use, not using warm water, reducing spray velocity, adjusting angle of spray, limiting spray time and throttling subsequent sprays, etc.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#48
post #12
post #4

A bidet is standard equipment in Argentinian homes, even the poorest houses have it. Once you get used to it, it’s incomprehensible that in other countries people just wipe and…hope for the best. But often it’s hard to install one in bathrooms that are not designed for it. So a Japanese toilet is a somewhat over the top solution in our house.

If it's standard equipment, why wouldn't bathrooms be designed for it? New expectations? Something else?

Ideally you need nearby electrical and ability to get water to the washlet seat. Which is fairly easy/cheap in a bathroom remodel (which is what I did) but not necessarily easy/cheap otherwise. (There are simpler ways you can get part-way there as noted in this thread.)

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#49
post #31

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

What’s weird about it. I assume you do clean down there with soap periodically … right?

Yes but typically I’m not wearing clothes when I do that.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#50
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most need power at the toilet. Not allowed to be exposed near water in US bathrooms without circuit breaker and so are not installed.

You should already have a circuit breaker at the panel. A GFCI outlet is needed if your breaker is not GFCI already, but this receptacle is something that isn't terribly expensive.

Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. These are common near a sink but approximately never behind the toilet in home in the US.
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