Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#331

Post by dagw » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:10 AM UTC

arrrg wrote: post #39

patio11 wrote: post #5

Toto's primary sales channel is "If you build a house or office in Japan and don't specifically talk to your architect/contractor about your post-bowel movement preferences we will take the liberty of using the most current model Toto has available and then invoice you cost plus labor plus 50%." Toto does not have that relationship with the person responsible for picking your toilet. Why does Toto have that relations…

People don’t pick the toilets in their houses? I find that hard to imagine. People not picking the pipes or bricks that are used I can see, but the toilet? No way. Before I buy a toilet I want to at least sit on it and I cannot imagine anyone feeling any other way about that.

When I recently needed a new toilet I simply asked the plumber who would be installing it to swing by the shop and buy me one on the way over. I gave him a price range, told him to use his professional judgement and to bring me the receipt. Having to spend my Saturday schlepping all the way across town just to look at toilets is far too much a waste of my precious weekend.

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#332

Post by anotherbadlogin » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:12 AM UTC

So everyone's fine with having a dripping wet ass after taking a dump?

And toilet paper pretty much turns to pulp the instant water touches it, so if you wipe a dripping wet ass with it, you're going to have a pulpy ass.

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#333

Post by anotherbadlogin » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:14 AM UTC

veidr wrote: post #325

aptimpropriety wrote: post #9

Every one of these articles gets the pitch of these toilets completely wrong - for every person, and in every scenario, these are not universally better. Consider the following experiment: Smear some mud on your arm. Now, using a jet stream the power of a squirt gun and very low precision, wash it all off in 10 seconds. Not so easy. Then - imagine if you put mud on a place with hair! Not only will it not be clean wit…

I read a version of this argument in some US newspaper a while back. It completely misses the point. These ass-jet toilets are not intended to replace toilet paper. They are for getting your asshole (and ladyparts, but I can't testify on that topic) much cleaner in much less time than with conventional American toilets and dry paper alone. You use the ass-jet, then paper. That's how they work. (For a heinous bowel-mo…

Toilet paper disintegrates on contact with water. So if you wipe a sodden ass with it, you're going to leave a coating of pulp in your crack. That's OK?

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#334

Post by ZoFreX » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:22 AM UTC

mberning wrote: post #96

Try using a toilet in Germany. Without being too crass, you deposit your excrement onto a dry shelf, whereupon it may be inspected, or not, and then a rush of water slides it off the shelf to its destination.

They have really advanced toilet seats in some public bathrooms, though! Totally different angle to the Japanese - some of the toilets I used in Germany rotated the entire seat 360 degrees through a cleaning mechanism. Very hygienic!

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#335

Post by rsaarelm » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:27 AM UTC

Don't all new bathrooms have bidet showers?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet_shower

Huh, guess not. Those have been around in Finland at least since the late 80s, and don't have the "what's the deal with the computerized toilet seat" image problem.

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#336

Post by scotty79 » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:28 AM UTC

kghose wrote: post #154

mberning wrote: post #96

Try using a toilet in Germany. Without being too crass, you deposit your excrement onto a dry shelf, whereupon it may be inspected, or not, and then a rush of water slides it off the shelf to its destination.

1. Uses less water 2. No splash back

Double plus for no splashback. I don't get how people can suffer through this. I hate so much being splashed by dirty toilet water. And this happens like 50% of times for me while using non-german style toilet.

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#337

Post by ErrantX » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:42 AM UTC

brc wrote: post #287

ErrantX wrote: post #71

Also, economics. These toilets currently cost ~$500 more than a "normal" toilet. Of course, you do use significantly more toilet paper with the latter, but a pack is ~$5 and lasts ~ 1 month, so you'd still be looking at, what 8-10 year return on investment.

You are obviously a bachelor.

Nope! I live with my girlfriend :) You lot seem to be spending a lot on toilet paper!!

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#338

Post by anonymous » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:54 AM UTC

s_henry_paulson wrote: post #308

anonymous wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easier is subjective. The alternative OP is suggesting is sitting on the toilet and reaching between your legs. Personally, I find it easier to stand up, bend over and reach from behind.

Nay. Reaching between your legs? I'd honestly never even thought that was an option. You just lean to the side, while seated. Just try it once, and keep an open mind.

But that will put asymmetric stress on the toilet seat. As an engineer, wearing out one side of the seat more than the other bothers me.

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#339

Post by polymatter » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 10:53 AM UTC

wilfra wrote: post #259

jpatokal wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japanese oral hygiene is fine. It's cosmetic dentistry, braces etc that they don't really get.

They have notoriously bad breath and bad teeth. Travel guides for Japanese tourists even suggest they brush their teeth regularly and use mouthwash in America so as not to offend people.

[citation needed]

Re: Why aren't we all using Japanese toilets?

#340

Post by LeonidasXIV » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 11:47 AM UTC

kleiba wrote: post #297

eob wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they stand because that part of the world is used to squatting when they go to the bathroom. The "toilet as throne" model is from the west. Over there, historically, toilets are built into the floor. The toilet bowl is a rounded-rectangle depression in the floor rather than something that sticks out of it. You stand with one foot on either side of the bowl and squat while you do your business. I prefer Western to…

I've never personally used a Japanese toilet, so I'm genuinely interested: if you say your feet are to either side of the bowl, where do your lowered pants end up? Won't they be in the way?

I've been using them for a year in Japan, so there: You don't sit squarely on them (I don't know where you got the notion that your feet are on either side of the bowl), your feet are in front of the bowl, with the lowered pants in between. The pants are obviously below the opening of the bowl, so they don't get in the way.