The Japanese Toilet

Saturday, January 28, 2012
Posted by: Tootsie, not Tootie (insert flushing sound here):

Since apparently I--the one cursed with a tender tummy--have become the family spokesperson on using the toilet while traveling abroad, I thought I should include a short essay on The Japanese Toilet.

I first met up with The Japanese Toilet during our 5 second layover in Narita on the way to Vietnam. As you may remember, an airport employee was waiting for us when we got off the plane from Seattle--and what we thought would be a 3 hour layover had been changed (or perhaps was confused because of the time change/difference??) and we now had about 10 minutes before our flight to Vietnam took off. While MarcoPolo and TwoLively waited for the 4 super-efficient workers to make sure we got on the next flight, I, of course, had to use the bathroom!

I ran to the nearest restroom (not because I was in a rush to use the toilet this time, but because of the general rush to get on the plane...) and was startled to find that not only were each of the stalls extremely private (none of the big gaping cracks like we have in US public restrooms- you know the kind that while you are sitting there you can actually see the person washing their hands in the sink across from your stall's entire outfit- hair to toenail polish) but they offered a variety of toilets to choose from! I was caught off guard when I opened the first door and found what I like to call "The Amazing Japanese Toilet from the Future/and/or Outer Space."

Look at everything it can do! Just a little intimidating at first...

There were waaaay too many buttons on that one--and I was in a hurry--so I backed out of that stall and went into the second stall. The second also startled me because it was a squat toilet (little did I know that THIS squat toilet was a lot nicer than the ones I would come to know shortly in Vietnam.)

I didn't know which direction you were to face... Is it different if you are a boy or girl?? Who knew? I sure didn't!

Too bad the Narita Airport didn't have a how-to plaque like this!

The third door held the most familiar and straightforward option: a "Western" toilet. You sit down in an obvious direction, you do your business, the paperwork, and flush. That's it! Easy-said and easy-done. I made a mental note that I would have to further investigate the awesome selection of toilets during our long layover on the way home.

I remember this, and even before we left the airport for our Narita adventure, I had to try out "The Amazing Japanese Toilet from the Future/and/or Outer Space." I tried it all: bidet, shower, heated-seat, adjustable water temperature and pressure, flushing sounds, deodorizing spray...you name it...if it was on the control panel, I tried it. And before you go judging me saying, "EWWWW a bidet???" just remember: "Don't knock it 'til you try it!" And I say TRY IT! It was like having a video game installed on the side of your toilet.

So if there is some "Amazing Japanese Toilet from the Future/and/or Outer Space" company that wants me to try out their product--in the comfort of my own home--and blog about it every day: I'll do it! Don't underestimate the power of the bidet to provide a clean and happy bootay. And, as we all know, a clean bootay makes for a happier, healthier you!

Back in the US of A!

We're back...recovering from jet-lag...catching up on non-healthy 'merican food. 
We have converted some of the videos (Coaster Bob, etc.) and loaded them to the blog. We'll be going back, and changing pictures to match the blog content. We'll be adding content from the last few days, too.

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Wait...there's more!
Check back, 'cuz we'll update this blog with EVEN MORE stuff, including...

The Debriefing (After the trip: what we did right...and wrong)
The Trip Preparation (The Notebook, immunizations, etc.)

Shout-out to our #1 stalker, KWM

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God bless the USA!

Getting Ready For The Trip

Believe it or not, somehow we managed to do a few things right:

Tootsie happens to work at a hospital, and knows an infectious disease doctor. He took the time to give some advice to Tootsie and referred her to his website: www.travelhealthadvisor.com. From this website, the group got some great information about immunizations and other medications and diseases to be aware of while traveling the world.

Fry's Minute Clinic:
shots
prescription antibiotic for diarrhea
Malaria pills (make sure they are specific for your travel region)

TwoLively and MarcoPolo soaked their jeans in Permethrin, and were not bitten by mosquitos.

We were told to take crisp, clean, basically brand new $100 bills to pay for everything on the trip. ATM machines are few and very far between in Vietnam and we didn't want to incur any extra fees by using them. If you need a substantial amount of money in certain denominations, call your bank or credit union first. Most banks/credit unions can order new bills for you if you give them a few days notice. Even though we didn't do that, we were able to get what we needed. MarcoPolo had to go to a few branches of his credit union to get his bills.

Carrying around all that money can make you feel really nervous. Some of us used money belts or clips while others just kept their wallets basically at their fingertips at all times.

Set up blog account on Blogger.com
It's a pain-in-the-neck to add pictures to Blogger, so we downloaded PhotoScape (a free program for creating picture collages) We never saw any instructions--so good thing it's a fairly intuitive program. Open the program, click on the "Combine" tab, then start dropping pictures in! The settings we adjusted: select the "Checker" tab, outer margin: 25 (black edge around photos), intervals: 25 (black lines between photos), columns: 3 (to display 3 pictures across), slide preview zoom down to 10% (so you can see the photo montage) -- then Save. To quickly delete the pictures and start over, hi-lite all the pictures, then hit "delete." Voila!

SKYPE
Skype was a great way to keep in touch with the family members that didn't come with us on the trip. It was great to see familiar faces and show them "live" pictures of us and what we were doing. The Griffith patriarch and matriarch even learned how to Skype (and even though it was just a few days before we came home...they actually figured out the time difference and didn't call us at 3:00am, We were all impressed that they could answer/initiate video calls all by themselves!)

Big Kudos to the Travel Agent and her family for planning everything for us. We had enough time to do A LOT of things and no time to be bored. The hotels were central to the things we wanted to see and do and we got a great deal on pretty much everything. Having local contacts is a huge bonus. We managed okay the few days we were on our own, but being with our "local family" made things much more accessible and easy for us.

Things We Should've Packed

With hind-sight, here are a few things we'd do differently:

• pack GasEx
• pack Dramamine (to knock Tootsie out during the flights!)
• pack toilet paper (so Tootsie wouldn't have to scramble when nature called)
• NOT bought ginormous Costco-size bottle of Tums, Immodium, etc. (too big to fit in a purse)
• bought single-wrap Wet Wipes (like Glinda) -- not a cylinder of Wet Wipes (hard to fit in purse)
• Carried a back-pack like Tootsie
• packed more ready-to-eat foods (granola bars, tuna and chicken w/ crackers, canned chicken/tuna, etc.)
• bought a laptop battery (so I could've blogged enroute on the bus)
• bought Permethrin pump bottle instead of aerosol bottle (nozzle broke)
• remembered the list I tediously compiled stating Vietnamese food by names (self-explanatory: ordering off Vietnamese menu would've been easier!)

I believe Glinda mentioned she wished she had dry shampoo.