I don't want to make anyone feel bad, but, my grandpa's toilet is cooler that your grandpa's toilet. I'm serious. My grandpa and his wife just had two Japanese toilets installed, and let me tell you, you have never had your fanny on a more technologically advanced piece of plumbing than these babies! The seat lifts up when you walk up to it. If you want the seat as well as the lid to go up you just push a button. There is also a button for lowering the seat and lid. There is a computerized control panel and an instruction manual for crying out loud! Pictured here is the quick overview set of instructions. There is also a book sized manual for the finer points of operating this marvelous contraption.
The built in bidet offers both front and rear cleansing. You can choose oscillating or pulsating and normal or soft water pressure. Then you can dry your derriere with the dryer feature. The bidet feature only works when you are sitting down-- there is a sensor. This ensures you don't accidentally spray water all over your bathroom if the buttons are accidentally pushed. (I mean, really, most drive though car washes are not this sophisticated!)
Oh, and did I mention that the seat is heated? It sounds a little weird at first-- but let me tell you it feels great! I lived in apartments on my mission that had heated toilet seats (its not uncommon in Japan, even with normal toilets). With the lack of central heating (also not uncommon in Japan), a heated toilet seat can be a pretty welcome attraction to your bathroom in the winter.
When you are finished, you can stand up and the toilet flushes itself. Or should you so choose you can push the flush button on the control panel. In case of a power outage, there is no need to worry, a manual emergency flush handle on the side of the toilet will do the job as well. 
I tried a couple of these type of toilets on my mission when visiting the homes of wealthy folk. It is a little crazy to see one here in America! I hope that you, too, will one day get to use one of these technologically advanced commodes! Here is a little video to give you a taste of the experience (or at least the lid opening).
*If you feel you must know more about Japanese toilets through the ages, I discovered an entire Wikipedia article on it. Enjoy.
6 comments:
So that's what all those buttons say in English! I always wondered. We had a similarly fabulous toilet in Japan. And I loved the heated seat. Ours had a remote though. Which we only found useful when my father-in-law was visiting and Joey activated the "rear cleaning" from outside the bathroom. HA HA HA HA. We had a good laugh about that. Did they happen to see the Toto ads here a while back? I'm just curious how they heard about these. http://franklinchronicle.blogspot.com/2007/06/some-jobs-should-never-be-outsourced.html
Ha ha! Wow, that IS really fancy. I love the heated seat too. But aren't you just biased towards this toilet because it's Japanese? ;)
-Monica
The Japanese Toilet is really a toilet bidet combination and although nice is also very expensive. You can keep your current toilet and get the same benefits by adding a hand bidet sprayer for very little cost. A hand held bathroom bidet sprayer is so much better than a stand alone bidet and this is why: 1. It's less expensive (potentially allot less) 2.You can install it yourself = no plumber expense 3. It works better by providing more control of where the water spray goes and a greater volume of water flow. 4. It requires no electricity and there are few things that can go wrong with it. Available at http://www.bathroomsprayers.com
Oh how I love the Japanese!
oooo, LOVE it. you're right, your grandpa's toilet IS cooler than my grandpa's toilet...or my parents', or mine. :) i should look into that! i should ask nathan if he had that stuff on his mish.
LOL! Boy do I remember those, both from living in Japan as a child, and visiting some of the wealthier families on the mish as well. Those toilets are fun ;)
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