Japanese Bathrooms: A Microcosm of Japanese Manners

A lot is made of Japanese manners and efficiency. Even with only one week in Japan under my belt, I feel confident in saying that, in my experience at least, the extent and impeccable nature of both are not exaggerated. Bathrooms are one of the best examples of manners and efficiency coming together here like nowhere else I've been. More than one of the places we've stayed with shared bathrooms have been equipped with toilets from the future equipped with one or more of the following features: heated seats with built-in front and rear bidets, a button controlling optional artificial flushing noises to mask embarrassing natural ones, and a faucet on top of the tank that runs when you flush so you can wash your hands as the tank fills.

In many public restrooms western toilets are absent altogether.  No robo-seat, instead only a famous Asian squat-toilet.  Even the holes, when you think about it, could easily be a product of Japanese culture and its unique combination of manners and efficiency: A hole has no seat to clean and no chance for the embarrassment that might be caused should ones butt-germs travel from the seat of a barbaric western throne to the arse of a stranger.

I have been to only two or three bathrooms so far with paper towels or a hand-drying method of any kind. One or two have had the energy efficient super-sweet new blowers (the fast-blowing kind you stick your hands in), but most have nothing. Instead, Japanese carry their own small towels for the sole purpose of drying ones hands after using the restroom. It seems to me that dedication to efficiency and respect (or manners) can often automatically result in conservation and other elegant benefits.

Japan has an ancient and distinct culture built on pillars of  honor, tradition, and respect. These age-old values actually lend themselves better than one might expect to modern Japan. Most of the famed Japanese cultural features seem alive in well, even in younger Japanese. However, concern over an elderly majority here are evident.  Older Japanese outnumber younger Japanese by a margin of nearly two to one. The Japanese birthrate is declining and population growth has been stunted as a result.

Younger generations here do seem to be bucking some of the more mundane traditional mannar-related stigmas, such as eating while walking. Oddly, others, like not blowing ones nose in public, have persisted. Happily, the practices of bowing (complete with it's own complicated etiquette and hierarchy) and taking ones shoes off before coming inside are still alive and well.

Thus far, our trip has predominantly taken us to cities - Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara (we did spend one night in Koyasan, a tranquil town at the top of small Mt. Koya) - all in the Kansai region of Japan.  The next leg of our Japan trip will take us to a few new regions and several smaller towns.  After our full three weeks here I may redact most of these musings.  Or, perhaps, Japan is as others have said it is - a unified country, confident and firm in its traditions, culture, and national identity. Time will tell!