Japan has an impressive variety of toilets. Traditionally, the French style hole in the ground is quite popular, often providing something of an IQ test in terms of how to approach it,… at least without dropping all your belongings out of your pockets down the hole in the process.


Traditional bog


At the other end of the scale, is the western style, with the fully automatic washing and drying system, with power and temperature control. This is a standard ‘western’ toilet with multifunction seat.


The controls are usually on the ‘arm’, but sometimes remote.


This toilet is only equipped with a heated seat, but a second popular feature (seen here) is that the cistern fills via a tap and small basin, a kind of eco-friendly built in grey water system.