One weird thing in Japan is the bathrooms. I really like the toilets with heated seats, bidets, automatic lowering lids, and everything else under the sun. However, the Japanese style toilets are quite annoying. They are basic squat and go to the bathroom in a big hole type of things. I still don't understand how that would ever be the preferred method of going to the bathroom, but I have noticed that many of the Japanese teachers will use the Japanese toilet instead of the western one. Maybe it forces you to go quicker since there's no heated seats to encourage you to stay for awhile.

I don't mind the occasional Japanese toilet, since many of them are being phased out quickly. What does bother me is that many times there is a lack of privacy while going to the bathroom, especially for men. When we took the train to Kyoto, I was really surprised at the toilets. There was one locking toilet with a closing door that was co-ed. There was also a urinal for men in a small side door. This door had a big window however, so anyone who wanted to could see you peeing. They also decided that putting a lock on the door was a luxury, so there was no lock either. It was more than a little weird watching people walk by while I was peeing.

This is not the first time I've used urinals that are visible to people passing by. It happened in Kyoto at some of the shrines, and at random restrooms in Toyama too. One of the worst times was on Mt. Fuji. The bathrooms on the mountain are just pit toilets in shacks normally. At the very top there was a bathroom, but it was set up really strangely. As you walked in, there were urinals on both sides. To get to the pit toilets you had to keep walking. These pit toilets were for men and women. So women had to walk by all the men peeing to get to the bathroom. I just don't understand it sometimes.