Can We Talk About Toilets?

Who knew that the humble toilet could could be so vastly improved upon. Starting with the warm seat – omg. Though Don has opined that if he had to choose between the heated seat and a heated floor, he would rather his feet felt that most pleasing sensation. I’ll take both if offered, thank you very much. (No photo here, for obvious reasons.)

Then there are the cleansing options: spray with adjustable strength and position, front and back options, deodorizer (haven’t tried that one), and even music to block out any offensive sounds you might be making! And I’m sure I have missed a few options. Your choice: all or none. Oh and full or half flush – that is pretty much the only one western toilets have embraced so far.

You will see from this photo that I took at the zoo yesterday, even the public Totos have some great options. A little seat to put your baby in while you use the can, and a toddler seat. Just out of the photo is a sanitizing liquid that you can use to clean everything first if you want. The public ones have a manual flush, but still the same cleansing options.

There is even a squatty potty option for people who don’t want to sit on the seat, complete with instructional diagram. Though it doesn’t appear that there are cleansing options for this one.

The one in our hotel room doesn’t have music, but check out the options:

One final note of caution – don’t press any of the buttons if you are not sitting on the Toto – water geyser is not an intended outcome.

And now that I have gotten that out of my system, I would like to share the view from my office. From this height, the city creates a landscape of shapes and colours as far as the eye can see. Mt Fuji is there too, and we have been able to glimpse it twice during our stay once during the day and once at sunset.

And the night time view of the Skytree Tower from the other side of the hotel is magnificent too:

Yesterday Don and I went back to the park he and David had found the day before. It is called Ueno Park and includes a zoo. Now, I am not a fan of old fashioned zoos but the call of the giant panda bear mother and cubs (cubs being as big a her now) was strong. Now that we are seniors, we get half priced tickets – only $3 each to enter! And we only had to wait about 25 minutes to see the smiling panda cub enjoying his nap.

It was a timed exhibit though, and it wasn’t long before I felt a gentle tap tap on my butt. Which I ignored as long as possible while trying to get into the best position for the above shot, but the tiny lady was persistent and when I turned towards her, I saw that she was really only trying to nudge me forward (with a ball on the end of a long pole) a few inches, so that she could close the gate behind me to distinguish the next group. All of whom were giggling at this point.

We also saw the Sumatran tigers (they are huge!) and a polar bear who was seemingly playing a game of chicken with a bunch of tiny toddlers.

Ueno is also a beautiful park

One of the unexpected benefits of travelling in a country where sitting in the sun is discouraged, is that there is plenty of available seating in what we would consider to be the prime spots. Lunch was – in Japanese – potatoes fry, Frankfurt, and beeru!

Everyone was doing their own thing during the day and also for dinner, so we braved going to a tiny neighbourhood pizza place that is off off the beaten track. We had noticed it on the way to the park via the back streets and even though there were obviously no English menus, there were helpful photos. And it’s wood fired pizza!

What should we order?

I texted David to ask how to say “red wine” and his reply was “redo wuine”. So I tried that and the kind waiter asked “red wine?”. Yes!! Thank you!!

Best pizza this side of Italy, topped off with a crème brûlée that was to die for.

Today we are packing up and heading to Kyoto, where we will all be staying in a traditional Japanese house, complete with kitchen. But first – the bullet train!!! Stay tuned, this is going to be fun . . .