Toilets

It's about time that I made a post about Taiwan toilets. Cultural differences surrounding the places where we deal with the common human predicament of elimination can be quiet entertaining. One of my favorite blog posts of my good friend who lived in Mongolia for a couple years was about signs found in toilet stalls. I've tried to capture a few good shots of my own to help you get a sense of the toilet adventures here :)

First off, below is the main reason that my 10-year old nephew is saving his pennies and planning to come visit us next fall: he wants to use our "robot toilet." Our boys love that it greets you by opening its lid and turning on a low-glow light in the bowl. It has spray jets and blow dryers and buttons galore. It's all in Japanese so our Chinese lessons haven't been helping us understand it much better over these past many months. Trial and error is the way to go.

Here is an example of the cool family toilets at a Taiwan rest stop. These rest stops are pretty snazzy (we've even seen live music entertainment at a couple of them) so it only makes sense that their toilets don't disappoint either.

In Taipei, at the metro station, one can benefit from a live display of toilet stall occupancy. Very useful when gauging if you have time to wait in line before trying to catch your train! If they wanted to take it a step further, there could be a display of how long each stall has been occupied, giving you a rough idea of when it may become available (and encouraging people to not linger ). Just kidding. Bad and humiliating idea.

Most restrooms here give you a choice of squaty-potties or "Western-style" toilets. There is an image on the stall doors indicating which type it is--normally in a 5 to 1 ratio in favor of the squat style. At first I was baffled to see ladies leave the throne stalls empty while they waited in line for the squat holes. Funny thing is I find myself often taking that option now too. It is nice to not have to touch anything.

Notice the useful images on this restroom's doors. Most often they don't include a person demonstrating the proper use. To be honest, I wasn't sure at first which direction to face when using the squat potties.

Julien is demonstrating the wrong way to use them (this is back in September, we've come a long way since then).

It's a compelling thing to read the signs in restroom stalls--guess there isn't much else to do. Some of them have English so I know exactly what is meant:

Others leave me guessing a bit after they reel me in with a friendly English intro:

Luckily I played it safe in the situation below, figuring that nothing good could have been meant by that sign. I quickly took a step back after flushing and was spared splashes from the geyser that spewed forth: