Tourist Finds Japan’s Toilets Her Trip’s Highlight

In a recent article by Business Insider, a traveler to Japan claims the highlight of her trip was not the sights and sounds of Tokyo but instead, the sounds and lights and heated seats of the country’s toilets.

Writer India Kushner, who went to Japan to celebrate her honeymoon with her new husband, said in her article that she was actually looking forward to seeing Japan’s high-tech toilets firsthand.

According to Kushner, she wasn’t disappointed. Toilet technology she experienced included lids that raise automatically without touch, built-in bidets, heated seats, lights, and privacy sounds, which cover up any embarrassing noises the toilet’s user might be emitting.

Her first experience with Japanese toilet technology was in the airport’s restroom after she and her husband had landed in Tokyo. Faced with a row of buttons in the restroom stall, Kushner—an admitted “nervous pee-er”—selected the privacy sounds, which resembled running water.

“It was the most serene bathroom experience I had ever encountered,” she wrote, “and we hadn’t even left the airport yet. Not only could I pee in peace, but the entire bathroom was very clean.”

Months later, Kushner confessed that she was still thinking about the toilets and wishing she could find something similar within the United States. “While I may not be able to completely recreate the zen aesthetic of Japanese toilets, I’m glad I could experience Japanese toilets for myself,” she wrote. “It will always be one of my favorite parts of the trip.”