The Ultimate Toilet Seat-便座の文化

Upon entering, with a sudden but quiet "pattah" the toilet seat cover flips open! I haven't touched anything, you see. At this point, certain people would have jumped away with a faint "kyaah" yelp, I imagine. Next, by long-established habit, I pulled up the seat now with my right-hand and did the rest of what I had come here to do. Ahhhh! But, a lingering sensation reminded me about that seat cover...it did flip open by itself, did it? and when I manually pulled up the seat itself, I remembered its slight resistance to my pull. These are the odd moments we each experience in our personal lives.

If my friends were not in the dining room and I had just myself to pause and think about what happened a few minutes ago, I suppose I would have checked things out right there and then. But your mind is more preoccupied about going back out to join my companions ...and there was also dessert and coffee being brought out to the table.

So, it was perhaps an hour later that it occurred me to ask my brother with the question, "does your toilet seat flip up automatically?" "oh yes" he responds matter-of-factly...."and the seat also does the same"...."??" (I opened that manually, remember?). "how?" I continued to ask. "By activating the electronic sensor when you approach the toilet", he replies. Sure enough. "that's pretty clever", I say, profoundly impressed.by what the Japanese toilet makers can think up! My brother concludes this little denouement with, "both the seat and the cover close down automatically also, of course, when you leave." "Wow!":

Actually, what I want to say from my wonderful (and odd!) encounter with this toilet seat incident is that there may be a relationship between the luxury of a "sitting environment" and the general lack of space in Japanese homes and surroundings - a question I wish to share with you today.

Beyond the obvious fact of providing comfort to the sitting position, I believe there is something more. That is, given Japan's limited land area, urban density, and crowding, it may be a reactive impulse that more care and attention is devoted to the accommodation of the sitting mode - that is, the stationary position. Sitting is also the body at rest. Whether for bowel movement or sipping tea, or riding in a taxi or Shinkansen, it signifies a temporary break from the furious pace of the hectic day - a personal space and time to be relished.

Take the Shinkansen's passenger seats which are much simplified now but until recently, one used to see a collapsible cup holder, a retractable tiny table, snap-out coat hanger, a reclining button, footrest, ash-tray, and so on ...not too many other societies have I seen such detail invested in a train seat. Products today found in Japan which accommodate the sitting act have become self-indulgent, a long way from that universally flexible zabuton used on the zashiki.

Since it's not always possible to acquire larger spaces nor expand a given space in Japan's crowded surroundings, maximum amenity surround the sitting environment, pampering the user, intended to ensure that it really feels good and luxuriant! Combined with a sense of improved hygiene which often accompanies better living standards and status, the modern upscale 'washlet", "shower-toilet" technology is endowed with innovative gadgetry - sensors which activate ejections of warm water, dry air, and now toilet seat operations....if you can't get luxury with a larger space, ie the toilet room size which in Japan is still very cramped and windowless, you can at least be compensated by being pampered in the limited acts of sitting at the pot...hey, I am hardly complaining here, I love a comfortable toilet seat ...I just wish that TOTO and INAX will soon come out with automatic flush action...like those at urinals in public toilets. Then it will be all hands-free. Just sit and meditate!

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