“For most of the night the rain splashed out of holes in the drainpipe and clattered on the window panes. And when I went downstairs to the lavatory, I found it crawling with inquisitive, bright orange maggots.

The rain stopped at five o’clock but the maggots were still there when I finally got up. So twice in the space of a couple of hours I was glad that rural Japanese-style lavatories… did not require my bum to come in contact with the porcelain. Hygienic-minded people have praised the arrangement on this account, though I can think of several drawbacks; …the pains and cramps that an unsupported squat must inflict on the elderly, the ill, the crippled, or the heavily pregnant. And here were a few dozen more little drawbacks, doing orange congas round the inside of the bowl.”

(Alan Booth in Looking for the Lost p. 173)

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Posted on April 2nd, 2009 under Japan • Tags: alan booth, japanese toilet, toilets. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback