Many moons ago, when I was a token female manager at a Japanese investment house, my elderly boss recounted fascinating stories of the way Japanese society had changed over the years. En route to one client meeting, he remarked upon the effects of Japanese girls’ increased wealth and freedom: they now travelled the world over, whilst continuing to reside with their parents – whereas boys were expected to leave home and become salarymen. The girls’ new found independence caused them to have higher expectations of Japanese men, demanding what my boss called ‘the three highs’: high education, high income and high height.
Of course, Japan is quite big on ‘highs’ – with its high speed trains, and all manner of high-tech gadgets to fulfil increasingly high requirements in every aspect of daily life. And then there’s the curious Japanese obsession with hygiene…
A couple of posts by Brit made me recall a recent visit to TOTO’s new showroom in London’s Clerkenwell. For the uninitiated, this TOTO is not the American pop/rock band, but a Japanese manufacturer of the ‘bidet toilets’, commonly known as ‘washlets’, which are now found in almost 70% of Japanese households. These unnervingly high-tech devices, costing up to £8000 a pop (if you’ll excuse the expression), are clearly designed for masters of the lavatorial universe. And now TOTO is threatening to revolutionise Europe with its ‘life-enhancing Clean Technology mantra’.
“It is with understandable trepidation that newcomers are given free reign to recast a classic design. However all anxiety evaporated as TOTO’s collaboration with Italian master craftsman Stefano Giovannoni produced results that are much more than just a perfunctory upgrade. The Giovannoni WASHLET is the dawn of TOTO’s entry into European culture,” enthuses their press release.
In case you’re getting a little concerned, Giovannoni’s elegantly modern design in no way detracts from the overall functionality of the washlet. The state of the art technology includes a self-cleaning washing wand (with front, rear or oscillating settings), heated seat, deodoriser, and the Giovannoni remote control, with its own special stand that conveniently doubles up as a handy loo roll holder.
The luxurious lav also boasts the ‘Tornado Flush’, a revolutionary triple-jet rimless flushing system. “The Giovannoni WASHLET captures both the essence of Italian style and the sophistication of Japanese bathroom culture.”
Whatever would Thomas Crapper have to say?
Faith, isn’t this all a bit anal Susan? Struggled to watch the vid, but it set me thinking that the goings-on in the ‘small room’ are one of life’s great riddles. From HRH to Piers Morgan we can speculate about how folk ‘clean up’, but the fact is that we only really know our own technique in it’s simplicity, or perhaps complexity. The Washlet, it seems to me, is yet another technological cross-breed designed to standardize us all and, in this case, relieve us of the sort of money that bought me a fine Georgian house in Dublin, in the early 70’s.
The French, surely, brought us to the apogee with the bidet, and with no input from the national grid. A warm flush and a pubic hair dryer, but no soap? Not on my watch.
Ah Mahlerman, you may be interested to know that these curious contraptions can also come with built in MP3 player. I guess ones choice of lavatorial ‘apps’ is also a very personal thing, much like taste in music and sense of humour? By the way, Henry VIII apparently had someone to ‘clean up’ on his behalf – The Groom of the Stool was a high ranking courtier…
Help! Due to technical difficulties, the video has curiously disappeared. Hope to eventually master the finer details of WP.
Dear me, the dude in that video really does no know shame, does he?
Notice how the first things the user touches after wiping their bum, and before they have the opportunity to wash their hands, are the control buttons that the next user will touch.
Is it possible to use this device wearing rigger gloves does anybody know?
Pete
these things are the bathroom equivalent of waffle-makers or clairol footspas – utterly utterly pointless gadgetry.
I once had a book of Japanese Unuseless Inventions. They’re a funny lot, aren’t they?
By the way Susan, the world is waiting for your epoch-making post on Cravats – the Way Forward…
Japanese culture is indeed very curious. Some nuances get lost in translation too.. the word ‘hai’ means ‘yes’ in Japanese.
Just back from Paris – as yet no evidence of a couture cravat craze. They’re holding out for my post…Coming soon, promise x