Word: toileting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...even greater luxury was the thoughtfully pre-warmed toilet seat. Then came a disturbing discovery: Even though the other stalls were occupied, mine was the only one from which pee sounds were audible. All around me, I heard a great Zen-like steam of rushing water, but nary a human tinkle. I stopped mid-stream, overtaken by a sudden case of lavatory fright. In the land of toilets so fancy they sport buttons that manufacture artificial "flushing sounds," I had apparently committed a serious bathroom faux...
...Japanese bathrooms are the apotheosis of the nation's fascination with both cleanliness and high-tech gadgetry. The toilet at Tokyo Midtown may have been a rather basic model of what is called a "washlet," but its options included a warmed seat, bidet cleansing, spray cleansing (a rather different angle and spray from the bidet option), a "powerful deodorizer" and, of course, the "flushing sound" with adjustable volume. The last function is also ecologically friendly. Before the advent of the artificial running-water noise, many Japanese would camouflage the sound of their ablutions by flushing, thereby wasting tons of water...
...More than 60% of Japanese households are now equipped with washlets, and the unit available in the public bathrooms of the Tokyo Midtown pales in comparison to those that grace many Japanese homes and hotels. For just $5,000, Japan's largest toilet maker, Toto, offers the deluxe Neorest 600. It boasts, among other functions, five cleansing modes (front, rear, pulsating, oscillating and soft), a lid that automatically opens and closes, an air purifier, a massage option, an air-drier with adjustable temperature settings and an automatic flush. Most functions can be operated by a wireless remote control linked...
According to Prof. Katherine Anthony, a restroom expert at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the U.S. has a history of toilet-based discrimination. She says this country's lack of potty parity - equal speed of access to public restrooms - reinforces an unspoken social hierarchy. Men spend an average 30 seconds using the toilet, and women take an average of 90 seconds; most of us are intimately familiar with the waiting lines that form outside women's restrooms...
When members of the WTO meet for the World Toilet Summit later this fall in New Delhi, India, delegates will learn about the best global toilet practices, from developments in eco-sanitation to the latest offerings from the Restroom Specialist Training Course at the World Toilet College in Singapore, the only program in the world that teaches toilet design, maintenance and hygiene. Such topics may elicit the public's distaste, but that makes WTO president Jack Sim all the more adamant that his organization is necessary. "People go [to the bathroom] six times a day, yet they can't talk...