Tokyo (On Hotels and Bathrooms)

My hotel room was really nice (thanks, Takemi!).

Here's a picture where you can see one of the beds (there were two) and the wall the of the bathroom. After a couple of days, when the jet-lag had worn off a little, it occurred to me that the wall to the bathroom was translucent in a room where two people were supposed to sleep in different beds. Weird. I'm not really comfortable with that.

I think a good sign that you're in a very non-English speaking country is when the version of CNN shown in your hotel room is CNN International dubbed in Japanese.

The best amenity in the hotel room were the toothbrushes with tiny little tubes of toothpaste, although I also appreciated the large dispensers of soap and shampoo.

Here's a picture of the toilet, which is 5000 times fancier than any toilet in the U.S. or Germany.


For example, the toilet seat is heated and when you sit down, it automatically starts to dribble a little water through the bidet -- just in case you want to use it -- so it doesn't use stale water on you. The little box mounted on the wall next to the toilet offers several options, including a button to make a flushing noise. These fancy toilets are everywhere: hotels, restaurants, ordinary households. That said, you can still find old-style squat toilets in some places.