yamaonna

a proper entry!  wont you all be glad!

Well, the stress is over!  OVER!  over.  *sighs*

I had to give a speech at this speech day thing, and I was really resenting it.  not only was i unprepared, but i was talking about toilets…..  I really didnt want to go (and today being rainy didnt help….) but now that its over and done Im quite content.  They even paid me too (well, if you count winning a book voucher as being paid….)

so, the toilet speech – the (short) english (rough translated) version…..

Toilet Culture (my teacher wanted me to call it Oto-hime, which literally means “sound princess”.  i was like – no way…  wouldnt want ppl to call me that……)

Coming to Japan from Australia, there are many different customs that you notice.  The biggest culture shock (for me) is when using the female toilets, girls flush while they are ‘going’.  The first time I used a toilet in Japan, I was surprised that soon after people entered the toilet they would flush, and everyone did it!  Afterwards, I asked my friend, and they explained that people flush becuase they are embarrised.  But the biggest shock was the automatic flushing noise some toilets have.  I thought to myself ‘Where is that noise comming from?!?’

Do you know what oto-hime is?  Oto-hime is a machine that makes a flushing water sound.  At the university I attend, almost every toilet had an oto-hime.  When you wave your hand in front of the oto-hime sensor, the flushing water sounds.  The first time I saw it I didn’t know what it was. I thought ‘What?  strange thing……’.  Japanese toilets are very complex.

I surveyed my japanese, chinese, korean and australian friends about what they thought about flushing the toilet while ‘going’.  The results are as follows –

All of the japanese girls said they flushed the toilets.

And the chinese girls also said the same.

Half of the koreans girls answered that they didnt.

And all of the australians said that they never did.

How about americans, or other counties people?

I understand and knew why Japanese girls flushed the toilet while ‘going’, but I was surprised that chinese girls and korean girls do to.  In my own personal opnion, I dont mind either way, but I dont like wasting water.  Australians all have the same opnion, because Australia is a very dry country, and so water is very important to us.  Becuase of that, we dont have oto-hime in Australia.  In Japan however, I think that from now on, oto-hime should be installed, becuase they are enviromentally friendly.

Thank you very much.

and that took over 4 minutes…….  Im just thanking God its over.

and now, bed.