While I was back in Japan, I was surprised by how much shower toilet has been used in many parts, be it airport, hotel, office or restaurant, and this matter made me think about two things: (1) What’s normal and (2) What’s impossible.

For those who are not familiar with shower toilet, it is literary a toilet with shower with which you can wash your delicate part with warm water instead of paper (unlike some countries where there is a bathroom and a shower separately, it’s all in one). Besides, it also has many convenient functions: warm air dryer, heated seat, automatic air purifier, wireless remote control, etc. (you can see the detail in this link).

Just like bed (or Futon), we use toilet everyday, tehrefore this evolution of the toilet is very significant. The difference is shift from wiping with paper to cleaning with hot water (if you imagine the difference between paper and hot water to wash your hand, for example, you can see the benefit of the latter.

In addition, it’s good for hemorrhoid with less damage on your delicate part, cause less constipation with adequate water pressure, and gives you the sense of satisfaction (of being cleaned). And actually there is almost no additional cost because of eco-function (if any, 1-3 USD per month).

Despite all those benefits of this toilet, it was something unfamiliar to me, but this trip to Japan made me think about something important.

(1) What’s normal
In Japan, shower toilet is everywhere, and every time I said to my friend “hey, this restaurant has a shower toilet” with surprise and joy, I receive a glance of “what are you talking about now?” as if it was very normal.

So for me, it was something that I did not take for granted, therefore appreciated a lot.

(2) What’s impossible
Although I knew the benefit of having shower toilet, I thought this type of toilet was not for me/our home because of high price and difficulty in installation.
But this time was different: I thought it would be good for my parents to start using, then became serious and started to looking into.

Then voila (!) it turned out that nowadays, the regular ones cost around 100 USDー300USD (through amazon!!) , and installation is not that difficult.

So after some preparation (measuring the size of toilet and bathroom, and matching the functions of each model with my parents’ need), I finally bought one and could install it by myself (it took only around 30 minutes!)

I hope this will make their lives better ones, and I also want to use more and more.

If you come to Japan, you can feel the difference, and probably you can’t live without it. If it’s first time, it will be like Simpson (?)

This time, I learned that:

-The less you take something for granted, the more you can appreciate it.
-What you think is impossible is not as difficult as it actually is, as long as you really want to do and try.