Gadget in Japanese public restrooms masks sounds
Japundit shot a video of a gadget called "The Magical Water Princess," which is installed in women's public restrooms to mask sounds of using the toilet.
[A] device called Oto-hime ... makes a chirping sound when ladies use the toilet, because Japanese women hate the idea of anyone being able to hear any sounds they make while they go. Before the device was introduced in the 1980s, it seems that female patrons in restraunts would flush the toilet multiple times to mask the sounds, which wasted an incredible amount of water...LinkHere’s a video of how they work. Just wave your hand over the button and the sound of water will come out of the device, allowing you to do whatever you need to do with without nervousness of people listening to the sounds you make.
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Not just Japanese women. I hate using a public restroom when other people are in it. I'm jealous. And wow, the things I think that are ok to share on BoingBoing.
Just use a kazoo like everyone!
I wonder where "magical water princess" comes from... Oto-hime means "sound princess".
and considering the "robust" and singularly broad Japanese sense of humour,I can guarantee there has been at least one television sketch comedy where the "Water Princess" has been overwhelmed by the roaring thunder of a scowling obatarian - string bag and all.
... a kazoo? lulz.
Anyways, although this is the first time I've seen a video of the device... this is kinda old news... At least 2 years old I think... Isn't Boing Boing a client of CScout Japan?
@TheMelonBread:
I remember hearing about this device at least a decade ago, possibly more, in the context of water conservation.
I'd type more, but it's time to go make everyone else in the restroom uncomfortable.
Yeah, this is kind of old news, but hey, any excuse to mention the wonderfulness of Japanese toilets.
The potential here for practical joking by hackers is simply staggering.
I often wonder about people who have such a fear of potentially audible body functions. Mainly because : If you are in a public toilet cubicle it is pretty obvious what you are doing, and it's most likely a bodily function. It's not the plopping and tinkling noises that give it away - it's the fact that you are in a toilet cubicle.
Of course, North Americans go there for a 'rest' I realise.
Ploppington, ploppington, fizzington, fizzington, oh what a gorgeous delicious reliefington!
what a strange country Japan is... The most bizarre porn and the most prudish women - Just like Victorian Britain!
pas du tout! It is a place, time and thing entirely of itself. Discard preconception or miss much.
This isn't as fantastic as it may seem. While visiting, I made it my business to do my business in the fanciest restrooms I could find. One particular day, I was in Odakyu I believe and some teriyaki wasn't agreeing with me. Being particularly busy in the department store, I decided to try out some buttons.
First, BEWARE THE BIDET BUTTONS. They can be dangerous.
Second, the sound masking button was actually MORE embarrassing than whatever I could have done. It was super loud, it sounded like it was playing from my phone, and it wouldn't stop. It seriously went on forever.
So, heated seats? Fantastic. Noise makers? It'd be less awkward if Ride of the Valkyries played from my stall.
Kazoo? That would be hilarious.
The problem with it is that people aren't used to hearing a someone wail on a kazoo like Coltrane in the restroom in America. Whereas the Japanese are used to hearing the Water princess in Japan. Maybe I should just bring a white noise generator everywhere I go. It might help deal with idiots on their cellphones as well.
@#13 Superduper:
"It'd be less awkward if Ride of the Valkyries played from my stall."
Cue Apocalypse Now quote about smells in the morning...
I like to imagine lower end Japanese washrooms that are unable to afford a Water Princess simply hiring someone to come into the stall with you and sing.
Maybe they'd even do requests.
Oh no, gadgets which cater and nurture our insecurity. No no, wrong way! I propagate the installment of microphones on the toilet bowl, and a biggass amp attached, possibly with distortion in the middle, so you can schred the Hell outta anyone in there everytime you rip one.
Once it becomes a game to make as much noise as possible, the insecure ones will become terribly selfconscious about being too quiet on the toilet.
Enter fake toiletnoise soundmaker!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HPYTqs9pPM
so they mask it with an even louder peepee sound so the *whole room* knows what you're doing?!? yeah, wonderful :oP
Angstrom @ 9, yeah, I feel the same way. You are in there to use the toilet, obviously. Everyone has to at some point.
I've always felt that it's MUCH ruder to look, comment, or in any way let anyone know that you were listening to them, than it is to make an audible noise. When you are in a public bathroom, simply pretend that you cannot hear anyone else. Like men and urinals -- you just pretend no one else is there. You don't look, comment, or make any reference to anything that acknowledges that a stranger just had their bits out next to you. Same with bathroom noises.
It's like a Miss Manners column that I read a long time ago -- how should you react when someone passes gas around you? Her answer was that you should not. Pretend it never happened. Those noises, socially, do not exist, and therefore you have no reaction.
Miss Manners would NOT approve
http://www.kucau.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/fart-power.jpg
Are there urinals in Japan, and do guys always fart when they use them like they do here in the US?
Much of the sound usually comes from an improperly constructed water trap. If the bottom of the bowl is full of water, any, erm, liquid landing there will cause a lot of sound. OTOH if the water trap is further back, incoming fluids will land on the dry bottom of the bowl, and flow back.
Anyway, I think this device is totally unnecessary. The problem is it's too quiet in the toilet. Just install a wall radio.
A wall radio? Nah, install a ham radio. Everyone likes to chat on the ham radio, even on the toilet.
Strange people the Japanese are, when i go to a public restroom I know what to expect. Alternatively, they can eat softer foods and more fruits!!
This isn't all that new - there used to be a device women could carry in their bags that would emit white noise for them while they peed.
they had something like this in the bathrooms at universal studios. In the Nickelodeon area of the theme park, they had a recording of Ren and Stimpy farting and carrying on as if they were in the stall next to you.
These aren't just there because Japanese women find those sounds embarrassing, they're also there to diguise the sounds against all the men outside the bathroom who find the sounds arousing. I taught in a Japanese highschool and there were numerous times I was greeted by red-faced male students upon leaving the washroom.
Okay, when I'm a millionaire I'll have my own urinal and when I use it it will play Celebration, by Kool and the Gang.
Just because.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ
Wow...this isn't just _old_ news, it's practically _ancient_ in Net terms.
I first heard about these things 8 years ago, and that was here in BFE Hokkaido, of all places - which means that they'd no doubt been around in Tokyo for several years before that...
Hey BoingBoing...I'm in the market for a new job...care to hire me on as your on the ground reporter in Japan? ;)
This is not especially surprising. Most Japanese toilets have two settings: flush, and "sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The ladies toilets in the Haagen Dazs at Ebisubashi in Osaka have (or had) a full son et lumiere feature when you close the stall door.
Don't ask me how I know.
Hokkaido Hillbilly,
You send in your stories by clicking Suggest A Link at the top of the page.
I asked once why they didn't just play music in bathrooms, but apparently they tried that and it didn't work. There's some weird cultural fear of people hearing you pee, apparently going back a long way.
nothing cultural about it. Your attention is divided between keeping it off your feet and not making predator-attracting noise to go with the predator attracting smell. Not to mention the relaxation of bladder control muscles being lower spine, it probably inhibits quick-twitch muscle response you would need to leap at the last second. Anyone who eats primates knows this.
That's prey-thinking. I say let her rip and drive the competition out of my territory.
the problem with being an omnivore, you get delusions of carnivore-ship and are undermined by plant-eater thoughts
Toilet Tunes does that. As seen on TV!
http://www.gettoilettunes.com/
You only get the Otohime on the better kinds of Japanese toilets and you don't want to use the ones which don't come with the Otohime and the bidet and are usually labelled as "Western style toilets" in Japan.
(The Japanese classic toilet is basically a hole in the ground, sort of a pissoir buried in the ground and it requires some practice in use. It is not nice.)
However, the Japanese sensibilities for making sounds and smells in the bathroom go musch further: Some ten years ago you could buy and take pills which promised to allow you to produce smell-free poo. Popular amongst school girls, of course.
Bidets are awesome.
An obscure English slang word for toilet is La La.
Because, when there's no lock, you go 'La la la la la' to let people know you're in there...
Slight tangent to follow...
Wow, 41 comments so far and no Harold & Kumar references to "Battleshits"...not a popular sport in Japan I take it.
I agree w/ Caroline @#20
"When you are in a public bathroom, simply pretend that you cannot hear anyone else. Like men and urinals -- you just pretend no one else is there. You don't look, comment, or make any reference to anything that acknowledges that a stranger just had their bits out next to you. Same with bathroom noises."
As a man, there's nothing I hate more than standing at a urinal next to other dude who wants to strike up a conversation with me. I seldom respond with anything beyond affirmative grunts, uh-huh, uh-uh, etc, thinking all the while "can't this f*cking wait 'til we're outside, buddy?"
Even funnier are people on their cellphones while on the throne...mea culpa, I have done that at home (like when the conversation is dragging on too long and I'm tiring of doing the pee-pee dance in my living room), but I would avoid doing it in a public setting.
David Sedaris has a funny story about calling his sister while she was thus indisposed and she would always pretend she was straining to open a jar in the kitchen. One time David offered to come over and help her open this troublesome jar, to which his mortified sister would say "no, no, really that's ok".
In order to mask the sounds I tend to produce in a restroom, that thing would need a really huge woofer.