Bathroom (お手洗い)

In this day and age, what kind of people can use which restroom has become a major issue. I, as usual, can see both sides of the issue: conservatives don't want men (or people who have male anatomy/ perceived as men) going into a women's restroom for obvious reasons, this has been a standard established over time and the whole reason restrooms are separate, but liberals believe those who identify with both sexes can be allowed to use whichever restroom they identify with. It's a tricky issue and certainly not one that trumps national security, especially for a straight male like myself (just keep on going to the men's bathroom), but for some people it's their No. 1 Priority. I'm here, however, to talk about a more universal topic: bathroom etiquette. My girlfriend is very picky about which kind of bathroom she uses, the condition of the toilet, where it is, how many people use it, if it's in a public place, how many stars the hotel where the bathroom is located has, whether the seat is up or down, etc., etc. Up until now I've been slow to sympathize with her, probably because I'm a man and we can pee anywhere. The more I use public restrooms however, the more I can see her perspective. Geez, some of these restrooms can get pretty dirty quickly.

First of all, in a tall office building there should be more than one set of restrooms on each floor. I understand the plumbing is difficult and there are architectural/ engineering limitations to setting up restrooms, and restrooms are not a high priority, but in the office buildings where I've worked at, where there's easily 100 people working every day there, 50 of each gender, there should be more than one restroom that has just 3 "stalls," 2 urinals. There's no set formula of course on how many people there should be per spaces in the restroom, but there's gotta be some sort of limitations. When there's a line to use the restroom at the

I totally get why in movies people put toilet paper all around the rim of the toilet bowl now. I'm not OCD, but even I get grossed out sometimes by what goes on in there. Conversely, I try my best to do my part to keep the toilet clean, but I know nothing's perfect.

My girlfriend makes an excellent point: for anatomy reasons, men should only pee standing up into urinals (where there are sides and "guardrails" to contain the range, and NOT stand up to urinate in one of the toilet bowls, ESPECIALLY if it's a unisex restroom. It's just not fair for the girls.

Don't talk while standing next to a guy while peeing, unless they're your close friend and you're absolutely sure they're ok with being talked to/at while in the bathroom. Let's just make that a rule, put that up on signs, make it a universal rule.

Remember to FLUSH THE TOILET after using. Very shocking for the next person to walk in on.

The 3-star hotel or higher rule my gf adheres to has some merit: something's just off about 2-star hotels, from showers not working right, some traces in dark corner, the smell, it just seems like a lack of resources devoted to make it as clean as possible.

Airport restrooms have a LOT of volume go through especially after long flights people finally being able to use the restroom, but to me it seems like there's enough of a regular cleaning to make it tolerable, and after a 4+ hour flight using any restroom can seem like a godsend, especially due to the cramped and wobbly nature of most airplane restrooms. I forgot to add on the 10 people you meet on the Southwest flight, the guy who hogs the restroom when there's 2 restrooms on a flight with 150 people on board.

Next class: restrooms at public parks/ public libraries. I used to take pride in being able to use the restroom ANYWHERE, but unfortunately even I've had to set some boundaries. In large urban areas like LA and Chicago, there's just too many homeless people who take advantage of these public facilities for free water/washing, and those public facilities aren't going to devote resources to cleaning them all the time, so it just gets worse and worse. I can't imagine being a lady and having to sit on one of those toilets, the most I can do is use one of the urinals standing up and make sure no part of my body is touching anything except air.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan