In the course of my travels, I often run across things that cause me to pause and reflect. Take this toilet in Tokyo’s Narita international airport for example.
Narita is a terrible airport. It’s too far from the city. The operating hours are too restricted. The layout isn’t user-friendly. It’s expensive. Basically, it sucks.
But…despite the many deficiencies of this airport, the officials in charge seem to have invested substantial thought and effort into one core competency that all airports should pay more attention to…namely, sanitising smelly travellers.
This is a set of instructions for operating a public toilet in Narita. If you read the sign, you’ll see that this shows you how to use the toilet, specifically how to use the “Equipment to cleansing the buttocks with warm water.”
There are multilingual instructions for “Washing the rear” and “Rear washing stopped”, along with a helpful diagram on how to fine-tune water pressure…presumably so you don’t inadvertently injure sensitive areas with too vigourous an ablution.
The true value of this unique amenity for travellers, however, must lie in the “Extra deodrizing” function of the “Powerful Deodorizer”, which provides “Increased absorption strength for removing odors.”
I, of course, didn’t require the extra-strength help. Regular strength was sufficient.
Thought I’d post this photo before heading to the airport.
What I learned is two things. First, it’s exhausting preparing and writing regular blog posts after doing multiple dives, then downloading and processing images. I ended up getting only four to five hours of sleep on many nights, resulting in my constantly being in a semi-permanent daze (on land only of course).
Incidentally, a few nights ago on another night dive, we found and played with a couple of 
