Robo-toilet

At one end of the potty spectrum in Japan were the squatters that Gretchen came to dread, but at the other end were some of the most dauntingly high-tech toilets I've ever seen. This console was attached to the toilet in our hotel in Kyoto, and we saw lots more like it wherever we went. I liked that you had your choice of either spray or bidet (with optional oscillation)--unfortunately, we were too afraid to actually try out these features. Whenever you sat down, the "free odor" light came on and a little fan started humming, and the seat was so warm that the toilet included this warning: "To avoid low-temperature-burn, turn off the warm seat switch when this product is used by the very young or the elderly, those who are incapacitated."