Toilet Wonders

Whenever someone asked me why I like going to Japan (though I I've been there just twice) my typical answer was: "I love the toilets."

Though I was indeed joking, it wasn't entirely wrong. It's one of the reason that I like traveling in Japan. Sadly, even after my 2 trips I was so enticed with it that I didn't even remember to take its picture ^^'

So rather than making you imagine it, click here to read about it and here's the picture, credit goes to the same website.

credits: JapaneseStuff.net

And this is just the basic. There's actually a more advanced one with a box of buttons attached to the wall separately from the closet itself. My first time in using the highly modern toilet was probably somewhere in Kyoto in my first trip - 2010. I think it was in the hotel. I couldn't find a place to push to flush and as I frantically searching for it, I saw a large black square on the wall next to it. As I tried to push it a couple of time, it flushed! *phew* Apparently I just had to put my hand on it to flush, no need to push anything... talk about feeling relieved just because I can flush!!

So it wasn't a surprise to hear my friend shouted from the toilet when first we checked-in into our room at this hotel, the first place where we stayed. There's a sensor above the door that informs the closet (sound strange, I know) that someone just entered.

"WHOA!!! THE CLOSET LID OPENS ITSELF!! THIS IS SO COOL!!!"

Cool indeed. At least in Japan, I won't need to worry about drinking water too much cause I'll gladly go to the toilet anytime I want :)

Naxi Women

In 2010 I got to visit Lijiang, a city in Yunnan - China for the firm's offsite. The flights were painful to get there. Not only that we couldn't fly directly from big cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou; even with the limited flights we couldn't fly together due to the company policy. My flights were: Jakarta - Hongkong (overnight stay) - Kunming (sh*tty airport and no one spoke English!) - Lijiang. And my return trip was: Lijiang - Shenzen - driving to Hongkong - another overnight stay - Jakarta.

But I had to admit that the scenery over there was marvelous. I'll show the picture in another post. But for now I'd like to share something that kinda made me feel a little bit... overwhelmed?

NAXI tribe is the native of Lijiang. When I was walking around the Old Town of Lijiang I saw a lot of old women walking hand in hand with similar clothes with some kind of a basket on their backs. I thought it was beautiful and interesting until I heard the real story behind it.

On the first day of our tour, our tour bus' guide was a young Naxi guy in mid-twenties who preferred to be called Daniel -- the English name that he chose after learning English. He revealed that in Naxi culture, it's the women who work their as*es off and make a living for the family while the men were not doing anything except socializing and drinking with their buddies! Naxi women also responsible to maintain a peaceful and harmonious family, thus I couldn't even imagine the physical and spiritual burden that they carried in their whole life!

On their dresses, seven patterns were embroidered to symbolize the spirits of Naxi women. If I wasn't mistaken, some stones were also hung around their waist to remind them of the responsibility (or should I say burden?) to carry the honor of the family. Since then, I saw them in a different light. They're holding hands to share the difficult life and the responsibility they were born with -- or at least that's my impression. The lines on their faces were the lines of wisdom and hard works until they were old. I couldn't hold back my tears when I saw 3 Naxi women were sharing a snack and then walked hand in hand along the stoned path of the Old Town in my second visit there.

If you think you have a hard life as a woman, think again. At least you don't have to work for your entire life. They do, physically and literally. And they're doing it not only for themselves. Perhaps it's for the sake of the culture they were born into, but they accepted their destiny and live their lives with dignity for the honor of their family. To that, I salute them.

Voyeurism

I was exposed to voyeurism once in Japan. On my last day, in the morning before I took my bus to Narita Airport. In front of the hotel that I was staying at Shinjuku Kabuki-cho.

I was waiting for my friend, Aki-chan outside the hotel lobby with my luggage when a man suddenly stood in front of me with a grin on his face. I looked into his eyes and knew that he's just not right. A few seconds later he opened his fly to show me his "goodies".

Apparently being an avid manga reader and dorama watcher gave me an advantage. I remembered that I shouldn't scream or show my fear. So I kept looking into his eyes for a few seconds while he was grinning madly at me; before I took a few steps to the side and ignored him completely.

And finally he walked away a few feet further from me, turned to face a tree, and took a piss right there and then!

I hope that would be my one and only strange experience while traveling...