Well, after last year's trip down under I decided to head east again this year, but staying a bit further north this time to Japan. It's somewhere I've wanted to visit for years, and so thought it was finally time to head on over. Still a while before I go, but I've started reading the guide books and keeping an eye out for things of interest. However, as regular readers of "The Internet" will know, Japan does seem to come out with some crazy stuff, so I'll be posting random weird Japanese stuff as I see it under the "Dear Japan... Why?" heading.
So onto the first one...
For some reason, Japan has become infamous for its hi-tech toilets. These days it seems there's more gadgetry in the average Japanese public convenience than in your favourite high street electronics retailer - we're talking toilets that have seats that warm themselves, play music at you, wash you clean with jets of water and gently blow-dry you after. But the following takes this to a new level... The Toylet:
From singing johns to heated commodes, Japan has long been number one when it comes to number two. And now Sega is taking things to a new level in the men's WC with a unique gaming console that partners peeing with points. These so-called 'toylets' are making a splash with four different programs, including one that lifts a woman's skirt a la Marilyn Monroe. It's fairly straightforward - the faster and longer you pee, the higher your score goes, and there's a port for your USB key if you're keen on keeping a running tally.
The best place to test these out is at the Sega Mega-store in Akihabara's Electric Town. Free gaming urinals have been installed on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. At the moment the displays are only in kanji - if you can read Japanese - then urine luck.
(This text is taken from the lonely planet Japan 12th Edition. I am counting this as a "brief extract for the purpose of review" which is permissible under the copyright statement in the book - if you want to know more, buy a copy!)
According to Wikipedia, the 4 games mentioned are as follows:
- Mannekin Pis, named after the eponymous statue of a urinating boy in Brussels, awards the player a score based on how hard and how much he can urinate.
- Graffiti Eraser requires the player to spray urine around to clean graffiti off a virtual wall.
- The Northern Wind, The Sun and Me puts the player in the role of the wind trying to lift a girl's skirt by blowing air at her – the strength of the wind depends on the force of the flow of urine.
- Battle! Milk From Nose allows the player to compete against the person who last used the urinal by comparing the strength of their urine streams. The streams are represented on-screen as jets of milk squirting out of the noses of two characters standing in a sumo ring. If the player's urine stream is stronger, his opponent is blasted out of the ring.
A quick search for 'toylet' on Google even suggests that they're now selling the things to the public for home installation ( http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/sega-makes-toylets-available-to-the-japanese-public/ )!
WHY????