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Bathroom Etiquette Around the World | |
The ICBE was founded in Canada, but these days our central offices are now located in the USA, and for these reasons the default bathroom behaviour we describe is for these countries. We are however concerned about bathroom etiquette and habits all across the world, and are well aware that there exist many differences between different cultures approaches to the public bathroom. This page seeks to highlight a few of those differences in the hopes that we might create world peace through understanding, or at least give people travelling somewhere a heads up!
If you have information about a particular country, please let us know!
Australia
The number one question about the Land Down-Under is whether or not the toilets really do flush in the opposite direction as in the northern hemisphere. Unfortunately none of our field testers have reported back on that so far.
One important difference though, according to lizard25 is that evidently many toilets have two buttons on the top for flushing - 1 for when you go pee, and 2 for when you go poo. No word on how they are labelled, but we imagine this is a water-saving mechanism that could be a good idea if implemented properly.
Update! Alert reader MageMLE has been able to confirm the existence of the two-buttoned flushing system, as well as provide a picture of the mechanism! The labelling is vague, at best I would say... half a flush vs. a full flush? She also reports that it's commonplace to have "occupied" indicators on the outsides of stalls - at least in the women's bathrooms. That's got to save some embarassing moments.
Update! Astute readers from FilePile have informed me that these two-buttoned systems are common not only in Australia, but also New Zealand (kind of figures), Germany and the Netherlands! Those crazy Germans and their toilets keep getting wackier all the time...
Canada
Bathrooms in Canada are pretty much like bathrooms in the USA, except the people are nicer and they say "Eh" a lot!
England, etc.
From what I can tell, those Brits take to the bathroom pretty much like an American or Canadian does, but with an extra dash of homophobia thrown in for good measure (trust me on this one, I get lots of email). Not to mention that they are far more likely to call you a "wanker" than most people! Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing...
Germany
I am told that some German toilets have a shelf inside the toilet. This may sound confusing, until I reveal that your poop lands on the shelf, and then you can get up and take a good look at it to make sure everything is A-okay with your innards. Really. The good news is that evidently not everybody has such a toilet. I wonder how much you can tell from taking a look at your craps? I heard a story once that Moby (a vegan), upon hearing of the distress of a carnivorous friend of his in a stall invited him over to his stall to take a look at what a "real crap looks like". Again, really.
Iran
In our forums, Ali_Emami writes that in Iran it is a matter of religion (he practices Islam) that men pee while sitting only, and not while standing. No word on if this is practiced in all branches of Islam, or is specific to Iranian culture only
Japan
Anybody who has ever travelled to Japan will tell you that going to the bathroom there is nothing like going to be bathroom here in North America. Fearless ICBE International Liaison Daniel provides us with an actual picture of an actual Japanese bathroom with a kimono and a bajillion buttons.
