Day: October 5, 2004

Need coffee! Coffee goooooood!

My arm is covered in scratches. Sadly, not all of them are from Katy. Boris got me good this morning :( Silly cat.

It has happened to many of us: you take your seat in a public toilet and, just as nature is about to take its course, someone enters next door. Cue exaggerated coughing and throat clearing in an attempt to drown out the cacophony that sometimes accompanies one of nature's great levellers. Women in Japan, however, no longer have to suffer the indignity of having their movements echo through the ladies' room.

With a flick of the hand, they can call on the Sound Princess.

Once a novelty, the device is now a standard feature of women's toilets in Japan. Its maker, Toto, says more than 500,000 have been sold and orders were up 125% in 2003.

All a woman need do is pass her hand over a sensor to trigger the noise of running water from a speaker. The device not only spares her blushes, but also saves water: embarrassed Japanese women often flush repeatedly to camouflage their efforts.

The devices can now be found in shopping centres and restaurants, but demand is greatest in the workplace, where the person next door could easily be a colleague, or the boss.

“The core of our clientele is schools and companies,” said a Toto spokeswoman, Kumi Goto. “Japanese women are very embarrassed by the sounds they make on the toilet.”

In a country that has for centuries attached importance to personal cleanliness, and where personal shame is to be avoided at all costs, exposing your neighbours to the most private sounds is almost unthinkable.

Urinals have been removed from some schools to spare boys who do not want their friends sniggering as they head for the stalls for a sit-down session. Older males, however, have no qualms. As anyone who has used a Japanese public toilet for men will attest, shame disappears as soon as the sign on the door clicks to occupied.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1319648,00.html

How to put in words the undescribable. You can't, not with any sort of coherent order. So, here's just a jumble of ideas and impressions of the past 4 days in order to remember:

1. I was late (this, reminded to me by a wet Katy who's reading behind my shoulder)
2. I never expected to be as comfortable, as quickly, as I am right now
3. Painkillers, good.
4. Sex? wow.
4b. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of sex? better. But tiring. I think I broke her, then she broke me. Lather, rinse, repeat.
5. Leaving the apartment at some point would be a good idea – after all, she needs to actually show she's been to Montreal.
6. Biting, good. Tickling, bad^†.
7. My lips chafe. This is good and not good.

That is all for now. I need energy, so food beckons.

^† Depends on the when, where and why.

I promise, tomorrow we make it outside the apartment.

Quote of the day: as soon as I can move again, I'm so biting you.

Life is good right now. Not much else to say :)