Gizmodo: washlet

Inax Bidet Toilet Seats Spray Your Butt in Living Color

Charlie White — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:15:00 EDT

If you want to look into the future, go to Japan, where it's impossible to market a new toilet seat without a bidet attachment inside (otherwise known as a washlet) that squirts water all over your delicate nether regions. Now you can do away with toilet paper in colorful style with these limited-edition toilet seats by interior design company Inax, the company that figured out how to add an SD card reader to a toilet.

These colorful seats are available in Japan for around $1400, but if you wanted one badly enough, you could probably import one of these thrones, install an electric outlet near your toilet, hook the water pipes up to the seat, and you're good to go. So to speak. While the whole idea of a telescoping, self-cleaning magic wand spraying your ass clean seems gross, it sure beats the equivalent of a spreading peanut butter around on a shag carpet with a piece of toilet tissue. [Tokyo Mango]

Toto's Neorest Hybrid Toilet is World's Most Efficient

Charlie White — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:00:39 EDT

You remember Toto, don't you? Not the dog but the toilet company in Japan that makes those Neorest toilets with the "washlet" under the lid. Now it's taken that butt-spraying goodness a step further with its Neorest Hybrid Series toilets, which use less water than any other, just 5.5 liters (1.45 gallons) per flush. It's also jumping into a new hatbox-shaped design that mimics Kohler's "Purist" hatbox toilet (1.6 gallons per flush) that's been available for a couple of years.

Toto has been in a competition with Matsushita in Japan to make the most efficient toilet, where Matsushita had a 5.7 liter-per-flush toilet released late last year, but now Toto roars back with this Neorest Hybrid Series. The company didn't announce pricing just yet, but if this one is in line with Toto's other Neorest toilets, it will probably start around $4000. [Far East Gizmos]

Japanese Version of Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Offer Butt-Wiping Luxury

Charlie White — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:55:24 EDT

Now that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is no longer under wraps, airlines around the world are figuring out how to make it even more luxurious. Not to be outdone is Japan's All Nippon Airways, which will equip its bathrooms with bun-spraying washlet toilets from Toto. The seats have special bidet wands that wash and dry your butt, giving you a degree of cleanliness that's otherwise impossible unless you just take a shower.

Representatives of All Nippon Airways eagerly anticipate the May 2008 date when the company begins accepting delivery on its fifty 787 Dreamliners ordered from Boeing, boasting that the fancy-schmancy toilets will "refresh the parts other airlines cannot reach." These washlet devices are commonplace in Japan, and are starting to make inroads Stateside. We can only hope that someday we Americans might catch up in the cleanliness department, joining the scrubbed ranks of the squeaky clean-assed Japanese.

Japan's New Toilets Wash, Dry... and Fly! [Inventor Spot]

Toto Travel Washlet: Portable Butt Sprayer, For Wherever You Go

Charlie White — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:15:00 EDT

Japanese people are getting so accustomed to having their butts sprayed clean that they're going to need to carry the paraphernalia to do so wherever they go. That's where Japanese toilet butt-spray champ Toto steps in with its Travel Washlet, a porto-ass sprayer that cleans you right up without the need for wiping. This handheld unit differs a bit from the home version, though, where it does the spraying but lacks that heated blow-drying capability of its potty-bound brandmate. So there still will be some dry-up wiping necessary, we assume.

Although these washlet devices might seem bizarre to Americans, if you think about it, the concept actually makes a lot of sense. As one of our erudite commenters so aptly put it, cleaning yourself up after a poop with dry toilet paper is like spreading peanut butter around on a shag carpet. Sorry. Hope you already had breakfast. More details than you ever want to know, all yours in the gallery below. – Charlie White

A Water Gun For Your Butt [Tokyomango] (Thanks, Lisa!)