On travelling alone and foreign bathrooms

“What are you doing today?”
 
As soon as Blake called and asked me that question, I knew something was up. And from his tone of voice, he was anticipating a “no”. The joke was on him, though, because I said “yes” (with only a little waffling).

Blake's brand new iPhone 4 had been playing dirty for two weeks. It would randomly stop working and have to be hooked up to a computer to be restored. Very inconvenient, especially when he told his wife he was going to call, and then he couldn't because his phone didn't work, and so his wife thought he blew her off for happy hour at the o-club, but in fact he was late because he had a minor incident involving the back window of our new car and a telephone pole. Was that sentence long enough?

Softbank, the Japanese cell phone company, has a kiosk on base. Unfortunately, it would take them a week to replace Blake's phone. The closest apple store is in Shibuya, which is a borough of Tokyo. So, while Blake was at work, I went out on my own for the first time.

This is the apple store, it is full of shiny things and nice people. On my way, I also passed by this:

I would expect this monster in America, but really, Japan?  That is a huge sandwich.  Another thing you don't find in the states? A bathroom panel that looks like this:

A public bathroom stall to rival the cockpit of a space shuttle. Pretty complicated. I won't go into details, but let's just say, there are many, many ways to get covered in water, and none of them involve falling into the actual toilet. Also? Pretty smells, music, and the sound of running water so no one knows you are or have gone to the bathroom. 

The big button on the right flushes the toilet. It's fairly clear. Sometimes, things are not so straightforward and instead of flushing the toilet, something else happens. It's Russian roulette every time you want to pee.


Then, when you're finally finished, and you go to the sink to wash your hands, another problem comes up. Often no soap. Definitely no hand dryers or towels. People carry around little handkerchiefs or washcloths to dry their hands or to wipe their faces with during the day because it is getting hot around here, muggy too, though not as bad as it will eventually get.


Hopefully before the really hot weather sets in, we'll be settled into our house.  Because... we found a house to live in! It's not official, the base has to inspect it to make sure it's okay, but hopefully there won't be any hitches. The inspection is in a couple of days so as soon as we know something, I'll let you all know.  :)