I haven't seen this very often in Seoul in recent years, and I never would have expected it at an institute of higher learning. What's that you say? A western style toilet? No, my friend, they are everywhere in Seoul now. Look at the toilet seat. What's that? Surely - NO! It can't be - footprints! (On rainy days, it looks even worse.)Those of you who have never lived in a country where the squat style toilet was widely used won't know that there was a transition period when some people had never seen or used a western style toilet and they didn't know what to do. Some didn't trust a western style toilet either, so they'd never put a butt down on a seat that someone else's ass had touched. 20 years ago, footprints on the seat was common. I thought that it had passed.
I still remember being in the washroom at the Chosun Hotel in Seoul in the '80s. I had finished my business and was washing my hands when, from one of the stalls, came a loud splash, a bit of scrambling, and some serious cursing in Korean. Clearly, someone had been standing on the seat and his foot slipped into the toilet. This custom is pretty old-country though. I think that most Korean houses use a sit-down rather than a squatter.
I can't decide whether the cultprit is just an old professor or if he is from the countryside where squat toilets are still common. Perhaps we should get an adapter. I, for one, find the thought of someone's dirty shoes on the seat much worse than that thought of someone's butt leaving 
germs there.
6 comments:
Hilarious!
I remember seeing signs with visual instructions on how to use a sit down toilet at the airport
I laughed out loud. Footprints on seat covers, a foot slipping into the toilet, the oh so funny "adapter." Yes, hilarious.
I was in the Nagoya railway station in 1997, desperately in need of a toilet. I already knew that every stall in there was a squat-style toilet (yes, in Japan, too—public toilets like this still exist!), and they were all taken...except one down at the very far end. I went up and checked it out, and what do you know, it was a "Western Style" toilet (as the sign said in English)—pristine in its unusedness! That was a very happy day for me.
BTW, most older railway carriages in Korea and Japan that have washrooms appear to have squat-style toilets, too. The mind boggles at the skill required to not make a mess while squatting over a toilet, all the while moving at a good 80-100 km/h or so!
In 1976, I took a long train trip from Tokyo to Asahigawa (Hokkaido). I remember squatting, holding onto the handrails for dear life, and looking down a hole that opened straight onto the tracks. I remember trying to use the toilet, but I have this vague recollection that I ended up waiting until we got to the end of the line. When you're so scared that your schincter is sqeezed tight, it's a little hard to do what needs to be done.
Does anyone know where one can buy an "adapter"? This blog came up on my searches for such a device. After travelling overseas my wife swears by the squatter as superior, and this has apparently been proven medically to be better and more natural position for the body.
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