Be part of us as we use one among Japan’s most uncommon restrooms.
Public bathrooms in Japan have been identified to impress guests, however in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, you’ll discover 17 restrooms which are on an entire different degree. Designed by 16 artistic professionals from around the globe, these restrooms have been created as a part of a challenge referred to as The Tokyo Bathroom, which overhauled outdated restrooms and remodeled them into extra welcoming public areas.
▼ One of the crucial beautiful is a bathroom often called the “Clear Bathroom, as a result of, nicely, its home windows are see-through.
This uncommon restroom, which first opened to the general public in 2020, is positioned in Yoyogi Fukamachi Kokoen, and could be simply accessed from Exit 3 of Yoyogi-koen Station.
The earlier bathrooms at this little park have been beforehand uninviting, however now they’re so beautiful that vacationers from abroad even make the journey to make use of them.
Designed by architect Shigeru Ban, these bathrooms have been impressed by a skeleton, and there’s nowhere to cover as you’ll be able to inform at a look whether or not there are any suspicious individuals hiding in it or not and you can too inform whether or not it’s clear or not.
▼ Definitely nowhere to cover right here.
It’s completely beautiful to take a look at, however it really has a number of drawbacks, which our reporter Masanuki Sunakoma found upon visiting it just lately. The very first thing is, nicely, it may be embarrassing to make use of the bathroom, seeing because it’s develop into so well-known that vacationers and passersby cease to {photograph} it.
Mustering up his braveness, and ignoring the photographers close by, Masanuki opened the glass door to the bathroom.
As soon as he was inside, he turned to lock the door, and breathed a sigh of aid when the clear glass grew to become frosted, making it not possible for the folks exterior to see inside.
Apparently, this glass wall maintains its clear state with the assistance of vitality — once you lock the door, the facility is eliminated and the door turns into opaque. It was fascinating to see it in motion, and simply to examine it actually was working, Masanuki took a video from exterior, which proved that it actually was not possible to see inside.
In response to stories he’d heard, although, there appears to have been a problem within the winter the place it took a very long time for the glass to develop into opaque, and at the moment they are switching between clear and opaque modes each six months. Apparently, the particles that develop into opaque solidify because the temperature drops.
Fortunately for Masanuki, it was midsummer when he visited so he didn’t encounter any issues. And with one other clear bathroom only a five-minute stroll away, at Haruno Ogawa Group Park, that is positively a website price visiting.
▼ The Haruno Ogawa Group Park bathroom makes use of the identical know-how, however with brighter blue-and-green hues.
With two of Japan’s most unusual public restrooms inside strolling distance of one another, this a part of Shibuya is the place to go when it’s good to pee. And that’s not all, as there’s one other restroom within the space that appears extra like a restaurant, and all of the bathrooms within the Tokyo Bathroom Venture could be visited in a “Tokyo Bathroom Tour” that’s proving to be widespread with international vacationers. And if visiting them isn’t sufficient, you’ll be able to watch Good Days, an award-winning movie concerning the bathrooms directed by Wim Wenders, which can make you cry…and need to pee.
Bathroom Places
Yoyogi Fukamachi Small Park Bathroom / 代々木深町小公園トイレ
Handle: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Tomigaya 1-54-1
東京都渋谷区富ケ谷1丁目54-1
Haruno Ogawa Group Park Bathroom / はるのおがわコミュニティパークトイレ
Handle: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Yoyogi 5-68-1
東京都渋谷区代々木5丁目68-1
Pictures © SoraNews24
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