You guys are all making it way too complicated. You squat, both feet flat on the floor. You do your business. It falls straight into the hole or on the ramp leading downward. You wash your butt with your left hand!!! and use the excess water to wash the stuff further down if necessary. You rise, pull up your pants, and wash hands.
Note that at least in India, traditionally clothes didn’t have buttons or snaps. The way Indian pants work for women is a nara, which is basically a thin piece of rope or soft cloth that weaves inside the top layer, and then you tie it in the front. So basically when you pull it back up you just hold the string until you can get your hand clean.
It is weird…Indians are very modest but in the bathroom not so much. I mean we all gotta do it. So if you are a nice lady you have someone stand outside in the public bathrooms, which are often just four stone walls with a perpendicular door. If you are a man, what’s the big deal if someone sees your bare ass? In the private bathrooms it’s a whole different thing anyway.
Plus they are not called bathrooms and I used to confuse people by saying that. Bathrooms are where you take your bath. My cousin’s house, and they have a very nice one, has a large open patio sort of thing in the back. It has 8 foot high walls but no ceiling. In this patio is a sink to brush your teeth. So I mean outdoors, basically! Remember it doesn’t rain that often and usually doesn’t get so cold a sweater or a shawl won’t help. Off to one side are two small rooms. The one is the bathroom, and you get the whole room - walls and everything - wet when you take a shower. Think of a standing shower stall. The other is the privy and it’s just got the hole in the floor.
As to not wetting your pants on the floor? Well jeans and stuff are not really conducive to this. Best is cotton or silk or anything that can bunch easily. Jeans really aren’t that comfortable! Cotton will bunch up and you kind of tuck the excess behind your knees as you bend.
I firmly believe this way is better to poop as there’s lots of pressure on your tummy. However one’s legs do get tired after a while, even mine, and I am fairly used to it.
This keeps confusing me. What part of your feet lifts off the ground? The back? Can’t you just push it down?
I mean, I don’t know; it just seems so ridiculously easy to squat with my feet flat on the ground, I can’t understand what the problem would be. But then, I don’t have very long legs…
Most westerners I have known in Asia have reported the same thing: when they’re taught to squat as children, they do it on the balls of their feet - their heels go up. To force the heels down feels quite unnatural. It requires a reconfiguration of the way in which they squat. The hamstrings have to stretch a bit, it puts more strain on the calf muscles, and the body must lean forwards quite a lot further than normal to keep balance. It’s quite unnatural if you aren’t used to it.
Wow. I can’t recall ever having been taught how to squat as a child (surely people don’t get taught the whole array of basic movements; they just, uh, intuitively figure out how to do them, no?), and I was born and raised in America, but apparently I can’t escape my heritage in this regard. Indeed, informal polling reveals that most of the Indian/Southeast Asian friends I’ve asked find flat-footed easy (most having grown up in America, though everyone I’ve asked has had at least some infrequent exposure to squat toilets) and all the white (American) friends I’ve asked find it hard. This is amazing news to me. Learn something new every day.
That’s right, the back, the heel. And believe me, I’ve tried. The teakwood house I lived in up North for a couple of years 20 years ago had only a squat toilet, and I’d been encountering them long before that, too. It just didn’t work for me. I say “didn’t” because I’m an old fogey now who enjoys his Western toilet, and that’s what we have now. And since I’m in Bangkok, they’re easy to find. But I’m 6’ 2" tall with very long legs, so I’ve always thought that had something to do with it.
I’m still curious about the squat toilets in the Tokyo airport. I’ve never seen any there, not in Narita anyway. I’ve only changed planes there, though, and not exited out into the regular part of the airport, just stayed in the passenger-waiting area. Top-notch toilets there.
Much to my husbands chagrin, I have just watched the video and attempted the asian squat. For the record, I have freakishly long legs. I’m 5’8" and have a 34" inseam.
If my feet are flat, my butt is on the floor. It isn’t discomfort that prevents me from hoisting my butt up or rebalancing somehow, I just can’t figure out where I’m supposed to go. I even tried leaning pretty far forward. I can put my legs in the lotus position easily and I can also sit with my calves under my thighs, so I’m fairly flexible. (Actually, when I sit like that people usually wince, I’m guessing most folks can’t.)
No, I will not supply pics. I just thought I’d give it the old college try.
In the thread about how do you wipe your butt, most respondents, even lefties seem to favor using their right hand. Think of that the next time you shake hands.
Just a guess, but I reckon that we in the west default to not being taught, whereas people in much of Asia do get taught - either deliberately or by example. If you travel round China or India, you’ll see that the squat isn’t just for the toilet. People squat everywhere. It’s the default position during, say, waiting for a bus in the middle of nowhere that will take hours to arrive. When you’re used to it, it can be quite comfortable, so it’s used when there’s no seating available.
Narita has two main terminals. Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. The experience is vastly different depending on which terminal you are in. Terminal 1 is much less dingy and seedy and crowded than Terminal 2, and much more clean. Although I haven’t seen a squat toilet in either Terminal 1 or Terminal 2, I have seen them in Japan and wouldn’t be surprised to hear that some part of Terminal 2 has them.
