Anne Billson: When I first arrived in Tokyo, I peed in a urinal (not easy) in the mistaken belief that it was a kind of traditional Japanese toilet I hadn't encountered before. I remember thinking "Wow, this really IS a patriarchal society." www.theguardian.com/world/2024/a...

When I first arrived in Tokyo, I peed in a urinal (not easy) in the mistaken belief that it was a kind of traditional Japanese toilet I hadn't encountered before. I remember thinking "Wow, this really IS a patriarchal society." www.theguardian.com/world/2024/a...

‘Urination equality’: Amsterdam women win fight for more public toiletswww.theguardian.com Years of pressure by those fined for urinating in street due to lack of facilities pays off with €4m plans

More recently, in Brussels, I mistakenly washed my hands in a fancy waterfall-style urinal in the mistaken belief that it was a designer washbasin. Invariably have trouble with modern taps. Mon Oncle, c'est moi. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9t...

Jaques Tati - Mon Oncle (Kitchen Scene)www.youtube.com Jaques Tati - Mon Oncle (1958)The struggle of a simple man with a "highly modern" kitchen and a bouncing jug...NOTE: I am fluent in both english and french (...

TIL that Jacques Tati had plans to collaborate on a film with Sparks. The script is there - someone could still make this! But who could stand in for Tati? Steve Martin?

A friend of mine once interviewed Tati & was offered a job by him writing jokes for Playtime. He went to Tati’s studio, sat in front of a typewriter for 3 weeks, got paid, wrote nothing & left. He said they were still filming the same gag when he left they’d been filming when he arrived.

That sounds like a Tati film in itself.

This is literally a George subplot in Seinfeld, when he sits eating biscuits in an office by himself all day.

Stephen Fry!

Mr Fry has many qualities, but tbh I don't think he's a very good actor (unlike Hugh Laurie).

😱

My young (at the time) son mistook a urinal, the first time he saw one, for a drinking fountain! Much shrieking from the parents!

There is a clip 'out there' of a reporter interviewing people at a music festival. In it you can see a man washing his hands in a large basin filled with liquid. He is interviewed later on and carefully asks: "That is not for washing your hands, is it..?" Reporter slowly shakes head. "...no..." 😂

Ugh. We desperately need this in Brussels as well. At least the Dutch urinals have more of a cover, unlike here where you could see (and smell; god, men are messy) everything if you didn't avert your course of direction.

The older you get, the more you find yourself planning every outing around toilet availability ie even if you don't need to go, because you never know when you'll get another opportunity.

Oh, I've already been doing that for quite a few years and it is the no1 reason I've stopped going on long countryside-type walks. Which I miss A LOT.

Just how much sake had you consumed at this point? Japan has urinals, western toilets, and squatters. They’re really easy to figure out.

It's a long story, too long for this space and I didn't want to go into detail, but thought it might amuse people. I wasn't expecting to have Japanese toilets mansplained to me. But thanks anyway.

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