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June 18th, 2011
Jun. 18th, 2011 02:27 pmLast night I had a going away dinner for my ladies' English conversation group at a pretty fancy restaurant. It was bar style, but a lot more expensive and a lot classier than your typical izakaya. About halfway through the evening I asked my companions for directions to the restroom and the waitress overheard.
"Oh I'm so sorry! All we have is a Japanese style toilet! Wait a second..." she says.
*blink blink*
If you think I haven't used a squat toilet before you'd be sorely mistaken. In fact, I'm not sure I've been to more than a handful of Japanese style restaurants that have Western toilets and had pretty much assumed that's what I was in for. I don't particularly like squat toilets but whatever, they're toilets. I told her it was fine, thinking nothing of it, and started walking toward the restroom. When I glanced behind me, however, I found the waitress standing in the middle of the restaurant holding a toilet seat.
*blink blink*
...Apparently they keep faux toilets around for just such occasions? And honestly, all absurdity and overreaction aside, do people really think it's easier to sit on a faux western toilet cover placed inches above the floor than it is to use a squat toilet? And like it's worth them whipping out, setting up, and cleaning something like that just for me?
My jaw hit the floor, was this really happening? I turned to my students and muttered in disbelief, "What on earth is she doing??" and they quickly answered, "No no, she's our friend! She wants to help!" Well, I'm sure she did, she was holding a toilet, after all.
Unsure of what to do next, I just told the waitress again, "Really. It's okay," and walked off. I don't know what her reaction to my reaction was, I was too baffled to really pay attention. Maybe I had acted rudely, but c'mon, the woman was waving a toilet at me in a restaurant just because I was white. I have no hard feelings but I also feel like I was pretty much entitled to whatever reaction first came to mind.
"Oh I'm so sorry! All we have is a Japanese style toilet! Wait a second..." she says.
*blink blink*
If you think I haven't used a squat toilet before you'd be sorely mistaken. In fact, I'm not sure I've been to more than a handful of Japanese style restaurants that have Western toilets and had pretty much assumed that's what I was in for. I don't particularly like squat toilets but whatever, they're toilets. I told her it was fine, thinking nothing of it, and started walking toward the restroom. When I glanced behind me, however, I found the waitress standing in the middle of the restaurant holding a toilet seat.
*blink blink*
...Apparently they keep faux toilets around for just such occasions? And honestly, all absurdity and overreaction aside, do people really think it's easier to sit on a faux western toilet cover placed inches above the floor than it is to use a squat toilet? And like it's worth them whipping out, setting up, and cleaning something like that just for me?
My jaw hit the floor, was this really happening? I turned to my students and muttered in disbelief, "What on earth is she doing??" and they quickly answered, "No no, she's our friend! She wants to help!" Well, I'm sure she did, she was holding a toilet, after all.
Unsure of what to do next, I just told the waitress again, "Really. It's okay," and walked off. I don't know what her reaction to my reaction was, I was too baffled to really pay attention. Maybe I had acted rudely, but c'mon, the woman was waving a toilet at me in a restaurant just because I was white. I have no hard feelings but I also feel like I was pretty much entitled to whatever reaction first came to mind.
