Toilet humor

So, people, this is what a Japanese toilet looks like. Basically, it is a hole in the ground that is shielded by porcelain. It completely freaks me out. When we got to our subway stop near our inn after 29 hours of travel, I really, really had to pee. When I saw this bad boy in the subway restroom, I turned around and walked out. No freaking way.

After we found our ryokan (Louis Vuitton guided us well), I was relieved that we have a Western loo (albeit shared among guests in the seven rooms) and was pleasantly surprised by the heated seat (awesome). I told Gina when I got back to our room, and she looked at me like I was crazy because she thought the toilet was only a slight improvement from the subway one. Hours later, we realized that there are two toilets and she had been using the Japanese one. Hysterical!