Pee Like Nobody's Watching
In case you are not familiar, a traditional Japanese-style toilet is one meant to be squatted over. In my limited experience, most homes and restaurants have western-style toilets that include a bidet.[1] Many public places and tourist locations will have a mix of western and Japanese-style toilets. The bathroom in the corner of the playground by Franny’s school, however, only has a Japanese-style toilet in a stall and a urinal. The bathroom also doesn’t have a door so anyone standing at the urinal can be easily viewed from many locations on the playground. I once looked up from my bench near the slide and saw a grown man peeing at the urinal.
A group of kids and their moms (yes, almost exclusively moms) go to the park every day after school - weather permitting. A few times Franny has declared that she needed to go to the bathroom while she was playing. I would convince her it was time to leave the playground anyway and return home. However, the other day she was not ready to end her play. She investigated the bathroom and saw the Japanese-style toilet and that there was no toilet paper, soap, or hand towels present. Actually, most public bathrooms in Japan do not provide hand towels and a many do not provide soap. I am trying to form a habit of keeping a small hand towel and travel soap in my purse. On this particular day, I had neither. Due to the lack of supplies and lack of western-style toilet, Franny decided to just go home and use our bathroom.
The next day, Franny saw that her little girl friend from school needed the bathroom and proceeded to use the facilities on the playground. Later, Franny told me it was down to the one minute and she needed to go to the bathroom now! I should explain. When Franny was younger and potty training, we told her to not wait until the last minute or she might have an accident. To Franny, the “last minute” became the “one minute.” To this day Franny provides a count down to the moment when she cannot hold it any longer. She is at the three minute, then the two minute, then one minute and she needs a bathroom immediately. On this day, Franny said she was at the one minute.
Since her friend had used the bathroom, Franny was confident that she could too. While this was happening, I was mid-conversation on my phone trying to book my first desperately needed hair appointment since arriving in Japan. I finished my conversation then followed Franny into the bathroom. I feared I would find her covered in pee after a failed effort to squat over the Japanese-style toilet.
Instead, I found her pants down around her knees, butt cheeks hanging out in the air, hips thrust forward, and peeing into the urinal for the whole playground to see.
“What are you doing?” I cried!
“Peeing like a boy, like my friend.”
“I am pretty sure she used the stall.”
“Oh, she did? I thought she just peed like a boy,” responded Franny.
Amazingly, Franny finished peeing in the urinal, and she didn’t even get any pee on her.
[1] As a side note, my family and I are becoming big fans of the bidet.