Exploring The Wacky Toilets of Japan, All In One Place!

by SharonKurheg

Joe and I love Japan. I’ve been there 4 times and Joe 3, and we’re looking at 2020 for our 5th/4th visit. Now, if there’s one thing we can count on from Japan, it’s its quirkiness or even, if you’ll forgive us, its weirdness. Cuz really…for every charming thing like Hayao Miyazaki films, or amazingly fun thing like Tokyo Disneyland/Tokyo DisneySea, or gorgeous natural thing like Mt. Fuji, there’s the off-center thing like MXC (Most Extreme Challenge – I LOVE that show), an incinerator that looks like a theme park, or the annual Kanamara Matsuri, also known as the Penis Festival ( <– YouTube link is NSFW). If you haven’t figured it out yet, Joe and I really like off-center stuff (OK, maybe not the Penis Festival so much), which, yeah, plays a part in why we describe YMMV as, “A slightly off-center look at travel, hotel points, frequent flyer miles & other ways to save.”

So when I found out there’s a guy in Japan that has essentially made an art form of photographing quirky/weird public toilets in Japan, let’s just say I wasn’t the least bit surprised…

Hidefumi Nakamura is a Japanese photographer who travels his home country in search of weird public toilet facilities. And apparently there are a lot of them. And I mean A LOT of them. Enough where he created an Instagram page called, appropriately, Toilets_A_Go_Go.

Call them what you will, here are a few examples of the quirky, weird, zany, wacky, idiosyncratic yet REALLY artistic public toilets he’s photographed:

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Reminds me of the Lynx station in Downtown Orlando

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A castle?

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A church?

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Another castle…with snow near the roof

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This one is in a cemetery and looks kind of like a masoleum

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This looks like a LOT of old buildings in Japan

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It’s in the mountains so I guess it’s matching where it is

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Is it a public toilet or a tiny house?

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This is just adorable

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It looks like it could be the town police station or something…

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Toilets meet art

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At Oku Station. So you don’t forget where you are?

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Again, in the mountains = looks like it belongs in the mountains

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Tiny Tudor house of toilet

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Even their porta potties look nicer than ours

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Reminds me of a bank. Well, you ARE making a deposit…

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This is about as Japanese as a toilet can get 😉

To see more of Hidefumi Nakamura’s toilet photography, you can check out his Toilets_a_go_go Instagram by clicking here. You’ll be glad that you did! 🙂

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3 comments

theyokohamalife May 31, 2018 - 2:50 pm

Wacky toilets, or just fun?! I love the overall cleanliness of *most* of the toilets in Japan.

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SharonKurheg May 31, 2018 - 2:52 pm

Wacky AND fun 😉 And I love the cleanliness of Japan, period! 🙂

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