Working out with Technology in a Toilet

This is my entry in the writing contest on my funniest experience working or living in a foreign country at Kamusta.com.

My stay in Japan from April to October of 1995 would border on melancholy and excitement. Japan is a charming country with old traditions wrapped in a modern city. It will be my first time to be in away from my family for a long time…..six months. Back then, snail mail and overseas call would be the only means of communication. It was to be a teary parting when I left my then two-year old and five-year old daughters to the care of their dad and yayas . I was not very comfortable about hubby’s babysitting skills (Please read Ika 23 ng Hulyo 2008). But I had to go as I was sent by my office to attend a language course for six months and was accepted by the Japanese government. There was no turning back.

After hubby dropped me off at the airport, I felt I was really going to a faraway place. There were three of us going there, a female and a male colleague. We lingered at departure area looking around at the duty-free shop. I was telling myself I would be buying pasalubong here once I get home. Then it was boarding time. It was about a four-hour flight to Tokyo.

In Tokyo, we first stayed in a hotel. I was savoring the feeling of staying in a nice hotel even if I was exhausted and already missing my family. I couldn’t sleep and watched a suspense thriller on cable TV. I got scared, turned the TV off, and forced myself to sleep. In the morning, we headed to our final destination, Fukuyama, a suburban city in Hiroshima Prefecture. While waiting for our flight, my female colleague and I went to the ladies room. Inside, some Pinays would notice us and asked if we are “talento”. I was amused by the question, maybe a bit flattered….to be mistaken for being entertainers at 35 . We said we were there to study language. After the pleasant exchange, we boarded our plane.

Arriving in Fukuyama, we would be fetched by a good-looking young Japanese employee of our sponsoring organization. This guy will be our guide in our six-month stay in Japan. My female colleague and I would be very pleased with him, I mean his guidance. My male companion might not have be too keen on our Japanese guide. This Japanese guide would also bring our monthly stipend which made him all the more delightful everytime he came to our apartment or school. We simply love him for all the things he was to us, our messenger, driver, escort, bodyguard, and most of all our piggy bank .

We came during the last stages of cherry blossoms. It was a beautiful season but rather cold for us. The apartment did not have a heater and we curled up in a futon bed and comforter which was not enough during the chilly nights. I felt loneliness creeping in on me in my first month. Over time, I would overcome the cold and the loneliness. Our male companion, however, would succumbed and go home after a month.

The school is about thirty minutes away from our apartment and we would walk the route and pass atop a hill to go to the school. At first, we gasped for breath reaching the top. I am asthmatic and I would have asthma attacks in the beginning. After sometime, climbing it would no longer pose a problem. This was to be our life for the next six months. We made friends along the way. We have some Chinese friends studying in the school and living in the same apartment building. Our Japanese Sensei proved to be more than mentors. They were friends too who made our stay in a foreign land bearable.

Sometimes, we would go to the nearest commercial district, Fukuoka, to shop or just have fun. In the mid-1990s even if we consider ourselves cosmopolitan, Japan technology was far superior to what we have been exposed to. This mismatch would be the foundation of my amusing experience in Japan.

I am a person who has fetish for clean toilets. I cannot use a dirty toilet. I would deliberately look for the toilet for my standards whenever I go to a certain place. In Fukuoka, the clean ones are in big department stores. The toilets in Japan have lavatory that are on floor level…….quite a feat to handle if you ask me. I tried to avoid those toilets with such lavatory. As soon as I discovered my toilets, I got excited. The lavatories are way too high-tech for a naïve girl living in a developing country. After using the toilet, I began to look at the buttons to press….. my, my and my ordeal started. I didn’t know which buttons to push. I close my eyes and sort of played mini mini minimo in my mind. The water nozzle shifted angle and soon water was sprouting. I had to dash out of the toilet as I didn’t want to take a shower. I tried to stay cool even if I left the toilet flooded . Good thing no one was in the toilet.

I would go to the same toilets everytime I visit the city. No matter how I tried to learn to use it, there would be some miscues sometimes.When that happened, I would just run out quickly not wanting to be caught. Technology can provide a lot of conveniences and can really make life better. In very rare cases, however, it could proved to be a debacle for some of us used to the simple things in life. In time, I just would learn to cope or run faster;)