Japanese had many gadgets and it was always fascinating to see those in action. Here I collected some of my findings. Hope you'd find them interesting too.
Toilet
Built-in faucet
The first time we saw this in our guesthouse, we didn't know what it was. When we asked our friends back home, we realized that it's a toilet with built-in faucet. You can wash your hands with it after you are done with your business. The dirty water was used to flush the toilet next time round. It was a good way to save some water but I won't be able to use soap with this.
Washlet controls
Besides the built-in faucet, you will also notice that there's a small control panel on the side of the toilet. That's where you can turn on the washlet after you are done with your business. You can even control the temperature and the strength of the water jet. In cold season, you can also turn on the seat warmer to avoid surprises.
Bathroom
Shower and Bathtub
A Japanese bathroom, even in a simple guesthouse like ours, was well designed and was a pleasure to use. The first thing we noticed was that there was no separate shower compartment due to space. However, you don't have to worry about spraying water on the floor as the floor was waterproof.
If you want to bath instead of shower, the bathtub was deep and comfortable. There are temperature controls for the bathtub. If you don't know how to use the controls, just press the button at the top right hand corner (see picture). It meant automatic. The bathtub will fill up automatically to the proper level and temperature. It will signal you when it's ready to dip in.
Bathroom controls
Besides the bathtub, there are also humidity controls for the entire bathroom. As you can see in the picture above, you can prepare the bathroom by warming it and after you are done, you can use the dehumidifying function to remove moisture. The bathroom was always at the optimal every time we take a shower or bath.
Door stop
On the left is a common doorstop in North America. I had been using one of those for as long as I can remember. It's a simple design and it works. However, the fact that it sticks out makes vacuum annoying and some pets love to play with it just for fun.
The doorstop on the right is a modern design using magnet to automatically stop the door when needed. When it's not in use, the doorstop is out of the way. While I didn't know if Japanese was the initial designer of such doorstop, the fact that even a modest guesthouse in Japan had it was quite extraordinary.
Integrated Soap Dispenser
In Nara Park, we found this beautiful sink with an integrated soap dispenser. You hands don't need to move out of the sink to get soap and you won't get residual soap around the sink either because all excess soap will be washed away as you wash your hands. The only thing missing is probably an integrated hand dryer like the Dyson Airblade Wash+Dry
Egg white cutter
In Japan, there is a special tool for every imaginable task. Imagine the surprise we had when we saw this egg white cutter. After you had boiled your egg in the water, you roll the egg on this device and viola, you turned a boring boiled egg into an edible flower.