
Combination toilet + sink in a Kyoto hostel.
I was already aware of electronic, heated toilet seats, however nobody prepared me for the ingenious toilet sink in Japan!
I encountered the first one while couchsurfing Tokyo, and snapped the above photo in the bathroom of my Kyoto hostel. Due to the dense population in Japanese cities, this solution to maximizing space, while ensuring proper hygiene, is priceless.
What do you think?

The Travel Blog Success community offers practical resources and personal support to help you build a better travel blog.
Whether you treat blogging as a hobby, or dream of building a location independent business, you'll learn what's required to create a name for yourself in the online travel world.
Benefits of Joining:
- Personal support from Dave, including site critiques and tips on negotiating advertising deals.
- Ability to learn from others' mistakes, and save yourself time, energy and money.
- Chance to network with other travel bloggers of all levels, from around the world.
10 Comments
Dude they got these in jails across the US. Just break the law sometime and check it out! lol @rtwDave:twitter
Hey @foggodyssey:disqus thanks for mentioning me in your comment using the new Disqus feature. I’d rather go back to Japan than jail!
you know, i don’t get the new thing on here for Twitter though. I didn’t get anything on my Twitter feed when you used my name, did you? @rtwdave:disqus
I think I needed to use the @ symbol before your name. You should get a Twitter alert for this comment @foggodyssey:twitter
been in japan for 11 years never really thought much about these toilets.
the shochu really hits the spot though. .
I looked up “shochu” and it refers to sake. Does it mean something else as well?
wow…
they are so creative…
it’s so efficient and simple..
Does it recycle the water from the sink into the cistern too?
Angela, I imagine yes, because that’d be the environmentally friendly thing to do. I found this quick article on the topic of toilet sinks and in the given example, it says it does do exactly that: http://www.walletpop.com/2008/10/17/toilet-sink-combo-a-flush-of-genius/
Certainly makes sense! Not sure that this will ever catch on in many houses in the US, but it’s definitely a great water-saving idea.