Toilets in Japan !!!

I know...cudnt I think of anything else to write about? Yep, many interesting topics going on simultaneously in the world on which lengthy debates can be written but I decided to write about one of the basic necessities of life. This is a real life experience during my stay in Japan. Some background first....I always feel the way a toilet (lets call it RR to give it more respect) is maintained reflects the personality of the people maintaining it. I not only mean about home, but also the personality of the city, state or country. RR's in India....the lesser mentioned, the better. Now Japan is a country which can proudly boast of its clean RR's. That goes to show how much the Govt cares about the personal hygience and basic necessities of the people. In Japan, you will find clean, extremely well-mantained RR's at every corner of the street. And they are equipped specially for usage by handicapped people too. Not only are they very clean, they are very technologically advanced in this section too. I wont go into exact details about how they have convenienced the users in this regard, but fact is many of my friends visiting Japan have expressed the desire to take back a Japanese toilet with them as a memento.
During our initial months in Japan, we were taught a lot about the Japanese culture, the politeness, the respect and honesty they expect from everyone around. During one such cultural trip, our entire group of around 6-7 people with our Sensei were visiting Tokyo tower and we were being shown around the huge tower. Now, while one person in our group was attending nature's call, we were waiting near the exit doors for him. Suddenly, we heard loud alarms going off with red lights blinking over all emergency exits. While we stood wondering what it all meant, we saw security guards running in the direction of the RR our friend had entered. What we saw shocked us...our friend was coming out of the toilet with a very sheepish look on his face and trying to explain to the guard the cause of the alarm. We were concerned about what had happened and if he was fine.....and not in any trouble for starting the alarm. Luckily, our Sensei rescued him and we were enlightened about the whole episode. Unfortunately, the RR our friend had entered was one designed specially for a handicapped person. After relieving himself, he started looking around for the flush. According to him, he searched and searched but cudnt find anything looking remotely like a flush handle. Finally he saw a red button on the wall near the toilet and assuming it to be a typical Japanese sophisticated styled flush, he pushed it. Of course, the next thing he knew was alarms going off and especially ringing very loudly inside the confines of the RR. Frantically, he started looking for a way to stop it realizing he was the cause of it. Then he saw it written in red bold letters just above the red button he had pressed mistaking it for a flush..."EMERGENCY". Well, the guards stopped the alarms and went back amused with the incident. Later, our Sensei took us into the RR to show us the flush button. Being a specially designed RR, it was placed right next to the red emergency button in the form of an infrared sensor which was well blended into the walls. To flush, one had to place their hand on it just for a second and remove it. It did prove to be learning experience for all of us after all....especially our friend swore never to push any buttons anywhere even if it were a real emergency. The guard had told our Sensei that they arrest the people creating false alarms but only in our case they were letting us go. Of course, our friend was at the receiving end of all our taunts for the rest of the week till another funny embarassing incident happened with another friend and the heat was taken of him. But seriously, wherever you go, do visit the RR of the place...it will tell u a lot about the Government of the country and also the culture of the people there.
P.S: I am publishing about this incident with due permission of my friend who went through this incident on the condition of anonymity :)