UMESHU, HELSINKI

A small review of one special toilet for the celebration of Christmas. Umeshu is a popular sushi restaurant in Töölö, offering decent quality raw fish experiences for sushi lovers. The restroom of the small restaurant offers one of the most harmonic toilet experience the author has encountered so far.

The restroom features one small cubicle and a designated sink area. The floor is made of small round stones, which creates a down-to-earth atmosphere with a bit of a Mediterranean twist.

  

Korhonen Oy has provided the cubicle with a compulsory early 90s touch with this garbage pin next to the toilet seat. In a truly cosmopolitan manner the instruction text is provided with three different languages taking into account the needs of international customers.

After finishing the business on the beautiful raw toilet side of the restroom, the guest is however still about to experience the best part of the facilities; that is the sink area illustrated below. I won't go into too much details as the pictures will speak for themselves.

However one of the coolest items on the whole setting is the faucet, which has a plate on which the water runs, creating a waterfall  like experience to wash hands.

Happy Holidays everyone!

FLUSH & GO, REVISITED

The flushable toilet roll I blogged about earlier, much beloved among the professional toilet visitors, has been selected by overwhelming majority (they say) as the most superfluous product of the year by Finnish Nature magazine (Suomen Luonto). The environmentalist fury that valuable recyclable cardboard, worth of four sheets of toilet paper, is lost every time a flushable toilet paper roll shell is flushed down the drain. The story doesn't tell, but the author would imagine, that the same opponents are equally furious every time an honest toilet visitor goes on conducting his/her business and flushes down the toilet an amount of toilet paper equivalent of 1-8 flushable toilet roll shells. I don't know about the furious opponents, but at least the author wouldn't stand the smell caused by the used toilet paper in the bin. So still convinced, that shitty paper goes down the toilet!

(only in Finnish: )
http://www.suomenluonto.fi/turhake/index.html

Freie Universität, Berlin

A quick review of toilet paper roll storaging at Freie Universität. The university has decided to save some money by using the toilet in a dual role as a storage and as a place to conduct your business. The way toilet paper rolls are stored reminds of my earlier encounter at Karstadt. I sure would prefer the prewarmed rolls above the radiator over the ones on dirty floor.

Too bad none of the rolls had made it way to the holder.

NORWEGIAN, IN-FLIGHT OVER FINLAND

"Blogging online in-flight at 30,000ft, above the clouds!" could I have said if I had one of those Norwegian new planes with free wifi. But not this one. It was though the 6000th Boeing 737 produced (written on tail) so hey I'm setting some milestone here! So instead of blogging in-flight, I set to lie on the floor, spread my hands, pretend to be flying like an aircraft and start typing. Read the report below:


The private rooms to join the mile-high club, or just to conduct your ordinary business, are notoriously small and put a challenge for my modern photo equipment. Upon entering one of the lavatories at the rear end of the aircraft I'm greeted with shades of white, cream and light grey.

The toilet seat features some extra handles on the wall helping those who has problems conducting their business at altitudes under different air pressure than at your ordinary home office.

The sink and surroundings has around 20 different holes and gadgets fulfilling all the needs you can imagine.

 Smokers! Better stock up some US dollars, even though it would be a EU flight.

Smokers again! Ignore this sign, for the nominal additional fee of $2200 it is allowed!

Once again, nice touch having a hook in the lavatory, though I suspect not too many passengers have their coats on on-board.

 Do not stash you garbage into the toilet, the seat pocket is for that, understood?

And the final note for the less experienced toilet users: Always remember to stand up before flushing! Or you may end-up like her:

airplane-vacuum-toilets-an-uncommon-travel-hazard

FLUSH & GO, HELSINKI

This time I want to show you a new toilet paper roll concept by a Finnish toilet paper, napkin and paper towel producer Lotus. The idea of the new concept is, that the shell of the paper roll is made of same kind of degradable paper as the toilet paper itself and as such can be flushed down the toilet. To me it seems like a cool concept as we all have experienced the piling up of old toilet paper shells at the toilet, when one is too lazy to put them into trash bin. I'm also excited, because Lotus Embo is one of my favorite toilet paper brands, and improved features warm the heart of a long-time user.

I even came across this massive advertisement in the middle of Helsinki, where a whole tram stop was playing the role as a huge add for the new concept.

Some dedicated toilet visitors have tested and proved the concept for our delight as seen below:

KTV CLUB, BERLIN

I want to share with you a recent toilet experience I had.  As my readers surely know, in bars and clubs the toilet quality varies greatly and one can never know beforehand what to find in terms of cleanliness, accessories and toilet ware. The toilet concept of Berlin’s KTV club was however a positive surprise.

The most interesting part was the layout of the toilet area itself, which is shared by both genders. The area consists of a corridor forming a square around the toilet area, entered from the right hand side on the photo below. Upon entering the guest is greeted with the sink desk. Continuing from the sinks to the left and right, four toilet cubicles form the middle part of the section, while on the back side is the dedicated zone for urinals. An interesting concept and the club was great too!

The entrance to the toilet. Notice the nice touch of up to date club fliers between the sinks.

The toilet cubicles on the sides of the square. The doors lock and close snugly providing a space for diverse private business.

Authentic zone for the guys with relevant tags on the walls.

KARSTADT, BERLIN

I’m starting my report with a short review, subject of my most recent visit to a toilet. Generally speaking one can expect to find decent quality toilets in most department stores and that was the case with Karstadt as well. The pros of the department store toilets are that they are cleaned and maintained frequently and provide plenty of options to choose your favorite toilet seat or urinal.

The toilet seat I had the pleasure to use was a clean example of the kind used widely in Germany.

Most exemplary public toilets provide the quest with a hook to hang your coat on, improving the toilet visit experience. That was the case with Karstadt, but instead of just one, as a nice touch they provided two hooks!

The toilet paper roll and appropriate holder. I prefer having the paper roll the other way around with the paper unfolding from the top of the roll.

The only minor complaint I have is about the piece of cardboard below one of the urinal which was obviously leaking.

Nice way to store the paper rolls. The lucky one using a fresh roll will enjoy some warm sheets of paper during the winter! Not the first encounter with this style as I will later report.

As evident from the photos, the pattern of the materials and colors provide conditions for a harmonized and pleasant stay and the toilet guest can take the time needed in no hurry. At least I was happy to have chosen Karstadt toilet to conduct my business.

FLUSHING IT UP

Around 2-5% of human lifetime is spent in a toilet or on related activity. That’s a good enough reason to blog about it.