Homes and the rainy afternoon

If you can't tell now, I have some time on my hands. Actually what I'm trying to do is procrastinate which I'm doing very well by slamming out blog posts. I have these photos I took one rainy afternoon, part of my "day in the life" series. These photos were taken sometime in June, well into rainy season. Rainy season this year was really wet. Our spring was mild and the first few months of summer including most of July was exceptional! I was really hoping that the hot, humid days of Yokosuka were going to elude us this year. Unfortunately that would not be the case and instead, Tokyo had seen some of the highest temperatures since recorded weather keeping.

Well, I had Zelig with me that afternoon so we went out in the downpour and headed to Homes. Homes is a department store, something like Target, perhaps a little more rough around the edges. Upstairs is the furniture department and now a Uniqlo. The furniture store at Homes is really the only option to get "quality" furniture in Yokosuka so of course the prices are steep for a lot of the items. Yes, we've bought a few furniture items from Homes and I just hope they last longer than our IKEA pieces!

One of the reasons why we like going to Homes is to see the pets. It's such a cheap thrill for Zelig and for me too. It's like going to the zoo or aquarium or better because we don't have to drive as far or pay as much. So of course, while we are there and with my camera tucked away in my purse, I headed to the toilets and took some photos to share with you. Why would you want to see a Japanese toilet? To see how clean the facilities are and to see some of the amenities that are included in some of the stalls.

This is the toilet cleaner. You take a few pieces of toilet tissue, spray cleaner on the tissue and wipe down the toilet.

This is the sound effects machine. This is a sensor so when you enter the stall, the sound of running water will start and finish when you leave the stall. It's to mask those embarrasing noises.

This is the actual commode. There is a control panel off to the side of the seat to allow you to adjust the bidet option. You can direct the stream, which by the way the water is heated as are the seats, alter the pattern of the stream such as a soft or hard spray and a few other things that I'm not privy to since I don't read kanji or hiragana.

After the washing of the hands, you'll need to dry off of course. These are automatic. Just place your wet hands inside and jets of forced air will blow the water off your skin as well as a few skin cells and some hairs too!