A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
Japan Installs See-Through Restrooms In Park To ‘Reassure Anyone Entering The Toilet’

These are a few shots of the see-through restrooms designed by Shegiru Ban’s architecture firm and installed in a Tokyo park as part of the Tokyo Toilet Project, which is ‘enlisting world-famous architects to create toilets “like you’ve never seen.”‘ A bold mission, because I’ve seen all kind of toilets before, including one that actually turned out to be my roommate’s dresser. Some details about these particular bathrooms:

“There are two things we worry about when entering a public restroom, especially those located at a park,” according to architect Shigeru Ban’s firm. “The first is cleanliness, and the second is whether anyone is inside.”
Transparent walls can address both of those worries, Ban says, by showing people what awaits them inside. After users enter the restroom and lock the door, the powder room’s walls turn a powdery pastel shade — and are no longer see-through.
“Using a new technology, we made the outer walls with glass that becomes opaque when the lock is closed, so that a person can check inside before entering,” the Nippon Foundation says.

Oh good, so the walls turn opaque when you lock the door. That’s a relief because I do have stage fright and can’t pee if anyone is within a three-urinal radius. Also, the being able to make sure a bathroom is unoccupied I understand, but making sure it’s clean? I just assumed all public restrooms in Japan were clean enough to eat in. Here? Haha, here I run home hoping I can make it back to my own bathroom without an accident.

keep going for a shot of the restrooms in occupied mode, and another with a different color scheme.

Thanks to my dad, who agrees how clean your bathrooms are says a lot about a country.