Are You Sitting Down for This? Japan Just Opened a Groovy Gallery for High-Tech Toilets

For all its advanced technology—remote-controlled anti-bacterial sprays, heated seats and motion sensors, to name a few—the Japanese toilet still hasn't achieved world domination. Toto, Japan's leading toilet manufacturer, seems to think that everybody outside the country has grown too attached to using paper to cleanse their derrières and just doesn't know what they're missing. To fix this, the company recently launched Toto Gallery, a 10-room toilet museum of sorts at the Narita International Airport, where visitors can check out the brand's latest offerings up close and and experience what Toto politely calls "elements of Japanese culture that are often too difficult to explain in words."

Located just a terminal away from the airport's new running track navigation scheme, the gallery was designed by Tokyo-based firm Klein-Dytham Architecture, the same folks who who worked on Google's über-eccentric Tokyo office. For this toilet gallery, the designers opted for stark white halls, themed rooms, and an animated, neon facade. Below, more photos and a video tour.

· Narita Airport's New Toilet Gallery is a Museum for Bathrooms [Spoon & Tomago]
· Japan's Newest Airport Terminal Uses Color-Coded Running Tracks for Wayfinding [Curbed National]