My colleagues nicknamed me the Captain Eco at work.
That is because I insists on using both sides of the paper whenever I can, WILL NOT print unnecessarily, use my own utensils and mug instead of the disposables.
Actually they are just the very simple amd mundane stuff we can do with little effort just to give our poor overworked mother earth and depleting recources a break.
Recently, something at work really amused me.
When I just entered the company, I couldn't understand why the ladies were flushing the toilets so much. They flush it once right after they enter the cubicles, sometimes even in between business and of course the final time after they are done.
That makes it 3 times per trip? On average every flush is 2L of water. So that makes it 6L per person per trip. 4 times a day, makes it 24 L multiple by the number of ladies....
It's scary maths out there...
So anyway back to the main story. I was feeling bored one day so I googled to find out why they were flushing so much. It was then I realised Japanese ladies find it a big embarassment and uncomfortable to be heard by others when they do their business and vice versa.
So for my company which didn't have the flushing sound system to cover up for that, everyone was flushing like mad.
Seriously, I should have did it immediately like 2 yrs ago. But somehow something got onto me mid of last week and I went to the Admin/HR to suggest they install this system called the otohime (see explanation below).
Oto = Sound
Hime = Princess.
See.. what a gloried name they give for the flusing sound sytem.
And to my greatest shock ( why didn't any smarter soul tell them that earlier??) they actually welcomed it with the greatest enthusiasm and it was installed today!
I asked my colleague how come no one ever told them that and she concluded it might because no one has the courage to bring up the topic of toilets.
Yeah.. so they have to thank me the foreigner.
Another case where straight-forwardness saves the day.
Today after the oto hime was installed, the colleague who gave me the nick Captain Eco exclaimed, " Our Captain Eco indeed" and she applauded. Well well...
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What is an Otohime?
Toilet noises can be embarrassing, but what's a shy girl to do besides repeatedly flushing in situation? Japan's answer is the Otohime (pronounced "oto-hee-may"), also known as the "Sound Princess" - an electronic "flush" that saves face as well as water.
Japanese women can be exceedingly modest when it comes to the characteristic sounds of nature's call, regardless of the fact that they are either alone in their home's bathroom or among their own kind in a more public washroom setting.
With the advent of western-style flush toilets in the post-war era, modest misses found that merrily flushing away effectively masked any embarrassing noises. Unfortunately, by the 1980s legions of ladies managing their modesty led to a virtual Niagara of wasted water - a fact not lost on Japan's governing authorities.
by Steve Levenstein
Taken from : http://inventorspot.com/articles/otohime_saves_face_sounding_like_a_flush_14224
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