Korean toilet experience

Lets take things down a notch…

Do you recall me mentioning the one thing I appreciated most about my apartment was my western bathroom? Well let me explain why.

In Korea you will get one of 3 options when it comes to using a toilet.

1: if you’re lucky you will get a Samsung toilet.

2: you will get a western style throne with a twist.

3: you will get a floor toilet.

So lets start with the nicest one. The Samsung toilet. You can treat it pretty much the same as any old western toilet. But, with Samsung, you get a ton of gadgets on the side to play with. When I came across this toilet it was actually during my orientation with EPIK, and my Korean reading back then was so much worse than it is now, I had no idea what I was doing when I decided to play with it, but it turned out ok.

When I sat on the seat it was already heated, and once I’d done my business,  I didn’t know if I’d ever see one of these again, (and I haven’t). So I took advantage of this golden opportunity and just slammed on every button which I thought looked pretty. Without me having to get up, and with terrifying accuracy, the toilet washed and blow dried me. I actually didn’t want to get up. This was without a doubt the most pleasant toilet experience I’ve ever had.

Then there is your western style toilet. These days in Korea, they’re getting rid of majority of the floor toilets, and opting for the “throne”, as we have in the west. However, there are two slight twists. The first twist is that in public bathrooms, in each cubicle, there isn’t always toilet paper, you have about a 50/50 chance of toilet paper actually being in the cubicle. The other half of that 50% is that you’ll get a single large toilet paper dispenser outside all the cubicles. You take a massive roll, and you take it with you into the cubicle. Now you might be thinking, oh that’s not so bad, and sure, you’re right, it’s not so bad. but yeah, you know the pluming system in Korea isn’t designed for taking toilet paper. So beside each toilet you will see one of these babies…

toilet paper basket (not my school)

Oh yes, once you’ve finished you’re business, you’re used toilet paper goes in here. Lovely. This is the option that my school goes for actually, and it is always surprisingly white and clean. But in public toilets, it’s not always so nice, as I’m sure you can imagine.

a "nice" picture of a floor toilet

Now then, time to get to the nitty gritty. Option 3, the floor toilet. I think I’ve only seen one or two of these in the indie bars of hongde in Seoul. Now, whenever you’re in a place that’s a little bit indie, and you can’t see the toilet sign, that’s not a good start. If you ask when the toilets are, and they point to a door which leads outside the building, again, that’s not a good sign. The only time I’ve seen these floor toilets is when they’re in a small building, just next to a bar or café, round the back. In these floor toilets there are cubicles, but they don’t always have doors apparently. I’ve seen one where none of the cubicles had doors…I walked straight back out. I’ve never used one of these, nor do I intend to, but I’m not sure that I know which way to even use them. And they’re usually disgusting! People miss all the time. With these toilets however, again you cannot put toilet paper in the toilet so you will have your basket at the side, but I’ve also never seen toilet paper at all in one of these cubicles,or outside them. So I assume that people would have to bring their own.

I guess this whole, toilet paper issue could be different for girls than boys but still just in case, I always bring a little toilet paper with me when I go out just in case there is an emergency.

a typical bathroom in a Korean apartment

In wonderful contrast, the toilet I have in my apartment is completely western. But also, I should mention typical Korean bathrooms. Normally there is no specific place for you to shower in a Korean bathroom. Normally in apartments, the entire room is a wet-room, and just freely hanging on the wall is a shower head. And when you shower, you just get everything in the room soaking wet. As you can see, the shower head is also attached to the tap, you kinda need to make sure that when brushing your teeth, the tap isn't set to shower, otherwise the water won't be running into the sink. you'll be having a fully clothed shower. 

In my apartment, I actually have a bath that I can shower in…although I can’t have a bath, there was no plug when I moved in and I have no idea where the plug store is in Korea.  >.>