Mixed-gender restrooms and toilet paper placed too far away — surprising toilets in Norway

▲ Restroom signs in Norway are not standardized, and to promote "gender neutrality," most restrooms are shared by men, women, and people with disabilities. The photo shows the restroom at DogA, the Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture. (Photo / fromDogA’s official Facebook page)

Travel center / Comprehensive report

Cultural differences between East and West are significant, and even something as basic as "using the restroom" can vary greatly. For the Japanese, a warm toilet seat and an automatic bidet with warm water are completely normal, but if Japanese people travel to Norway, they might find the local restrooms quite unfamiliar.

Japanese women’s website“Mynavi News”recently published an article written by a female university student currently studying in Norway titled “Toilet culture that surprises Japanese people,” in which she was most surprised by the lack of uniformity in restroom signage. Sometimes a“♀”sign indicates a women’s restroom, but there’s also an arrow symbolizing men above it; even more confusingly, some signs include the universal accessibility symbol inside the circle, leaving the typically clear-minded Japanese puzzled about whether the restroom is for men or women, always fearing they might enter the wrong one.

▲ Restrooms in Norway are often so large you could live in them, with plenty of space. (Photo / fromMy Navi Woman official website)

Perhaps because Norwegian restrooms are shared by men, women, and people with disabilities, the space inside is so large it’s “like a single-person room”; the height of the toilet is also set higher due to the generally taller stature of Westerners, but for shorter Japanese people, their feet sometimes don’t touch the ground when sitting down, andthe toilet paper is for some reason placed far from the toilet, making many Japanese people have to stretch with all their might just to reach it, making one sigh: “It’s just using the restroom, why is it so difficult?”

Another characteristic of Norwegian restrooms is that at Norway’s second-largest airport — Bergen Airport — regardlessof whether it’s a men’s or women’s restroom, the little figures on the signs are drawn with one hand covering their lower body in a “holding it in” pose, which many find both embarrassing and quite cute; there are also things like having to pay to use the restroom, and Norwegian women less frequently touching up makeup in restrooms, so sink areas are smaller with not enough space to place makeup bags and such, all of which make Japanese people deeply aware of the cultural differences between East and West.

% The posture of people inside is like being in a “state of desperation” (Photo / from My Navi Woman official website)