We all want to be smiling when we go but if you’re “going” at one of Okinawa, Japan’s cute and creative public restrooms, grinning comes with the territory.

Flickr member Okinawa Soba (Rob) has a thing for public restrooms – not that there’s anything wrong with that – and he also has a camera. The combination is unexpectedly serendipitous, though the photographer deserves full credit for employing the latter with great discretion when exploring the former.

Based in Okinawa, a southern Japanese island prefecture rich in culture, history and tragedy, the photographer snapped most of his posted public restroom shots over the past decade. Take the so-called “Tangerine Toilet”, photographed in late 2015 and located in the mountain village of Izumi. Some say the restroom is modeled after a pumpkin but unlike our familiar Halloween jack o’lantern squash, Japanese “kabocha” pumpkins are only orange on the inside.

Angler of the Dangler

That’s NOT water under the bridge – it just sounds like it. This decidedly fishy public toilet is located in Nago, a city of just over 60,000 in northern Okinawa. Like many of the island’s mimetic public restrooms, this koi-shaped toilet appears rather sun-faded and soot-streaked, indicating appreciable age. Like most of Japan’s public restrooms in general, however, it’s well-maintained and surprisingly clean on the inside.

The Write Stuff

Situated near a small park in Okinawa City, this pencil-stub-shaped public restroom reflects some of the cultural norms of the island in that the urinal is doorless while the toilet (an old-fashioned “squat” model) lies behind a stout metal door. Photographer Okinawa Soba (Rob) snapped the literary loo in April of 2015.

Smells Finny

This gorgeous public restroom located in Okinawa’s Awase district is THE place to pee, er, be if you’re in the neighborhood and hear nature’s call. Heck, we’d visit it whether nature’s calling or not! Designed with color-coded entrance ways for each gender, this bright and beautiful public toilet features both traditional and modern commodes to suit any preference.

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Going In Style Cute Creative Public Restrooms Of Okinawa

Little architectural effort is typically spent on public restrooms – they’re perfunctory, with looks reflecting embarrassment about the functions carried out within. But they’re a necessary part of every city, and, as some architects have proven, they can stand as impressive landmarks, conversation pieces and works of public art.

Kumutoto Toilets by Studio Pacific

These two headless dinosaur things in Wellington are actually – believe it or not – public restrooms. Studio Pacific architects took their inspiration from “the crusty saltiness of the sea” in the nearby harbor, comparing the structures to crustaceans or sea creatures, though they call to mind armored slugs. Each one has a concrete base containing one accessible public toilet, while the cantilevered appendages provide natural ventilation.

Don’t Miss a Sec Restroom by Monica Bonvicini

We’ve all had this nightmare: needing to use the restroom, and having no place to go but in front of a room full of people. Artist Monica Bonvicini has recreated that feeling, but without actually requiring indecent exposure, with a glass cube restroom outside London’s Tate Britain gallery. The work, called Don’t Miss a Sec, is based on prison bathrooms. It’s mirrored on the outside, but from inside, it feels like you’re on display.

Public Toilet Proposal by FAT

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, British public toilets were the best in the world, and a matter of civic pride. The Royal Institute of British Architects sought to revive that tradition with a challenge for architects to design outlandish restrooms that could stand as “a center piece for urban regeneration and to ultimately improve people’s lives.” Does FAT’s decapitated Hercules head do that? The answer is subjective, but it’s certainly an eye-catcher. The architects are presumably being a little cheeky when they say, “It is hoped that Hercules will inspire those who enter to conjure up whatever strength they require to complete their transactions within. Inside will be a view of the sky through an oculus in Hercules’ truncated neck.”

Gravesend Public Toilets by Plastik Architects

The Gravesend Public Toilets features a pointy prow rising up into the sky as a ‘minor landmark’ for public convenience, as requested by the local council. The toilet likes along a new public footpath linking the heart of the town to public park land, and is shaped according to the topography and geometry of the site.

Hiroshima Park Restrooms by Future Studio

A colorful series of structures located throughout the city of Hiroshima are public restrooms inspired by origami cranes. The concrete facilities are dotted with round ventilation holes and acrylic windows to let in air and sunshine. There are seventeen in all, each one pointing in the same direction, with the entrance moved to various sides as needed at specific sites.

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Rad Restroom Designs 15 Actually Awesome Public Potties

Weird and wacky washrooms seem to be popping up everywhere around the world. Some bizarre bathrooms are outdoors while many are in hotels. Would you, however, feel compelled to go out to eat mostly to visit the restroom? Strangely themed restaurants have been appealing to clientele for years, but some restaurant owners are applying a new mind-blowing marketing technique to bring curious customers in their door. From plush powder rooms to voyeuristic lavatories, visitors come not to dine but to check out the restrooms. Here are 14 tasteful or tacky toilet themed restaurants.

Toilet Culture Is Changing

(images via:espvisuals,espvisuals,espvisuals,pinktentacle,Daily
Humors)

Classy restrooms have proven successful in upscale hotels, for example, where fantastic views of the city’s tourist attractions are visible through huge windows above the john. Leave it to overcrowded China to come up with the largest outdoor toilets. In Chongqing, there is a four-story, 1,000-stall facility with TVs, music piped throughout, as well as Virgin Mary- and crocodile-themed urinals in an area with no roof. If al fresco style isn’t for you, then how about their provocative sinks? In Japan, Coca-Cola’s Georgia Max Coffee has installed ski jump-themed restrooms in various ski resorts, as in put your feet in the skis, sit on the toilet and go for it. And Sofitel Hotel in Queenstown New Zealand has life-sized images of models who sightsee while holding binoculars, cameras, or tape measures above each urinal. But restaurants are getting into the act now, such as offering luxury via an “underwater” restroom. Such places are doing more than offering a decent place to visit when nature calls; in fact, they are capitalizing on the curious to come in just to visit the washroom.

Giant Aquarium Water Closet

In the city of Akashi, at the beachside Mumin Papa Café, female customers are making trips to the loo and staying to enjoy the underwater restroom. If you are male, you are out of luck at this classy restaurant as the men’s restroom is ordinary. For women, this sub-aquatic style submerged toilet is built into the side of a giant aquarium. Exotic fish and sea turtles swim by to be watched and to watch in this $270,000 water closet. The owner suggests this luxurious restroom was designed “to recreate the pleasant sensations of relieving yourself while swimming in the ocean.”

Escape

(images via:urinals)

If you are near Colchester, Essex, U.K., then you might want to go in for a drink and a bite to eat. This nightclub offers quite a strange restroom experience for male patrons. In fact, many gents visit simply to make a trip to the loo. The six stainless steel urinals each have a 42″ plasma screen behind a porthole vision panel. The giant screens activate when someone stands in front of them and a random video starts to play. In some cases, a guy might get a girl who is not impressed with what she “sees.” The screen might display a female who hands out flattery. Chances are also good that the 42” screen might display another guy criticizing or complimenting.

Take A Walk On The Wild Side At Bar 89 and R-Bar

(images via:travel,travel)

Bar 89 in New York City has a bathroom built for those who trust technology. This unique restroom (left) has clear glass stalls that completely frost over once a patron goes inside and shuts the door. Then the customer is concealed in privacy to take care of business. The R-Bar in Brighton, U.K., offers a latrine with loud red lips and an open mouth for urinals. The gay nightclub “blows away” its patrons.

Strange But True Toilets

(images via:urinalurninal)

The Three Sisters Pub is located in Amsterdam, Holland, Netherlands. It’s an old building with a cobbled courtyard that leads to an area where you smoke and drink outside. After a few drinks and perhaps a snack, gentlemen visiting the little boy’s room are sure to take notice of the décor. A large mirror is over the shiny steel “monster” urinals. (left)

Some visitors come to stay at Nach Castle, while some come to the café strictly to dine. The bar on the top floor of Nach Castle, which is located in the ski resort town of Neustift im Stubaital, Austria, has another unusual bathroom. Both male and female customers tend to make a trip to the men’s restroom. It isn’t the steel toilets that are the claim to fame, but the image of a female inside the john. Once activated by a person standing in front of it, the urinal plays a short video of the nearly naked lady enticing the user. Strange but true, people come from all around to witness it. (right)

Brio’s Heaven and Hell Washrooms

(images via:Best Restroom)

Located in Rockford, Illinois, the Brio Restaurant offers quality food and drinks in a cozy atmosphere. Although the building boasts vintage architecture, it is the themed restrooms that help bring in customers to this eccentric establishment. Heaven and Hell is awaiting Brio patrons in the washrooms. The women’s restroom (left) is supposed to represent Heaven with the cool shades of blue decor. The men’s restroom (right) is supposed to represent Hell with the red colors and wacky hellish design.

Busaba Eathai

(images via:flickr,flickr)

The Thai restaurant Busaba Eathai in London has a dark wood-lined interior while incense wafts around the room. From travel blogs to word of mouth, customers are advised to check out the restrooms. The hallway leading to the bizarre washroom has a sign to show which room is for males and which is for females. The sign itself though displays not gender but positions the sex would use to relieve themselves. Many travelers make the mistake of entering the wrong room, be it curiosity or confusion. Once a patron is inside the right privy, however, it is anything but private. There is an opening between the rooms where the sink is shared by both sexes.

Glass Lounge

(images via:Glass Lounge)

In New York City, you start to experience the Glass Lounge before you even walk in the door. Whether you are a Peeping Tom or want to try out your voyeuristic side, the experience begins with a two-way mirror overlooking Tenth Avenue. People on the outside see in, while people inside the restroom wash their hands or use the mirror to fix their hair. After several drinks, some people forget about the mirror that allows pedestrians or stalkers to watch you as you primp in the mirror.

Really Rustic At Marius

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In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Marius Restaurant starts your experience as soon as you walk in the door. The brightly colored pirate theme is not hard to miss, from buccaneers serving food to the bizarre latrina. Bright green walls and heavy castle-thick stall doors are not what shocks most customers, but the thick heaping piles of colored loose rocks on the floor. The sinks are also heaped full of stones. The urinals have packed ice on top of the rocks. If you are female, or are taking a female, this is not a good place to wear high heels. Just the same, don’t trip but have a trippy time; the restrooms should be a part of your visit.

Ninja Your Nether-parts

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The Ninja in New York is a ninja themed restaurant. Expect ninja’s jumping out of dimly lit hallways, but be certain to brave the ninjas and to try out the restrooms. Inside the washroom, you will be greeted by a cave-themed interior. The john itself is anything but rustic.In fact, this toilet features high technology. The Toto toilets offer remote-controlled “front cleaning” and “rear cleaning” action as well as blown hot-air for drying.

Go Green When You Gotta Go At Habana Outpost

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If you like to eat out as well as go green, then try the Habana Outpost in New York City. This café was the first eco-eatery of its kind and is dedicated to eco-responsibility. Not only in the kitchen, but the greenhouse-styled restroom is good for the environmentally conscious. Both the toilet and the sink use a rainwater recycling system that saves approximately 4,000 gallons of water a week. This washroom functions as a working greenhouse, so expect the unexpected besides the growing green foliage.

Peeping Tom Paradise

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Ogling must be big business because in New York City, Peep is all about extreme voyeurism. Sure people go there and have a drink or dine, but the bathroom is the huge draw. At Peep, the entire washroom walls are built with two-way mirrors. It’s not unusual for visitors to spend up to ten times a normal visit to the restroom; instead of three minutes in the lavatory, occupants stay up to thirty minutes apiece enjoying their surveillance of everyone else from the restroom. Once inside, the whole bathroom stall is glass so you can spy on everyone in the restaurant until your heart is content. Make no mistake; Peep is all about watching from their washroom.

Shoji Tabuchi Theater

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In Branson, Missouri, there is another themed restaurant that attracts customers for their country-music theater shows. However, buses come during the day before the show starts specifically for visitors to see the elaborate and ornate restrooms. Both men’s and women’s washrooms are about 1,800 square feet and are filled with the sweet scent of fresh exotic flowers. The ladies restroom has been built around the 1890’s Empire Period, featuring stained glass, chandeliers, a fancy fireplace, and more flowers. The men’s room has a $15,000 marble fireplace and marble and oak doors. Men can do more than take care of nature’s call by playing on a $35,000 billiards table or by resting in black leather chairs. This is an example of yet another restaurant that uses the power of their powder room to pull in visitors.

When asked to list essential, life-enhancing furniture around the home, there are not many people who would include their toilet. However, remove it from their home and they’d be aware of it in a very short time. The humblest seat in the house is also the most vital. For that reason, let us celebrate the ingenuity, creativity and widespread influence of modern toilets  – because to build the ideal home, you really should start at the bottom.

(Images via: MSN and Tension Not).

First up, some public toilet designs that you might see moving indoors sometime soon. This design by Monica Bonvicini uses one-way glass to create the unsettling illusion that you’re performing your ablutions in full view of the whole world. If you can fight down the feeling that surely somebody can see you with your pants round your ankles, it’s a fascinating (and deeply weird) way to watch the world go by.

(Images via: Spluch and John Chow).

But if a public convenience in full view is seen as a very public inconvenience, why not hide it away? These two toilets take up the challenge by using the y-axis to hide all sins. The toilet at top is normally stored underground, so all you can see is the scenic sculpture on its roof – but pop a coin (1 yuan, in this case) into the slot and hey presto, one toilet. (We’re presuming that it won’t sink down again while it’s still occupied). The Urilift is designed to meet the needs of boozy gentlemen weaving their way back home after an evening in their cups – during the day it looks like a manhole cover, but at night it twirls into view to present urinals in all directions.

(Image via: Whole Wheat Toast).

And for making sure that nobody takes your public toilet for granted? Okay, so this design is a spoof (at the Hunter’s Point Shipyard Studios, SF). But this is guaranteed to make any guy think twice about doing what comes naturally to him. A design that heightens awareness, shall we say.

(Image via: luxurygaze).

And if you want to want your toilet out of sight in your own home, here’s a classy-looking option. This Bench Toilet doubles as an elegant table, thanks to a sliding wood panel. (But there is a catch: it costs over $11,000 – so this is one for when you are really…er, flush).

(Images via:  Yanko Design).

For a commode that you’d be proud to display in full view, have a look at Sung Hoon Mun’s Cell toilet. Its polished surface and fashionably curving lines make it look like it was designed within the supercar industry…and under the hood – I mean lid – you would be surprised to find that it doesn’t require a tank, hence the unusually ground-hugging egg shape.

(Images via: Pinny Cohen and Diamond Vues).

So now for toilets that take things a little too far. On the left, the winningly-named Pimped Out John, sporting a frankly ludicrous array of modifications including a laptop, a gaming console, TiVo, a fully-stocked refrigerator and even some exercise pedals to help you lose weight while you…lose weight. This is a one-off item and not available in the stores, and frankly we are glad of it (imagine the effect it would have on kids that already hog the bathroom in the morning). Another distinctly noncommercial example is the Isis toilet, which shimmers because it is studded with $75,000 of crystals. On a practical note, I bet it gets cold in the winter.

(Images via: Propelair and Cooler Solutions Inc.).

The house of tomorrow will hoard its precious water. There are already methods in development to use kitchen sink grey water to flush toilets, but until they’re part of a designer’s standard toolkit, it would be sensible to cap the amount of water available without detracting from the unit’s function. This is what Propelair aims to do – by sealing the bowl and pushing air through it, it uses just 1.5 litres for a full flush (around 80% less than the standard).  The Dignity toilet provides a sanitary alternative to a regular water supply in drought conditions – it holds its contents hygienically for a week, and then the top is undocked, augered into the ground in a safe spot, and opened.

(Image via: Collections Etc.).

BAD boy.You know how pets do that really disgusting thing with the drinking of the water in the toilet? This toilet-themes dog water bowl has us in two minds: obviously dogs will love it, and the design makes good sense (automatically refilling as it empties). But isn’t it teaching your dog to drink out the toilet? If you have given up trying to dissuade Fido from his disturbing habits, this is a practical way to concede defeat.

(Image via: Yanko Design).

And while we’re talking about items that give the wrong message – how about a toilet seat that tells you exactly how much weight you’re losing? That is precisely what the Toilet Seat Scale does (precisely). People with a weight micro-management problem form an unhealthy queue here, please.

(Images via: Spluch and Freshome).

So we are agreed – toilets can look great. But would you want to live in one? For South Korean Sim Jae-Duck, chairman of the World Toilet Association, the answer is a firm “Yes” – or at least, a house that looks like one until you go inside and see the luxury on offer. This stunning example of ultra-modern designwork (with a touch of eccentricity) is advertised as “a place of sanctuary” – just like its humbler counterpart.

(Image via: The Register).

But if you think a house-sized toilet is faintly ludicrous – what about this building? Could this be the world’s most monstrous porcelain throne – and why?