Toilet paper

Toilet Paper

       A nifty wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper

            As a quaint reminder, even in the USA splinter free toilet paper wasn't even invented until the 1030's. Ouch.

            Even in the early 1970's and while at a Royal Marine base in Scotland, the toilet paper  provided was mostly like today's USA wax paper, albeit with each perforated sheet having a triangle and a government property stamp on it. Most of us USA Marines went into the local town and got more conventional USA style toilet paper.

            Even today there are many different cultural ways to clean our mess, like our poop and pee. Not everyone uses toilet paper today, for example. And in some cultures, tourists must carry their own toilet paper if that is what they prefer. In other words, there is no such thing as public toilet paper.

            As another example of cultural differences, I once stayed at a ryokan (imagine a bed and breakfast)  in Hiroshima, and there were stick figure instructions on how to use the western style toilet. The time was circa 1985. While I truly enjoyed the wonderful treatment in that style of treating males like me, I also enjoyed knowing what to do with toilet paper and the western style toilet since I had to poop and pee, too.

            Now later in Japan, most "love hotels" I knew about had western style toilet paper and toilets, but that is another story.

            And most of the world still uses "squat" toilets, even today. Many still use western style toilet paper, too.