If you haven’t heard about the new Toho Cinema building in Kabuki-cho with a giant Godzilla head popping out from its roof, you should check Facebook more often, because I’m certain one of your friends must’ve shared the post on their wall.
I was surprised that despite the large building, there appears to be very few shops on its first floor. I wonder what it’s like in the rest of the building. But the more important thing is, this Godzilla building is pretty unfriendly, and its unfriendliness could be the key to its extremely clean toilet.
Last weekend, I went to have dinner at the building’s Indian restaurant with a friend. After dinner, I decided I needed to clear my bowels. So we headed out the restaurant toward the building’s restrooms. At the entrance toward the restrooms, I noticed a block of text on the wall that said something like “メダル専用トイレ” and caught a glimpse of the word “token” somewhere in the English translation.
I was like, “What the hell does that mean?”
When I got to the gents’ door, I saw a stainless steel panel that looks like a vending machine or a coin locker and realised that we needed something to open the door. My friend quickly realised that we needed a token to open the door as Godzilla decided that only patrons of the building can use their toilets. So we headed back to the restaurant and as soon as I stepped in, the staff said, “いらっしゃいませ” or “Welcome” which immediately set my head thinking if we had to explain that we were eating there before they would hand us the tokens. Thankfully, either he suddenly remembered us, or it’s Japanese hospitality at work, we didn’t have to explain much to get the tokens.
Interestingly, the tokens for the call of nature are really tokens for the call of nature.
And this is what the panel at the door looks like.
Never seen a more troublesome toilet.
But at least it would be cleaner. Or it should.
I like the design of the token. 😉