Japan Annoyance #1 and (Delight #1)

There have always been those that think grass is greener on the other side. I, being one of those people, came here hoping that this would be the land of sunshine and lollipops. (Val is watching me type and says lollipops are awesome. :) )The truth is, with anything good, there's always the bad. Don't get me wrong, so far my impressions of Japan have been overwhelmingly positive. I just want to shed some light on the little things that annoy me and/or Val. Let's just call them...cultural differences.

In the bathrooms, there's always different combinations (or permutations? I always sucked at finite) of the sink, soap and hand towel/dryer situation. The constant is that there's always a sink in some form. The variables are the paper towels/dryers and the soap.

Optimally, you want the soap with the dryer (for simplicity's sake). On a total side note (the delight!) is that the hand dryers here kick ass. They're called jet dryers, and rightly so! You know the dryers that blow the water off your car after a car wash? Well, imagine that!...but for your hands! (I'm getting way to excited about this) Gone are the minutes wasted while waiting for a sub par dryer to gently blow your hands dry with lukewarm or scalding air. This way it's super quick and well, it's an experience.

Back on topic...you'll be lucky if any bathroom you go to has both. Maybe 30% of the bathrooms I visit have this? MOST have soap (but not all). It's the dryers and towels that are elusive. It's like Bush looking for WMD's in Iraq. So much so, it's very common, nay, required that you carry around a hanky/towel to dry your hands.

So my question is, why? I don't really want to carry around a damp towel with me all damn day. The only other reason I can think of to support this non-towel theory is to save the environment, or to keep some cost in someone's budget down. If not towels, dryers should be mandatory. They're quick, energy efficient and seeing as how this country practically invented consumer electronics (I kid, I kid) they shouldn't cost too much to put in. Le sigh.

I can't believe I just wrote 4ish paragraphs about bathroom sanitation methods. :/