🚻 Tokyo Toilet Tour
Discovering beauty, care, and kindness — one restroom at a time
When I watched Perfect Days, I was fascinated by how Wim Wenders turned something as mundane as public toilets into a quiet meditation on care, dignity, and beauty.
So when I returned to Tokyo, I decided to trace that poetry in real life — visiting some of the Tokyo Toilet locations featured in the film and others scattered around Tokyo.
What I found wasn’t just about architecture. It was a small story about empathy, precision, and the beauty of doing one’s work with pride.
You can follow the same route I took here ➡️ Google Maps link.
🌿 Nanagō-Dōri Park
🚻 Nishi-Sandō Public Toilet
3 Chome-27-1 Yoyogi
Tucked near Meiji Shrine, this restroom might escape the notice of tourists, yet it holds a rare serenity. Clean lines, soft lighting, and thoughtful layout make it a place where function meets respect. Just a short walk away, people pray, bow, and move slowly — and here, too, that same spirit of reverence seems to linger.
🍵 Shorakuen Tea Salon & Boutique — a fairy-tale Mt. Fuji moment
Midway through my journey, I paused for tea — and for a little magic.
At Shorakuen Tea Salon & Boutique, desserts are shaped like Mount Fuji itself, made from layers of ganache, sponge, fruit, and nuts molded using real topographical data. Each treat is part confection, part landscape.
Their signature line, 山菓子 (Yamagashi), transforms Japan’s mountains — Sakurajima, Rishiri, Yufudake, Omuro — into edible art. When cut in half, the layers resemble geological strata; when displayed in miniature “garden” boxes, they become tiny dioramas of nature.
The interior feels like a souvenir shop from a fairyland — a dreamy mix of Japanese and European elements, antique tea sets, and pastel ornaments. Occasionally, a small mechanical doll appears to entertain guests.
Sitting there with a mountain-shaped dessert, I thought how Tokyo constantly shifts between the everyday and the extraordinary — even tea becomes an act of imagination.
💧 Nabeshima Shoto Park Toilet
2 Chome-11-8 Shoto, Shibuya City
This restroom might be my favorite. Hidden beside a small pond, it feels like part of the landscape — built from natural materials, glowing gently in the late afternoon light.
There’s something profoundly peaceful about it: clean design, pale wood, and the sound of running water merging with birdsong. Standing there, I realized that The Tokyo Toilet project isn’t really about toilets — it’s about care. About dignity in the smallest of details.
💡 Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park — Transparent Toilets
Designed by Shigeru Ban
Perhaps the most iconic of them all. These transparent glass restrooms change from clear to opaque when locked — a simple idea, executed with trust and playfulness. By day, they gleam like crystal; by night, they glow like soft lanterns in the park.
It’s design as both utility and poetry — a perfect symbol of Japanese creativity: practical, elegant, a little magical.
🌸 Jingū-dōri Park
6 Chome-21-22 Jingūmae
My final stop. A minimalist structure framed by trees, quiet and balanced, where people stroll unhurriedly through the early evening. There’s no spectacle here — just a sense of calm, like the final note of a song fading gently into silence.
✨ Final moment
And then, something beautiful happened.
When I reached my last stop — just like in Perfect Days — a public toilet cleaner was there, methodically wiping handles, polishing mirrors, and watering plants.
For a moment, time slowed.
The scene was simple, ordinary, and yet deeply moving — a reminder that beauty isn’t only in design or architecture, but in care, attention, and presence.
Sometimes, the most human moments happen in the quietest corners.
And Tokyo, in its infinite layers of kindness, always finds a way to remind you of that.
📖 A Gift That Kept My Journey Going
Not long after this little “Tokyo Toilet Tour,” one of my best finds became even more meaningful — I received a birthday gift that felt almost like destiny: Toilets a Go Go!
Since 2017, Japanese photographer Hidefumi Nakamura has been documenting public toilets across Japan. What began as an Instagram project @toilets_a_go_go evolved into a stunning visual archive — a kind of cartography of architecture and urban imagination.
His photographs turn something ordinary into an aesthetic map of Japanese design, showing how creativity, function, and care can coexist even in the smallest of public spaces.
Toilets a Go Go! Photography by Hidefumi Nakamura
While leafing through the pages, I stumbled upon one toilet that looked exactly like the door from the movie Suzume — and just like that, my journey continued.
✨ So my toilet tour is still on — one door, one discovery, one quiet story at a time.
