Museumgoers weigh in on the best museum bathrooms

Originally published at: Museumgoers weigh in on the best museum bathrooms | Boing Boing

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I know there is a weird one at the WWI Museum in Kansas City, but I can’t find pics of it show it.

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The best museum bathrooms I’ve ever been in were at the Motorcar Museum of Japan, in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture. Not only were they spotless, but they’re actually a sort of “museum within a museum,” in that every fixture (urinal, sink, toilet) is from a different country, and labeled as such. This is only sort of half-documented — by the labels on the floor maps that say “Sekai no Toire” (Toilets of the World) — so it was a weirdly-welcome surprise addition to the overall museum experience.

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These are delightful! My favorite from the top picks was Sheboygan. We’ve been playing the “exquisite corpse” drawing game, and they did it with tiles. So fanciful!

A most excellent museum. I was not aware of the restrooms though. Will have to check next time I’m there.

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I personally have not seen it. I think it is at the actual memorial section. Someone took pics of it and it was just a super odd lay out. It was built in the 20s, I think, and has those little tiles. You go down stairs but you can see INTO some of the urinal section as you do so.

FWIW - I love old bathrooms. With the small mosaic tile, the trough or urinals that go to the floor. Weird wood doors and the like. Funky acoustics usually. I dunno - something about them just seems weird/cool.

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Not sure this qualifies, but worth an honorable mention.

I’ve seen that fish before!

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Wha GIF by Luke Guy

I’d heard of the “brown note” before, but never this.

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Longwood Gardens! (per the cover pic with the vegetated walls) They’re just as cool inside and are a perfect fit for the gardens.

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Jamie stood on the toilet seat waiting. He leaned his head against the wall of the booth and braced himself for what would happen next. The guard would come in and make a quick check of his station. Jamie still felt a ping during that short inspection; that was the only part that still wasn’t quite routine, and that’s why he braced himself. Then the lights would be turned out. Jamie would wait twelve minutes (lag time, Claudia called it) and emerge from hiding.

Except.

Except the guard didn’t come, and Jamie couldn’t relax until after he felt that final ping. And the lights stayed on, stayed on. Jamie checked his watch ten times within five minutes; he shook his arm and held the watch up to his ear. It was ticking slower than his heart and much more softly. What was wrong? They had caught Claudia! Now they would look for him! He’d pretend he didn’t speak English. He wouldn’t answer any questions.

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There’s also the Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art at https://www.artmuseumtoilet.org/

I especially like the Social History of Archtecture:

MONA in Tasmania has the most interesting toilet I have ever used. The first odd thing you notice is a pair of opera glasses (small binoculars) on the bench next to toilet. Then, as you sit down you realise that, thanks to an ingenious arrangement of mirrors you are looking directly at an image of your own bare arse. Fun and a lesson in optics and biology all wrapped up in one.

Photos at the bottom(heh…) of this page if you are interested:

(Insert “I understood that reference” gif here)*

*it’s been a long day, the screen is small, my capabilities are limited tonight

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