Have your own perfect day exploring the seventeen amazing toilets designed by famous architects that were featured in the Wim Wenders film “Perfect Days.” If you want to see the transparent ones turn opaque when you flip the lock on the door, go between April and October, when the weather is warm enough for the effect to work!
The quietly fascinating janitor in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days cleans toilets for a living. But not just ANY toilets. If you spent every day in and out of the seventeen toilets designed by Japan’s most famous architects, your days might be perfect too!
These toilets use innovative materials—some are made of clear glass that becomes frosted and opaque when you lock the door, for example—but all of them were designed to look like works of art while also meeting the practical needs of the surrounding community.
And lucky for us, they’re all clustered within Shibuya Ward. Whether you make a beeline to ogle your faves or make it your mission to see them all, here are all seventeen, with maps!
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Toilet #1: Sasazuka Greenway
designed by Junko Kobayashi\Gondola Architects
Check out the adorable moon and rabbit design elements! The two smaller cylinders on the right (behind that low, white, handwashing basin) are for kids. Don’t miss peeking inside at the pint-size toilet and urinal!
Not all the architects employed their designerly skills on the facilities inside, but this one is worth a look, because it’s so much nicer than most public bathrooms.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #2: Hatagaya
designed by UTokyo DLX Design Lab/Miles Pennington
This one was a bit of a baffler, until I discovered that the day I saw it, it was like a frame without a picture inside. The architect intended that big empty space to be a place for the community to view art displays (the eye bolts in the ceiling can be used to suspend the art) or watch a film projected on those big white walls. (How meta would it be to see Perfect Days there?)
Also, the copper roof has a nice dot detail:
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #3: Nanago-dori Park
designed by Kazoo Sato/Disruption Lab Team
Cool idea, nicely executed.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #4: Nishihara Itchome Park
designed by Takenosuke Sakakura
This one looks like nothing special during the daytime—you have to look closely to see the patterns etched into the frosted glass walls. But the interiors really glow as light comes in through the green glass, revealing “shadows” of the plants outside.
At night you can see the design much more clearly, with light radiating from inside.
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Toilet #5: Nishisando
designed by Sou Fujimoto
It’s hard to capture in photos just how wonderful this toilet is—you really have to walk around it and go inside! The swooping light and shadows are ever-changing…
And the innovative way the architect designed the outdoor hand-washing stations so that everyone from an adult to a child (or wheelchair-bound user) can wash their hands at a comfortable height…
turns that long front wall into a burbling stream.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #6: Yoyogi Hachiman
designed by Toyo Ito
This distinctive cluster of “mushroom” toilets is in kind of a grubby, high-traffic area, so it’s actually a lot prettier at night.
Day and night, it has nice lighting and inviting curved entries that cleverly provide plenty of privacy without any breakable parts.
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Toilet #7: Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park
designed by Shigeru Ban
This set of three colorful glass-walled toilets and the matching ones on the next block at Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park are the most famous of the Tokyo Toilets. The walls are made of tinted glass that’s transparent until you lock the door, then it turns opaque.
What I learned while visiting on a cold day in March, however, is that they only work that way from April to September. Apparently, if it’s too cold, the glass takes forever to change into a state that provides any sort of privacy, so that feature is somehow turned off in winter. Here’s what they look like at warmer times of year:
The interiors of these are pretty bog-standard, but you do have the choice of which pretty color to be bathed in while answering the call of nature.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #8: Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park
designed by Shigeru Ban
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #9: Urasando
designed by Marc Newson
This architect was inspired by the look of Japanese temples and castle stonework, but the tough materials used on the exterior contrast with a lovely glowing interior that’s all smooth walls, recessed lighting, and sophisticated modern finishes.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #10: Jingumae
designed by NIGO
This adorable cottage of a restroom is just as charming and bright inside as out.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #11: Jingu-dori
designed by Tadao Ando
This famous architect does not disappoint! Tadao Ando’s compact circular toilet manages to present endlessly fascinating perspectives in a tight space, filled with ever-changing patterns of light and shadow.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #12: Nabeshima Shoto Park
designed by Kengo Kuma
And this famous architect manages to surprise! Kuma is known for creating grand spaces from ultra-precise slats of wood, but this delightful park toilet looks more like a pile of sticks or a play structure for children. The whimsical feel continues inside, with crosscuts of trees polka-dotting the mirror wall.
And ahahahaha, special shout-out to the icon designer, who added this one to the toilet that can be used by both men and women.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #13: Higashi Sanchome
designed by Nao Tamura
Approaching from the front, you’d never know this was a public toilet. The sharply angled entrances allow this deceptively simple red box to serve three users at a time with luxurious privacy, even though it sits on a strip of land so narrow, it’s a miracle they can put a public toilet there at all.
This one is a stand-out during the day, but isn’t it breathtaking at night?
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Toilet #14: Ebisu Park
designed by Masamichi Katayama
This one looks more like a piece of sculpture than a toilet, but a brilliant use of lighting invites you inside.
And it’s even nicer after dark, amiright? Props to the dedicated light-up of the icons for men and women outside the entrances, so you don’t go bumbling into the wrong one in the dark and have to beat a hasty retreat.
And here’s what it looks like lit up at night!
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Toilet #15: Ebisu Station West Exit
designed by Kashiwa Sato
This one is nice during the day, but it’s at its most captivating lit up at night.
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Toilet #16: Ebisu East Park
designed by Fumihiko Maki
This toilet takes its cues from origami and traditional Japanese design aesthetics, but the playful red color pops on the back of the handwashing stations that show through the glass walls…
are a reference to the giant octopus slide in the park outside.
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Toilet #17: Hiroo East Park
designed by Tomohito Ushiro
This toilet is pretty understated during the day, but this quiet, upscale neighborhood is darker than most, so at night it becomes a beacon to those in need…
from whichever direction you approach it…
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If you’d like to visit them all, I put together A Perfect Tokyo Toilet Day, with train info, directions and what each one looks like, day and night.
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Jonelle Patrick writes about Japan 