What came to mind when you heard about the Toilet exhibition?
It might sound weird, but believe it or not, this is an educative and interesting exhibition for visitors of all ages. The exhibition is on the 1st floor of the Miraikan museum which is not difficult to find because there are many signs that lead to the toilet exhibition. The museum is pretty big, but the toilet exhibition is just a small part of it on the 1st floor.
The exhibition starts with three different doors with toilet symbols on them and you can choose any door to enter the exhibition. After you enter the exhibition, there is a brief explanation about the cartoon characters in the exhibition and the fact that the main goal of the museum is to raise awareness about toilets and faeces and how they are related to our health and the environment.
The exhibition is divided into four parts, and each part offers new knowledge to visitors in a fun way so visitors of all ages can enjoy it, easily understand the information and gain new knowledge.
The first section ‘ How were your faeces today?’ has the main goal of giving informations about feces related to our health; it shows different types of faeces that describe our health condition. They even put three small bottles for visitors to experience the smell of faeces and of faeces mixed with pleasant fragrances. It sounds disgusting, but at the same time, it is one of the funniest parts of the exhibition. Moreover, the exhibition offers a free workshop for visitors to create feces with clay in a small dummy toilet.
The second section ‘What do you do in the washroom?’ gives images of the ideal toilet, such as a dyed kimono and whites that give an impression of fresh and clean. The other example is the mini toilet with a bookshelf that gives the image of a comfortable toilet. In this area, visitors can write anything related to toilets on a post it and put it on the bookshelf.
The third section is ‘Where do our faeces go?’ which explains about the process of feces in our body and the process of feces in the toilet. The most-appealing point is when they offer an opportunity to visitors to become feces: they provide feces hats and visitors can then slide into a huge toilet.
The next section is about what toilets look like in space and the last section of the exhibition gives a good reflection about toilets that can make everyone happy, explaining that in some parts of the country not having the proper toilet is related to some diseases.
Most visitors are families bringing their kids because this exhibition gives a good opportunity to children to learn about how toilets are related to health and the environment. This exhibition is the weirdest exhibition I have ever been to, but it is very educative.
