Last weekend, after weeks of construction work and a profound feeling of yen well spent, we finally switched on the Lixil YBC-Z30H-NC. You know. The one with the motion sensors, self-raising lid and the unbearable burden of national symbolism.
The new occupant of the smallest room in the house is magnificent: water-efficient like a kangaroo rat, reassuringly over-specced and finished in the soothing blue-grey of a second world war Italian “maiale” human torpedo. As its internal mechanisms awake, solenoid valves and electric motors perform a soft chorale of Japanese plumbing perfection.
We have spent handsomely on our masterpiece. At $950 the YBC-Z30H-NC is, in terms of price and refinement, a good $14,000 away from being the true Rolls-Royce of Japanese toilets. But it is at least the equivalent of a five-door Mazda, it is ours, and everyone knows this particular niche of consumerism is all about the flush, not the flash.