Big in Japan - Hand Washing Day

Hand washing is big in Japan, in fact, really big.
Recently due to worries connected with the threat of H1N1 (the so-called, wrongly, 'swine flu') nowadays everywhere (for instance at the entrance of the university canteens of Kyoto Univ., at the entrances of Department stores, etc.,in the offices and public places, there are bottles filled with alcohol for sterilization of the hands, so last Thursday's International Hand Washing day is sort of an anti-climax here.
In Japan everyday is hand washing, mask wearing day :)

See related article: Japan takes hand washing to new level

Hm, let's hope H1N1 doesn't get out of hand and my classes get cancelled...

........ ....... ....... ...... ......

Additionally, since it concerns hygiene, in this post I SHOULD mention Japanese public toilets.
After living in China for 8 years, in the most squalid of all the foreign students dorms possible, and sharing a torn-down, often dirty and very disgusting toilet, and unavoidably daily using university buildings toilets (which where appalling also) and seeing (and per times using) Chinese public toilets that border on the horrific, now using a Japanese public toilet is the opposite experience. Only rarely the toilet looks like a public one (train station toilets are in fact not very clean, but not unbearably so, so they are exception to this description) and unbelievable though it may seem to someone used to the awful university toilets in my university in Beijing, here Kyoto university public toilets are impeccable. A stark and very meaningful difference between the 'first rate' university I studied in Beijing and here.
On some level I will never recover from the scenes of filth and horrible smell of China.
The contrast is very stark.
I'm sure you have all heard of toilet seats that warm, and toilets that have all kinds of functions. Automatic flushing,automatic function with a sound that imitates flowing water, etc. There is toilet paper and soap available. All this is true. And mind you, true for public toilets at that.