Background: David Dobkin takes pictures of the signs in restaurant bathrooms that admonish people
in general and employees in particular to wash their hands after using the bathroom. He asked me
to photograph those signs in Japan. There was some discussion before I left about whether those
signs existed in Japan or not. I took pictures of all sorts of signs, in bathrooms and other places,
hoping that when the experts looked at them, one would prove to request that hands be washed.

As you can see below, I had no luck. Still, I collected a bunch of signs so I have labeled them by
what they say and (in parentheses) what I had hoped they would say.

"Don't throw garbage into the river' ("Don't throw garbage into the river").

"Hey! This is not a toilet! Bad!" ("Hey! Wash your hands when you are done!").
What baffles me about this one is that the urinating character is blond. It must be
either a young Japanese punk or a foreigner.

One of these says "Do not bring unpurchased items into the bathroom". The other I forgot... I
even forgot which one talks about the unpurchased items (the one on the left?).

The sign explains how to change the roll in the toilet paper holder.

This is one model of toilet seat that includes water sprays -- front ("bidet") and back --
often with pressure and temperature controls. It is also heated. Common in Japan, even
in some public toilets. There are models with far more elaborate control panels than this
one.

"This way to the trains".

Barely readable instructions on how to clean the toilet seat with gel provided for the purpose.

A bag from a women's clothing store that should pay me royalties (but does not) and explains what
life is about.

"Dangerous zone, do not enter". ("I washed my hands after using the toilet! See how clean they are!").

"Be careful, toilet is being cleaned (by a female)". The female part is expressed by the icon because
on the other side of the stand holding up the icon there was a similar sign with a male figure instead.
There was indeed a woman cleaning the place while everybody continued to use it.

"Keep your ticket in a handy place so you do not end up like this guy". You need the ticket to exit
from trains/subways and the frantic search for the ticket is common among the inexperienced raiders. 

I forgot what this said. ("I am pleased that you washed your hands").

"Safety first" -- duh -- plus a lot of other mundane stuff having nothing to do with bathrooms. ("Safety
first: wear a hard hat and wash your hands after going to the bathroom").

This (taken inside a subway car) was an advertisement for a museum about the evils of war.

And this, taken at the airport, spoke of the evils of BSE. I do not know what the puzzled dog is
doing in the sign, but there it is...