It continues to amaze me that a country so developed and technologically-advanced as Korea still has some pretty basic toilet facilities - tourists beware!
Korean toilets fall on quite a broad spectrum - at the top end, you will find decorated seats and complicated-looking control panels which allow you to heat the seat, play a flushing sound to muffle any unpleasant sounds, and squirt water up your bum, should you so desire. At the other end of the scale, you'll find a squat toilet with no loo roll or soap (and if you're especially unlucky, some extra additions...). Most toilets are in building hallways - so restaurants and bars don't have their own facilities. Toilet roll is often found outside the cubicle - either at the exit of the bar, or the entrance to the toilet area - and once used, should be placed in a bin rather than flushed. As far as I know, there's no reason for this other than custom, and it means that many public loos can get quite smelly if the bins aren't emptied frequently enough.
And while Koreans often wear face masks during yellow dust storms or virus outbreaks, many don't wash their hands after visiting the facilities (they also don't cover their mouths or noses when they cough or sneeze - which surely would negate the need for masks? I wonder when they'll cotton on to that one).
On the flipside, there are a wealth of public toilets - every subway station has them, and most building stairwells have them. I hear there's even a toilet museum in Suwon... Where you can spend a penny to spend a penny. Or drop off the kids at the pool, then drop off the kids at the pool. Or go to Korea, then go to India.
Koreans also love poo. More on that another time.
