On Luxury

Forget Chanel, Hermès, and Cartier. You want to know luxury? It's called a heated toilet seat.

To some, luxury is a first-class plane ticket or a stay at a five-star resort. It may also be in the form of a designer handbag or a tray of caviar delivered on a silver platter by a server with white gloves. To me, it may be so, but above all else, it is a heated toilet seat.

In North America, this luxury is few and far between. It may also come with a hefty price tag (see: Toto sans Dorothy). However, there is nothing that quite compares to the feeling of warmth beneath your bottom when you first roll out of bed, or for those times when you need to spend a bit longer than usual atop the throne. Essentially, it’s the difference between a pair of freshly baked hot cross buns and those that have sat in the bread box for three days. I don’t know about you, but I am opting for the former.

It has always been my dream to travel to Japan, in large part due to its reputation as a culinary, cultural, and vintage clothing mecca. The most welcome surprise? There is not a toilet seat I’ve encountered—from the train station to the department store to the ski hill—which is not heated. What’s more? They have bidets. Your heinie is freshly laundered no matter where you go.

Clear eyes, warm bottoms, can’t lose.