In people’s homes, it’s actually connected to the regular water faucet. The button on the shower head simply diverts the water from the faucet to the shower head as long as you press on it. So the water is as warm or as hot as you care to set it.

In public bathrooms, like in office buildings, hospitals and such, the shower head has its own water supply with a hot-cold mixer knob, so you don’t have to lean over to run the faucet.

That’s a bidet

Like I said, there are no French-style bidets or Japanese-style techno-johns here. Most johns have a small dedicated shower head next to them.

I suppose if the previous user’s business is still on the shower head, you will get some of it on your own rear-end when you turn the water on first thing. That’s why I usually “flush” the showerhead for a second directly into the bowl before directing the jet onto my rear-end.

I’m pretty sure it’s more than sanitary enough. Not perfect, probably, but it’s probably fine. How do I know? Because most people here - including I - don’t seem to get sick more often than the rest of the world, and have a long life expectancy.

Can a bidet beat wetwipes, though?

Probably not. But wet wipes are an environmental disaster. Not to mention, if you’ve ever had to call a septic service in the middle of the night because all the toilets in the house are backing up, because your septic tank is chock-full of those hateful things - that are anything but biodegradable, if you didn’t know - you know better than to use them.

Also, if you have to use several of them because you bum is exceptionally dirty, they too will irritate your rear-end because of friction, like TP does. Just less so.

I keep wet wipes in my bag and in my car as a last resort for when I travel somewhere where a spray-based bum cleaning option isn’t available - which may be a bathtub or a shower with a detachable head in the vicinity. Otherwise I stay clear the hell away from them. But they sure beat TP any day.

I live in a country where little shower heads for your nethers next to the johns are commonplace. Toilet paper only exits here to dry your bumhole after you’re done spraying it clean.

As someone who was born in a country where TP is used to clean your bum - or rather, smear faeces all over it and irritate the hell out of it when you use too much TP, I now realize how utterly stupid and barbaric that was.

Wanna replace toilet paper forever - or at least reduce its usage dramatically? Make bidets compulsory. And Japan should know: they’re the world’s capital of high-tech bidets.

It really depends on your prescription. Mine will never come cheap. Even hard-discounters will charge me an arm and a leg for the correction I need.

My prescription is fairly complex - astigmatism and progressive correction with funky-ass zones. And I usually order them extra-thin -which Trivex just about allows in my case - so my glasses are as light as possible (my current 3D-printed pair weighs 11 grams with the lenses. And I have anti-scratch and UV filter coating.

My last pair of lenses cost me 300€. Not cheap, but it’s kind of a one-off as long as my vision doesn’t change and I pay attention never to wipe them with anything other than a clean microfiber and lens-cleaning fluid, to avoid scratching em. If I break the frame, which happens every once in a while when I sit on my glasses, I can have a new one fresh out of the printer in 10 minutes.

Do you know of any other 3D printed frames that look… less Harry Potter-y?

Hehe sorry, I’m addicted to that shape - not for the style, but because small, round glasses are the type of glasses that sit closest to your face, so you get a huge field of vision with small lenses, and you can rest your head on a pillow without breaking the temples. No other style of glasses gives you that. Round lenses aren’t ideal if your correction is oriented - astigmatism - but my design has an anti-rotation notch.

I would suggest you design and model your own frames if you want another style: it’s not super-complicated and it’s really rewarding to wear something you created yourself every day!

Bricks-and-mortars can order lens blanks and edge the lenses themselves of course, if they have the edging machine. Older shops still do it. But modern stores just don’t bother anymore: they send the order to whichever supplier they use - often ordering the lenses from one supplier then having them shipped to some el-cheapo country like Vietnam for edging, which is why it takes weeks to get new glasses.

Modern opticians are little more than sellers of overpriced frames, which is why I roll my own. They make money on the frames and lose money on everything else, including fitting. You know how I know that? Because most shops will actually charge you a flat fee if you bring your own frames - including if you do the fitting yourself like I do. It’s properly outrageous.

No, Hoya does it. I send them a 3D-printed template for their lens edging machine. It’s in the README under Ordering lenses.

I 3D-print my own frames so I only buy the lenses. I get mine from Hoya because I find their Trivex lenses to be the best. But I can’t order from Hoya directly, and to my knowledge, none of the lens manufacturers deal with customers other than opticians and optical stores.

I get them from my local optician. I made it very clear to them that I’m only coming to their store to get the lenses. I don’t need their services: all I need them for is to order from Hoya on my behalf. They play ball and only take a minimal cut to cover their time processing the order.

I’m not a farmer, but I keep my old car in good condition for the exact same reason.