5 ms·

Toilet Meal

35 points by olalonde 4y ago

byoung2 4y ago
I'm from Los Angeles, where car culture reigns supreme. I suppose the equivalent would be eating in the car versus sitting alone in a restaurant or at your desk at work.
- ev1 4y ago
  I see people eating off their hood fairly often. Or it's not even their car, who knows.
- TolietMeals4Me 4y ago
  No, the equivalent is eating your meal in the toilet. I'm from the US and always have had a car but since highschool have spent any "social time" like lunch locked in a toliet stall because I am terrified of people and people don't seem to like me either. I also eat in my car but first need to drive to a secluded spot.
- Centigonal 4y ago
  There's a solitary joy to a nice car meal. I'm not afraid of people, but I like the privacy of having a meal in my own car versus a fast food restaurant's dining room (doubly so since COVID).
- woojoo666 4y ago
  I've eaten in a car before but I think the major difference from a toilet meal is that eating in a car is actually comfortable (I can recline, play music, etc) and that you can still be seen. Whereas the purpose of a toilet meal seems to be mainly to hide and preserve your social image.
canadianfella 4y ago
tastysandwich 4y ago
I once had a coworker who used to take his morning coffee into the toilet with him. (He also used to clip his fingernails at his desk) It's funny how quickly you get used to seeing weird behaviours.
- fomine3 4y ago
  TIL that nail clipping in public is strongly avoided in western worlds. The culture looks funny as a Japanese. (just to be sure, take coffee into toilet is weird)
justusw 4y ago
That explains why my former employee had signs of a crossed through Bento in their bathrooms (here in Tokyo). The sign also said to refrain from napping or using your phone in the restroom. How exactly they found out what people do in the stalls remains a mystery. According to my former coworkers, hiding away in bathrooms is endemic in ブラック companies. The company I worked for was a game company, so they also had nap rooms for the inevitable crunch time. If you are looking for a job in Tokyo, watch out for nap rooms and bathroom signs that says no food.
ekianjo 4y ago
This has probably occurred but I suspect this is very rare even in Japan.
Smithalicious 4y ago
There is this odd phenomenon where social phenomena first identified in Japan are assumed to be characteristically or exclusively Japanese, to an extent that I don't see happen for other countries. I don't think eating meals in toilet stalls is particularly uncommon in the west among people who are bullied or stigmatized. Probably not as common as in Japan, as Japan has more of a "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" culture, but not rare. To be honest, I don't really feel like "toilet meal" is a distinct enough concept to have a Wikipedia page; I don't think there's much point in distinguishing between "toilet meal", "car meal", "under the stairs in a quiet corridor meal" &c
woojoo666 4y ago
The wikipedia makes this seem like a japan-only phenomenon, but the scene in Mean Girls [1] makes me wonder how often it happens in other countries like the US [2] [3] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vez8MYwmpjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vez8MYwmpjA [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/79oak2/is_the_sad_bathroom_stall_scene_from_mean_girls/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/79oak2/is_the_sa... [3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/notinteresting/comments/tcvcnw/me_eating_lunch_in_the_school_bathrooms/ https://www.reddit.com/r/notinteresting/comments/tcvcnw/me_e...

35 points by olalonde 4y ago

I'm from Los Angeles, where car culture reigns supreme. I suppose the equivalent would be eating in the car versus sitting alone in a restaurant or at your desk at work.

ev1 4y ago
I see people eating off their hood fairly often. Or it's not even their car, who knows.
TolietMeals4Me 4y ago
No, the equivalent is eating your meal in the toilet. I'm from the US and always have had a car but since highschool have spent any "social time" like lunch locked in a toliet stall because I am terrified of people and people don't seem to like me either. I also eat in my car but first need to drive to a secluded spot.
Centigonal 4y ago
There's a solitary joy to a nice car meal. I'm not afraid of people, but I like the privacy of having a meal in my own car versus a fast food restaurant's dining room (doubly so since COVID).
woojoo666 4y ago
I've eaten in a car before but I think the major difference from a toilet meal is that eating in a car is actually comfortable (I can recline, play music, etc) and that you can still be seen. Whereas the purpose of a toilet meal seems to be mainly to hide and preserve your social image.

canadianfella 4y ago

tastysandwich 4y ago

I once had a coworker who used to take his morning coffee into the toilet with him. (He also used to clip his fingernails at his desk) It's funny how quickly you get used to seeing weird behaviours.

fomine3 4y ago
TIL that nail clipping in public is strongly avoided in western worlds. The culture looks funny as a Japanese. (just to be sure, take coffee into toilet is weird)

justusw 4y ago

That explains why my former employee had signs of a crossed through Bento in their bathrooms (here in Tokyo). The sign also said to refrain from napping or using your phone in the restroom. How exactly they found out what people do in the stalls remains a mystery. According to my former coworkers, hiding away in bathrooms is endemic in ブラック companies. The company I worked for was a game company, so they also had nap rooms for the inevitable crunch time. If you are looking for a job in Tokyo, watch out for nap rooms and bathroom signs that says no food.

ekianjo 4y ago

This has probably occurred but I suspect this is very rare even in Japan.

Smithalicious 4y ago

There is this odd phenomenon where social phenomena first identified in Japan are assumed to be characteristically or exclusively Japanese, to an extent that I don't see happen for other countries. I don't think eating meals in toilet stalls is particularly uncommon in the west among people who are bullied or stigmatized. Probably not as common as in Japan, as Japan has more of a "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" culture, but not rare. To be honest, I don't really feel like "toilet meal" is a distinct enough concept to have a Wikipedia page; I don't think there's much point in distinguishing between "toilet meal", "car meal", "under the stairs in a quiet corridor meal" &c

woojoo666 4y ago

The wikipedia makes this seem like a japan-only phenomenon, but the scene in Mean Girls [1] makes me wonder how often it happens in other countries like the US [2] [3] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vez8MYwmpjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vez8MYwmpjA [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/79oak2/is_the_sad_bathroom_stall_scene_from_mean_girls/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/79oak2/is_the_sa... [3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/notinteresting/comments/tcvcnw/me_eating_lunch_in_the_school_bathrooms/ https://www.reddit.com/r/notinteresting/comments/tcvcnw/me_e...