apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Toilet-bathtub segregation? The toilet water isn't going to get in the bathtub...and who cares if some bathtub water splashes on the toilet? Or are you talking about something else? Really, bathrooms like this make cleaning the bathroom almost fun. My bathroom in Europe had a shower whose floor was the same floor as the rest of the bathroom, with a single drain like in the photo. If you had a shower curtain up, an amazingly tiny amount of water escaped from the shower end of the room.

Oh, the cleaning part...it was SO EASY. Spray the dirty areas with cleaning solution, let it sit for a minute, remove all items you didn't want getting wet, and hose down the entire room with the detachable showerhead.

i had an apartment where the toilet was in a separate room next to the bathroom, which had a sink & shower. i suppose this is the origin of the term water closet? anyway, i rather liked it.

i'm also going to be building a little guest house (shhh! as far as my hometown is concerned, it's 'replacing the shed' and not a living space). i'd LOVE to be able to put in a wet room--which is essentially a tiny bathroom that's a walk-in shower. i saw them in china when i was there about 5 years ago, and it makes sense to me.

I had a bathroom like this when I stayed in Seoul for a few months. but that was about eight years ago.

cleaning is easy but if you're living with a few people it can be inconvenient.

The preference for a separate bath area and toilet area comes from the traditional Japanese style of bathing, I think. You fill the tub with hot water, wash your body OUTSIDE of the tub scooping up the hot water from the tub with a basin to rinse off, and then soak in the tub. Do this in a unit bath and, from what I've experienced at a friend's apartment, you end up with very soggy toilet paper.
I've seen and used my share of unit baths, and most are as cramped as that in the picture, some even worse.

Japan is a small country with a big population number, that is why they try to minimize the area of their buildings: land is scarce. Another benefit of this is small utility bills.
Bathrooms are waste spaces, not places to hang out at, that is why you want them to be small.

Anyone know how to import one of these into the US? I need one for a very small bathroom I'll be building in my house.

I loved my unit bath, and yes for sure it was as cramped as the one pictured above. For a single person, the unit bath is perfect--so easy to clean. The dream, though, is to have a traditional Japanese bath--a big tiled number with the handheld shower low on the wall outside of the tub, and a stool to sit on while soaping up and rinsing off. Such luxury. But the really important part is the separate toilet room housing the ultra deluxe Japanese toilet with heated seat, bidet option, and a million other bells and whistles that I can't recall.

I'm sorry, unit baths are not fun for big people. Not fun taking a bath with your knees folded under your chin every night. Definitely not fun showering sideways either. If you, your friends and family are tiny like most Japanese people then no problem. Unit baths are easy to clean, easy to use and and fun to decorate. I had one at my old place and it was cute for a minute but I started to think about how my 6 foot something father and brother would be able to deal with it when they came to visit. I moved.

I would highly suggest putting in a nice open shower stall and toilet if you are worried about space.

Hrm, I lived in Japan for five years (until March '08) and this is honestly the first time I've seen an arrangement like this, though hotels have something very similar, if not even more cramped (but awesome). A quick Wikipedia search reveals that the type of unit bath in your picture is known as a "santen unit" (a three-piece unit).

In Japanese culture, having the toilet and bathtub in the same room is not considered a good thing. If you live in a tiny efficiency ("one-room mansion" in Japanese English) in Tokyo or something, there may be no other option, but in a more reasonable-sized apartment or house, the toilet typically occupies its own tiny closet. The bathroom proper in both places where I lived consisted of a sink and washing machine fixtures and an additional door leading to the unit bath itself (in my case, just a bath area, a shower area, and a small shelf).

These images are more similar to the one where I lived, but much spiffier (hey, they're advertising :P ):
http://reform.homes.co.jp/images/construction_case/639_5013_0.original.jpg
http://www.outlet-kenzai.com/shop/images/jubbu2.jpg
The thing on the wall is to set water temperature.

As for the size of the bath, well, they're shorter than U.S. baths, but also deeper. For me (I'm 5'8" by the Imperial system), it was perfect to sit down in and get a good soak, and the Japanese way is to shower before you get in the bath anyway.

I honestly preferred the baths (and toilets) in both places I lived to anything I've ever seen in the U.S. As stated here, they're easier to clean (though it's more surface area to clean), they're extremely roomy, and it's awesome not to have to fuss with the water temperature. And the toilets had heated seats, a spigot on top of the tank (so the water you wash your hands in is used on the next flush to save water), and, in the case of the first place I lived, a bidet.