Kissa Roman vs. Blue Steam Coffee
Two stalls, four hundred metres apart. One has history. One has a lid that bows.
Kissa Roman
Kissa Roman opened in 1967 and has cleaned the same room daily since. The apparatus is a seat. There is no washlet; there is a clock, and it ticks. The paper is single-ply and folded to a point by someone who believes in something.
Blue Steam Coffee
Blue Steam's lid rises as you enter, which is either hospitality or surveillance. The seat is heated to 38 degrees. The soap smells of yuzu. The playlist follows you into the stall, and this was noted, with regret, in the Silence column.
Scorecard
The verdict
Roman's room is a shrine and was scored as one. But criticism must live in the present, and the present has a heated seat. Blue Steam takes the match on Apparatus alone. Protests may be filed. They will not be read.