I recently read an article* about toilets. Why, asks the author, does someone think it’s OK to close the lavatories after passport control at Heathrow’s Terminal 5?  Why are decent toilet facilities so difficult to find?  And it’s not just at Heathrow and not just in the UK. Why, in many parts of the world,  aren’t public conveniences  – well, convenient? (As for whether they are clean, tidy, well-designed or even safe – I suspect that lots of travellers have unsavoury stories to  tell on that subject).

So, for any decision makers out there who happen upon this blog: think about toilets, and think about Japan. Japan has public toilets. Lots of them. Sparkly clean and tidy. In stores, on railway platforms, at the entrance to parks. In Tokyo’s (successful) bid to host the 2020 summer Olympic games the organisers pointed out that clean and available toilets are essential in welcoming the world….

And while the Travelling Frogs are campaigning for better public toilets – here’s another good idea, from Austria. This public toilet in Vienna is a delight. It was playing the Beautiful Blue Danube when I visited… What fun.

* by Tyler Brule, in FT Weekend. Tyler is editor of Monacle magazine and travels more often than most of us have hot dinners.