"Attention Shiraishi Island residents. This is an announcement from the Kasaoka city Environment Committee. This month's toilet cleaning will take place on Friday, Aug. 3 and Thursday, Aug. 26. Please register for toilet cleaning at least one day beforehand. And don't forget to buy your toilet tickets."

You can be sure that after this island-wide announcement, all the island residents rushed to their calendars and wrote "toilet cleaning day" next to both dates, in letters big enough to read even without their glasses on. That's how important toilet cleaning day is on this island, where most people do not have a flush toilet. If you miss this day, the results could be, well, monolithic.

Especially this month. With the Bon four-day holiday, when most Japanese people return to their ancestral homes, traditional areas of Japan like ours must be prepared. Thus, whereas we usually only get our toilets cleaned once a month, in August we get two days, one before the family members return and one after they leave.