YONAGO, Tottori Pref. -- Weary climbers will be able to relieve themselves in style after local authorities shelled out some 70 million yen for two environment-friendly toilets on a mountain top.
Climbers who scale 1,729-meter Mount Daisen in Tottori Prefecture may be the best judges of whether the 70 million yen was an excessive price for putting the toilets in a shelter atop the popular mountain, about 650 km west of Tokyo.
"We decided to build the toilets after climbers complained that the old one smelled really bad," a Tottori prefectural official said.
Up to 1,000 people each day will be able to use the two recently completed and environment-friendly lavatories.
After a sky-high flush, a purification vat and microorganisms will break down and clean the waste, recycling the water in the process. The treated water will be reused after the addition of rainwater.
Sixty-four solar panels on the shelter's roof and four power-generating fans erected 9 meters above ground provide the electricity needed for the recycling.
"One of the reasons it turned out to be expensive was that we had to use helicopters," the official said.