Neatly sorted litter is all from one specific thing.

Public restrooms in Japan, on average, are far, far cleaner than they are in many other countries. That’s not to say they’re all spotless, though, and on a recent trip to the men’s room in Tokyo’s Kichijoji train station, Japanese Twitter user @ko_bump0406 came across a shocking mess.

On the bright side, there was no poo, pee, or any other bodily waste smeared on the floor or walls. What there was, however, was this:

That’s an astonishing amount of trash, and some people who saw @ko_bump0406’s tweet initially weren’t sure what exactly there were looking at. Kichijoji is a fashionable part of Tokyo, and one commenter guessed that all those bottles used to hold cologne. Those boxes to the left of the toilet, with the circles on them? Maybe contact lens solution, offered another observer. And as for all those translucent sheaths on the other side of the toilet? To one commenter, they look like a pile of condoms.

▼ The boxes also look a bit like a color-swapped version of the popular Hakutsurumaru sake.

https://twitter.com/yuseiamakusa/status/1113211014047182849

But really, all three types of packaging are for the same product, a type of medicine. And no, they’re not laxatives, as one commenter thought they might be, but cold medicine, specifically the Japanese brand called Bron, which ships in bottles packed in boxes and sealed with plastic wrapping.

While it’s sometimes said that Japanese medications contain smaller doses of their active ingredients than their counterparts in the west do, this is obviously far beyond the recommended dosage.

▼ One eagle-eyed commenter counted 33 bottles in the stall.

https://twitter.com/scienceking3/status/1113137134519517186

What’s more likely is that the scene wasn’t prompted by a cough or sniffle, but by an addiction to cold medicine. Thankfully, no accidents such as someone stumbling onto the tracks or otherwise injuring themselves at Kichijoji Station took place on the day of @ko_bump0406’s tweet, but downing that much cold medicine is obviously dangerous and something you absolutely shouldn’t do, as is leaving your personal trash behind in the restroom (even if you’re thoughtful enough to sort it by recycling type).

Source: Twitter/@ko_bump0406 via Hachima Kiko
Insert image: Amazon/ブロン(BRON)
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