While most bathrooms in the United States are business as usual, toilets in Japan and in some parts of Europe are high-tech wonders, overflowing with luxurious amenities such as heated seats, sound effects, built-in bidets and lids that raise automatically.

But the toilets lids aren’t the only things going up. Complex commodes are also raising eyebrows, especially with Americans unaccustomed to toilets that require an instruction manual.