In a message dated 98-05-28 02:17:09 EDT, you write:

<< 
 According to the floorplan, it's a squating type toilet, sort
 of a ceramic oval thing set in the floor. I've never used one, but I saw
 them in Japan. 
  >>
you lucked out. my knees were broken during a mugging in high school, never
healed right, and using those pit toilets was a pain in both a real and
figurative
sense...