"No toilet paper into the toilet"

Bonus-tangerines
One thing that I have come to love about Korea, especially during this season, is the abundance of tangerines. In actuality they're clementines. This is a rare instance in which my parents are responsible for leading me astray on the distinction and subtle differences of the clementine and the tangerine. In my household any and all round fruits looking like an orange only smaller, were dubbed 'tangerines'. Well thanks to the helpful and informative resources at www.wikipedia.com I was able to once and for all educate myself on the subtleties of the two. In case you too have the misfortune of being ignorant to this fascinating yet often overlooked subject tangerines and clementines then read on. Clementines are the smaller, seedless version with a thin and distinctly orange peel, whereas tangerines frequently have seeds and a thicker more reddish-orange peel.
Anyway regardless of the distinction I will continue to call them tangerines and Korea has a plethora of them. Jeju island, located off the Southern tip of Korea, is a volcano and hence has extremely fertile soil perfect for growing all sorts of fruit. Tangerines have always been my most favorite fruit ever since my mom bought them by the crateful for our family every year. The entire family loves them and even our old dog Mishka would come running as soon as he caught a whiff of the citrus oils spraying into the air. They taste delicious, smell divine and even make for an appealing decoration when piled in a bowl in the middle of an empty table. Street vendors sell them in bowls on the sidewalk or from the bed of trucks. I always opt for the big bowl of about 20-25 tangerines for a totally reasonable 5,000 won, about five bucks.

Drawback-"No paper into the toilet"
For some reason Koreans have it engrained in their very being that the sewage system is incapable of handling one's personal waste in addition to the devices they use to remove said waste from their nether regions. They believe this so whole-heartedly that there are signs in almost every bathroom forbidding the disposal of toilet paper. The one on the door of the staff bathroom at Wonderland, the school where I teach, the ENGLISH school where I teach, reads "No paper into the toilet". In case the heavily loaded signage wasn't enough of clue there is also a persistent absence of toilet paper in public restrooms to further disable people from potentially clogging the toilets. This lack of one of the most important instruments of the bathroom experience is common in all lavatories ranging from high-end restaurants and subway stations to doctors offices and movie theaters.
Another observation of Korean toilet behavior is that not washing one's hands after using the facilities isn't such the taboo that it is in Western cultures. I am by no means accusing the Korean people of being unsanitary and my observations are certainly not based on any statistical fact, especially since my encounters with Koreans in public restrooms are limited to women. It can be assumed that the reason Korean people or women don't wash their hands is because they have no real need to. I mean if one doesn't wipe oneself or come anywhere close to touching anything unsanitary, (except for the doorknob) then is it really considered unsanitary to not wash one's hands? What is unsanitary however is that when there is toilet paper in the restrooms and people don't flush it down the toilet it has to go somewhere. Where does it go you ask? Oh well that's easy. It goes in a tiny lidless garbage can next to the toilet in full view of anyone wishing to use the stall. Not wanting to discuss the unsavory topics of the contents of the garbage cans I will leave it up to the reader's imagination. Just know that it's disgusting and makes me privy to entirely too much personal information about my co-workers.