Perhaps was drawn by my memories of a pleasant trip to Japan a couple of years ago. When I returned to the States, I missed store doors opening automatically as I neared, the cheerful sales people greeting you with a friendly welcome when you walked in (even if it was a mini-mart), and I missed the weird toilet seats.

Well, NCM Company of South Korea (www.ncmpro.com) brought those memories back. The toilet seats in Japan I fondly recalled were probably NCM models, as they hold 65% of the electronic bidet market in Japan. Here they are, foraying into the U.S. market, making their first showing at this KBIS.

It's all about the American interest on healthy lifestyle, said Mi, NCM's marketing rep. She said NCM thinks Americans are now ready to embrace the wonders of electronic bidets. Though they hadn't landed a US distributor yet, NCM is here to change that, and to expand the vision of what Americans expect in a toilet seat.

A Blooming doesn't just bolt on and sit there. It cleans with jets of water. It washes, it dries, it whirs happily as it works. It is self-cleaning, it can lightly massage, it can diagnose its own operations, and it has other special features.

You can adjust the warmth of the seat, you can adjust the temperature of the cleansing water, as well as its direction and pressure. You can adjust your clients' attitudes about spending a little more on a toilet seat, say, $450.

The folks at NCM hope that if they make a better toilet seat, people will beat a path to their door.