The toilet handle

Okay, I hate to admit this, but I found myself repeatedly stumped, while on this trip, about how certain toilets worked. On one of the trains there was a pull-chain that had to be yanked, but the chain was actually outside of the toilet compartment (thank-goodness I was able to see someone else yank it, else I might still be standing there, scratching my head and pondering the plumbing.) Public toilets had all sorts of different mechanisms – push buttons, pull levers, pull chains, switches to flip – the options seemed endless. But nowhere do I remember seeing self-flushing toilets or the kind with the lever on the tank (like we tend to have here.) More times than I can count I’d have to ask for advice. Funny in retrospect, embarrassing at the time.