What is the difference between お手洗い and トイレ


Is one more polite than the other? Is there some situations where you'd use
one or the other? Would different people prefer one?




In my generation, トイレ is definitely the most common word refers to that
facility, over any native word. お手洗い is also usually heard, but whoever says
お手洗い in daily conversations would be judged being overly polite or really
well-born. Nonetheless, we hear お手洗い more often than not because it's very
popular in salesperson-ese, thus you're quite likely to run into such a
situation:

> Customer: すいません。トイレはどこですか？
>
> Waiter: お手洗いはあちらになります。

* * *

As other people already said, there are two more names of toilet room you may
encounter in Japan today, but both aren't really spoken language.

  * 便所: This word makes me feel either outdated or vulgar if spoken. Maybe because a typical 便所 I see is shabby, hoary, undermaintenanced equipments like the most of 公衆便所 standing outdoors.

  * 化粧室: Most graceful word that only seen on signboards. Literally meaning "powder room", it might be a bit funny if you look at apparent characters 男性化粧室, but not many people seem to care about it.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fgwxN.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fgwxN.jpg)




For public toilets, I remember that the toilet signs at the 明治神宮 and several
other 神社 say お手洗い, not トイレ. I think you'd have a hard time finding a toilet in
a 神社 called トイレ. Similarly そば屋 usually use お手洗い. But I wouldn't be surprised
to see a toilet in a そば屋 (especially in a cheap one) called トイレ.

On the other hand, most デパート I've been to use トイレ, the same goes for railway
toilets (e.g. of 東京メトロ or JR), but I wouldn't be surprised to see お手洗い there.

* * *

**Related trivia**

  * There are two other words for toilet: 便所【べんじょ】 and 厠【かわや】. 便所 is maybe like "loo"; お手洗い is probably somewhat more polite. 厠 isn't used much anymore and I would be surprised to see it anywhere but on outside toilets.

  * 御手洗【みたらい】 is the purification fountain at the entrance of shrines, where you purify your hands and mouth before entering.

  * 御手洗【みたらい】 is also a family name.

  * The area for washing hands is called 洗面所.

