Rest area - changing board

Our bus ride to Tokyo took over 6 hours, and of course we needed to stop for some bathroom breaks. One of the places we stopped at had a "changing board" in the bathroom, in one of the stalls. I thought it was great that they had a place for the men to change a baby as I have tried to change our daughter's diapers when we have been out only to find there is only a changing station in the women's bathroom. 

The changing board was a little different than I pictured. Instead of being at a convenient waist high height, it was literally next to the ground-I think when the board would have been opened it would have been resting on the ground. (See picture).

I guess with the board resting on the ground when opened you wouldn't have to make sure it's fashioned to the wall securely enough to support a baby's weight or worry about a baby falling off. 

But, I don't know if it is the best place to try and change a squirmy kid-on the floor of the bathroom and in a stall that is just a whole in the ground at that. What if someone had poor aim and previously missed? I have seen quite a few of those toilets/holes in the ground with liquid on the floor around them - yuck. And what if some splatter hit the changing board? Even though it would closed that is still nasty.

But I guess there is one bonus, it would be easy for you to put the diaper in the garbage as it is literally right there. You could almost use it as a tiny seat. And you wouldn't have to touch it with your hands. You could just plop down on top of it and do the changing right there. 

And.........since we're being ridiculous (talking about a changing table on the floor of a stall with a hole in the ground for a toilet), you could even take care of your business, if you had such #2 business to take care of, while you cared for your baby.

Weird,gross,strange........whatever you want to call it, it's just not right!

As we were walking out of the bathroom though I did see a normal changing table. Looking back on the changing board in hole-in-the-ground stall, I think it is for adults to change their clothes so they wouldn't get any remnants from previous potty users on their stuff. At first I thought it was it was incredibly gross but once I realized it wasn't a danger zone for little ones I think it is actually a pretty good idea.