My job is going well. I like what I'm doing and I'm super busy, which means the days are flying by.
My goal this morning is to write out a little something for each day. I will schedule the posts to publish one each day. So look for one post a day this coming week -- Tokyo Recap is BACK.
Before we go to day 3 - I'll answer a question (left as a comment on a previous post).
Uncle Michael asks "I've heard that Japan has amazing vending machines, selling all sorts of things. What's the most interesting vending machine you saw?"
We had heard that Tokyo/Japan has crazy vending machines, and we kept an eye out for them, and while we saw vending machines everywhere, we never did see anything too unusual. Mostly tea (so much tea!), soda, juice, coffee, that sort of thing. Snacks. You could also find vending machines that sold cigarettes, beer, and sake.
We didn't see anything that out of the ordinary. But that doesn't mean they weren't interesting.
I have always been a fan of UNsweetened tea - I bring shame to The South, I know. I immediately took to the bottled tea that is everywhere in Japan. I loved looking at all the options in the vending machines and trying different ones each time. So much fun! I consumed a lot of tea, and if I lived there I'm sure I would be drinking litres of it a day. Are you following? I LOVE TEA. Ok, time for some pics. :)
Peter is a BIG fan of Coca-cola - he's even written a song about it, that he sings with his band. This bottle looks like it's trying to combine the benefits of the aluminum can, and the bottle cap opening. ***You can click on any of the photos for a larger version.***
One morning I thought I had a little bit of a sore throat so I saw that this had vitamin C and decided to get it (instead of tea). It tasted like yellow Gatorade. Should have gotten tea!
I really liked this one - it was essentially a slightly more flavorful grapefruit la croix (la croix = soda water).
Green tea - there were many different brands available.
Peter with some vending machines.
OK so this is a billboard for coffee - coffee in a can was common for vending machines. I never saw anyone actually drinking coffee in a can (though, no one really ate or drank while walking).I never did try any canned coffee, coffee in Japan was awful so after a few fails I stuck to Starbucks. I've been reassured by my cousin David (who lives in Japan) that this is a standard reaction.
I find Japan-English adorable. Fire, anyone? It's Black Deep Body Fire, does that change your mind?
2 comments:
I'm not a fan of any of the various sugar-water things, but I agree with you on the green tea. I'm going to go crazy not having it in vending machines when I come back home. Coca-cola makes a heck of a lot of the various green tea brands -- they should introduce them in the States!
It's actually kind of rude to eat or drink while walking, thats why you didn't see much of it. Sorry for not warning you on that one. I've internalized some of the rules so much I forget about them. But no one cares about foreigners anyways, so it's all good.
The canned coffee is lousy. They know it's lousy too, so they fill it with so much sugar you get a high from that more than the caffeine. It's incredibly popular, tho, which is why it's everywhere. Businessmen inhale the stuff. Buy, drink in one gulp, throw it in the can trash that is always near the machine, and continue their mad rush to/from the trains. It's a sight to behold.
Some of the cans are nice. They are made from steel. The screwon ones make for great packing gear -- if you don't mind the smell of coffee that is. Hitomi thinks I'm weird for reusing them this way,
The Engrish is funny. No one understands it, it's just cool looking. They use it the same way we use kanji in various places. You can search the net and find lots of blogs that tell you what those kanji tattoos *really* mean :) I have lots of quick pics from my iPhone of various weird Engrish phrases I see. I should post them all one of these days.
David it's so nice to have your input!
It's really hard for me to write about Tokyo because even though I was there, I was 98% clueless the entire time. :)
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