Vending Machine World

So yesterday I mentioned that the tiny construction site on the school here has installed its own vending machine. Someone asked what it was selling - incredibly boring I know, but it just sells drinks. Vending machines are a bit crazy here. They have them for everything - except food. Well, you will occasionally find one that sells hot food like rice balls, chips and lil frankfurts which I have never tried because frankly the idea of getting any of those things from a machine is a little bit shudder-worthy. But not the machines full of crisps, lollies and chocolate that you will find in Oz. The drinks machines sell lots of green tea, hot and cold, so much coffee and tea and sometimes cocoa. They have different soft drinks too - Fanta isn't just orange here, it is Grape and Melon and all sorts. The coffee is what freaks me out - there is so much of it and so many different kinds in these little cans. In winter though there is nothing better than getting a hot can of drink and putting it in your pocket to warm your hands up - if they don't have cocoa I just get a coffee one and give it to someone else to drink once it's gone cold! Aren't I lovely?

Besides that they have beer vending machines, ice cream vending machines, mask vending machines and I have heard that they have undies vending machines but I have never seen one. The beer ones are the best because they just have this little sign on the front saying "alcohol is only for those 20 years or older!" As if that's gonna stop anyone! Oh, cigarette vending machines are rife - the Japanese love to smoke. And when I went bowling there was a shoes vending machine, but it was called an Automatic Shoeser in perhaps the closest thing to a legitimate creative use of the English language so far.

I just remembered that I can change the colour of my font - so thought I'd make use of it. Doesn't that just enhance your reading experience?

Oh, speaking of dodgy English, there are public buses in the major cities in Japan that all proclaim in large letters that they are non-step. I assume they meant "non-stop" because that's what the Japanese in smaller letters next to it says and those buses also have a lot of steps. You'd think before they printed something in 2 foot letters on an entire fleet of buses across a nation that they'd run it past someone to check wouldn't you? Oh no, we know best, we studied English for 4 years 20 years ago...