Vending Machines

Yes, vending machines. You might be thinking, "How could vending machines really be any different than in America?" Well, I thought the same thing when I got here. It's a vending machine, you can't go much different than inserting money and receiving a drink after pushing a button. Well, that's the basic part of it.

What is so different here in Japan is that these vending machines are everywhere. That is not an exaggeration. I'm not kidding you one bit. These vending machines are placed everywhere like Subway Restaurants, McDonald's, or a Starbucks. Everywhere. Across the street from each other. Right down the block. On the same block. Yes everywhere.

See these vending machines here on the right? They are the same ones in the picture above. But did you catch the red square in the left of this photo? THAT is another drink machine. I am not kidding. You can see that they are just a few yards away from each other.

And down the hill, almost to the main road just around the corner is yet another set of vending machines just like the ones pictured here.

Also note that this is in my cho. It's not on some highly-trafficked area but on a hill in a neighborhood. I don't know how often these things get restocked but they typically always have enough drinks in them. They mostly have cold drinks in them, but occasionally they serve hot drinks. It all depends on which one you go to and what it happens to have in it. See, the white one on the right has mostly teas and coffees, while the red one has mostly sodas and fruity drinks.

Well, this has been the first of "WTF Wednesdays" (AKA "Yep, the Japanese have that" AKA "Whatever I feel like righting about on Wednesday that you might find interesting") I hope you've learned something about Japan and be sure to come back!

Missing You Monday

This post is dedicated to the ones I love who are stuck stranded in the States without me while I'm all the way without them on an Island Nation in the Pacific Ocean called Japan. Yes, that's right, I have loved ones. And you just might be one of them since you took the time to read something I wrote. In fact, I do love you for reading something I wrote.

Yep, here I am in Japan by myself. "Where's Evan?" you might be asking yourself. Well, that's a good question. See, he had to go do this thing called Surface Warfare Officer School (SWOS) pronounced "swauce" like (bbq) sauce but minus the condiment and add a "w" after the first letter. Yeah, he's been there for two-and-a-half weeks in Rhode Island while I've been here coaching, playing, and quitting coaching soccer. I've also been working on some paperwork for me to actually stay here and all the privileges that come with living here, like driving and seeing a doctor. Well, that all ends on Saturday (or Sunday if he doesn't get an earlier flight) when I get to see him again because he'll be done with that swaucey school of his and endure roughly 14 hours on one flight to Tokyo and then another 6 hours to get through customs, wait on his next flight, and the ride the bus all the way to Sasebo to see me.

So, for the first in the series of What America Has That Japan Doesn't and I'm Currently Missing (AKA Missing You Monday AKA What I Miss Most), this one's about you Evan (mostly) and the rest of my family where there were two birthdays since I've left and mine's up next. I miss you all where ever we are stranded without each other...hopefully missing me, too.

New Series

When I decided to introduce the two new series that I'm going to be writing about (at least try to) weekly, I had to think to myself, "What if I'm talking about more than one series, what's the plural form of 'series'?" And it turns out there does not exist a word for multiple series. I would have thought "serieses" would work, but the annoying little red line appears underneath it. So I'll just try not to confuse you with saying "series" when I'm talking about introducing multiple ones and not just one series...

Anyway, the one I'm most excited about is going to be called "What I miss most" and it will feature whatever it is that I don't have access to here in Sasebo but is still in America. I've got plenty of these things just waiting to be written about all lined up. You can look for this weekly and maybe it will find out there waiting.

The other series that will be new is going to be called "Yep, the Japanese have that here" and I think it's one that you are going to be most excited about since it will feature crazy things that seem odd, different, unique, or any other thing I mind find at the last minute I think you might mind interesting.

Remember that I am 13 hours ahead of the East Coast so my Monday is not necessarily my Monday when I feel like posting something each week.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back on Monday for the first "What I miss most"!

Stars in a Jar

After seeing "stars in a jar" on Pinterest, I thought to myself, "That's a cute idea! And I have all the necessary equipment, all the way down to the glow-in-the-dark paint!" So, once we used up a jar and cleaned it out, I gathered the stuff I would need to put a galaxy into a glass container that would be placed on the bedside table next to the child staring at the wonderment of how stars were captured and given to them.

Anywho, here's the basic equipment that I used:

On a table I spread out paper so I would get any mess on the table and make it look like a landing strip at night. I, of course, used a mason jar (cleaned out) including the lid, though that's probably optional and I'm sure you could use whatever you want to normally cover a glass jar. I used a toothbrush to splatter the paint. And lastly, I used glow-in-the-dark paint.

After I stirred up the paint, I dipped the toothbrush in the paint and splattered away inside the jar. I didn't realize it was going to be difficult until I started but trying to get more coverage of the jar was limited to how far my hand could take the toothbrush and still splatter. So I took the paint stirrer stick and the toothbrush down further into the jar and used the stick like my thumb. It worked so well!

I'm quite enthused by it all! I can't wait to make more for the rest of my little ones in my life!

This last one was an attempt at a picture in the dark, but when it was in the dark there wasn't enough light to see anything. But the kids loved it sitting under the covers looking at the stars!