Vending machines

Using internet in my lab, and too lazy to upload photos, so will talk about something I've been itching to talk about for a while now: vending machines!

Seriously.

Wow.

In Sapporo (and Tokyo), you will be hard pressed to find a vending machine that isn't at most 5 minutes by foot away from another vending machine. That is only in areas very few people go, in more populated areas you find them in pairs or more every 10 meters or so... All of them have drinks in them: from black tea to green tea (many many kinds of tea) to different soft drinks, fizzy drinks, juices and water.

You pay for the same drink quite a bit more from vending machines, they're something like one and a half times as expensive as from the スーパー　(suupaa: supermarket lol I love how the words are compacted), or from the コンビニ　(conbini: convenience store hehe again). A lot of them even have specific garbage cans for the bottles and cans you get from the machine, which is pretty cool.

I found it so interesting that each one had different kinds of drinks, so I started making a point of checking each one I walked past out. Not only does the variety differ from one to the other, but so do the prices sometimes. A small example from Akihabara (heaven for all geeks and otakus in Tokyo): one machine had 330ml cans of Mountain Dew for 120 yen (something like 1.2ish doodoos). Then less than 5 minutes away, while looking for a used vacuum cleaner, ended up in an Indian repair shop (I think? They also sell traditional-looking Indian clothes, found many interesting places but that is a tale for later) and I found a machine there that had the 500ml can for 100 yen! Strange me thinks. Nearly as strange as there being someone keeping tabs of all this world-altering stuff!

So while talking about this, I found out from a reliable source (which means there are no references for any of this :D ) that these vending machines are usually owned by mobsters, and that there are a lot of disagreements about who gets to put which machine where, since very populated intersections or areas are highly sought after, and really make lots and lots of monays!

And now onto some plagiarism, the following is copy-pasted from Wikipedia:

Japan has the highest number of vending machines per capita, with about one machine for every twenty-three people. Japan's high population density, relatively high cost of labor, limited space, preference for shopping on foot or by bicycle, and low rates of vandalism and petty crime, provide a fertile environment for vending machines. While the majority of machines in Japan are stocked with drinks, snacks, and cigarettes, one occasionally finds vending machines selling items such as bottles of liquor, cans of beer, fried food, underwear ^^, iPods, porn magazines, sexual lubricants, live lobsters, fresh meat, eggs and potted plants.

In 1999, the estimated 5.6 million coin- and card-operated Japanese vending machines generated $53.28 billion in sales.

And that is the end of today's lesson boys and girls, hope you all learned something new about the world we live in. A bientot.

How to... : part I

Since it's been a while, let us begin with something simple, as the title suggests, a tutorial of sorts. Without further ado:

How to buy 40$ earphones without feeling any guilt:

1. Lose your old (perfectly fine, great and comfortable) earphones
2. Go scouting for new ones
3. Buy 29$ earphones that even have a mic in them (very cool since I listen to music on my iPhone and it helps to not have to hold it up to my mouth or remove the earphones altogether)
4. Try them out and realize they have absolutely rubbish bass! Can't even listen to stupid Lady Gaga and JayZ without base, let alone Metal or good Rap/HipHop...
5. Go back to the store and ask to replace them (they actually DO that here unlike in Lebanon where you'd be chased off at gunpoint hehe )
6. Get the 40$ smashing Philipps earphones you had noticed before, that openly advertise the something something air flow that gives real and deep bass
7. Forget about the previously paid money and convince yourself that you only paid 11$ for the new earphones
8. Enjoy the amazing sound on these babies! Had to really drop the volume though coz they pretty badass

They even come with their own elegant case, and are very short (guessing that helps for jogging?) but come with an extension cord to reach longer. I miss my sound system JUST A LITTLE bit less now...

Shopping: part II

So much to write about! Every time I think about it it depresses me and I have no idea where to start haha.

Zerefore, I shall begin with the camera.

A week after I bought it, removed memory card to import pix and after putting it back, started getting the following error message when turning it on:

"Check that there is no foreign objects inside the battery cover and close cover tightly".

After much removing and returning of battery and memory card, was still getting the error.

So I went to the camera shop and told them what was happening, and that the message would randomly come and go.

After much more removing and returning of battery and memory cardS, this time by them, they concluded that there was a defect in the camera and that they would give me a new one.

Got my new camera, put the battery and memory card in, and turned it on, et voila! Same error message lol.

So after a couple minutes in the back of the store, the woman in charge came back and told me that this is in fact not an error, just a warning message. We were so focused on the first part of the sentence, that the second part escaped our notice haha. Since this is a waterproof camera, the lid should be closed "tightly"! And if it is in fact NOT closed tightly, this message pops up when you turn it on...

Awesome thing however is that, since I had already bought and stuck the protection sticker on my new camera touch screen, I got to keep the new one, even though the "old" one had nothing wrong with it. Yay!

Shopping: part I

OK so much shopping done this week!

First item on shopping cart:

Photo was taken using second item on shopping cart, my new Sony Cybershot touch screen waterproof slim camera yay!

I've had my eye on that camera for a while now, and after rafting, where I couldn't take my own photos (especially in the water hehe), I just had to go get it!

Once there, saw an unbelievable offer, for only one day, on a Nikkon camera. Most specs were better than mine, but it was bulkier, worse off with low light, and not waterproof. However, its price went down from 42,000 to... 18,000, just for that one day! WAT ZA FAK!?

Told some friends about it and I think 2 ended up buying it lol.

Last but definitely not least:

MUGIWARA KAIZOKU! むぎわらかいぞく！One Piece yay!

If you don't know what that is, then you suck hehe. If you do, then my good friend Michal showed me this shop where you can bring out the geek in you :) they have all that is related to manga! Toys, figurines, cosplay costumes, DVDs, comics, the whole works!

The shirt however is from the clothes shop on the floor above. They also have many others, but unfortunately no Fullmetal Alchemist :(

Speaking of the geek in us, kinda took a wrong turn somewhere in the convenience store when looking for the camera section and ended up at:

Lol annoying ass character but still cool usher to the DVD section imo!

Right inside, there was an old school section:

Behind the glass, some all-time favorite series on DVDs!

The original Star Trek:

MacGyver lol:

The original Mission Impossible!

Saturday: Bicycle II - The Revenge

Saturday! Woke up and went shopping for repair materials! Oil for wheels and pump for wheels (the pumps here are small compressed gas tubes! You just put it in the small "bazbouz" (ya sorry donno any other word for it...) and it just blows the tires in a second). Took my bike, put the beer in the front basket (there are some advantages to these girly bikes after all), and got on my way to Victoria's birthday! Now Victoria's a girl, so we can't ask her which birthday it is hehe.

Anyhoo, half way there, I was crossing an intersection, with another dozen or so people, when suddenly there was this loud pop, and everyone nearly shit their pants haha. Priceless to see their faces, until I realized that all these faces were looking at me... good thing I had just shaved :P turns out my wheel just decided to explode... you see two blocks before that, a policeman stopped me and started blabbering something in Japanese, to which I just smiled. Turns out he was telling me to turn on the lamp that I have but don't know how to use hehe. Noticing I had no idea what he was talking about, he was nice enough to click it on for me (albeit after a bit of struggling with it). It basically rubs on the wheel, and just converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy, which lights the bulb. Seeing that the bike wasn't in the greatest shape, this mechanism was making a loud rasping noise, which was really annoying and quite scary. I don't know if it had anything to do with it, but 20 meters or so after I turned it back off, the wheel exploded.

20 minutes of pushing the bike after, I met my friends waiting for me so we can go together. Late again hehe.

So the people you see now are the non Russian speaking section (well except for the lovely ladies on the sides... and the birthday girl who's standing in the middle).

And the rest (plus 2 more that came afterwards), the Russian speaking section, where I found myself sitting. Depleted my Russian repertoire in less than 5 seconds and just waited for translation from Alex whenever someone made a funny joke hehe. Masha помощь needed!

After some cake and beer and laughter with my new Tovarish, it was time for Karaoke!

Very very strange these people they are...

So this place is 7 or 8 floors, consisting solely of Karaoke rooms...

This is the 5th floor, each door leads to a different soundproof room. Each room has its own size. You rent out the room by half hour, hour or for the whole evening. The evening costs something like 15-20$ for open drinks and singing.

As for the selection, they have EVERYTHING! I should've checked for Haifa or Amro Diab, coz they had Korean songs, Chinese songs, most of Iron Maiden songs, even Judas Priest (the fact that you haven't heard of them is proof of the wide array of songs they have haha).

There are 2 touch screens you use to search by title or artist name, choose a song and queue it. Very awesome. But a couple hours in a closed karaoke booth... not my cup of tea. Although I must say it is very good Hiragana practice!

Image quality is crappy. But colors are funky heh.

Met Shoma-san who was also celebrating his bday (also lives in our building along with most of the people that were with him).

Also took a video but miserably failed at attempt to play commentator, so not posting it :P

After that made a big ass group and walked back home. Fun stuff!

So have been quite busy leading to lack of updates.

This past week I've studied more than ever! (I know that's not really saying much but still haha).

Basically Japanese from 8:45 (if I'm not late that is) to 14:30, then studying for the Master's entrance exams until around 22:00. It's all Mathematics, and it's just been so long since I've done any Differencial Equations or Linear Algebra... and worse is the Machine Learning and stuff I've never taken before hehe. So learning from the exam and the internet. And the LIBRARY!

The reason that last word was all in upper case, is that there really is something strange about libraries in universities in Japan. I say universities not Hokkudai (my uni) because Dina has also experienced this. The library has an aura, so strong and demanding that it just makes you WANT to study! ME! Seriously!

I'll try to take a photo (without flash of course because I really really don't wanna bother anyone hehe). But I'm sure the photo won't really convey the feeling very well.

Other than that, last night there was a birthday (tea) party in the kitchen on my floor. WILD! Woohoo! So I just got home, dropped my 40$ worth of liquids (gotta have the liquids, that includes milk, juice and last but not least, beer! Oh and softener for the laundry hehe), and went the kitchen and chatted away until 1 in the morning...

Today invited to a Horror night at a friend's hehe. Telling horror stories in the candlelight, watching a horror movie, you know, the usual... Just in case I can't tomorrow, or am too lazy ;) I'll just put plans here for tomorrow night. Going out to birthday party, then the EVER FAMOUS KARAOKE haha. Let's see what's the big deal about it here.

And Sunday going on a trip with local version of "shabibet el ma7abba" or something hehe. Don't laugh... Seems there's this really cool priest that organizes these trips so that people meet each other and have a good time, which is really cool. So going to some museum and then bird watching I think? You know, birds? They don't shoot them on sight here... strange...

In other unrelated news, since I got an iPhone (YA!), my number by the way is: 0081 80 4046 9719 , spent a good couple hours trying to install iTunes on the damn laptop, only to get error messages in Japanese. Finally managed to understand that it has something to do with my machine being 64-bit (although I was downloading the 64-bit installer... but forums said there was some issue with iTunesa and 64-bit Windows 7, but it eventually worked donno why, I was probably just clicking on the wrong link or something).

So anyway the point is that I got so pissed off and finally decided to finally install the English language pack for Windows... I must say... it feels frikkin GREAT to be able to understand my menus/buttons/messages without having to [painfully] slowly read it in Japanese and sometimes extrapolate to understand what the hell this and that means...

Other than that, it's still really cold outside, but Spring is finally here, and so I'm putting up some photos of a little tiny section of the campus I was walking through today, and a little video of the stream of water that goes through it (there were ducks there two days ago but I guess the rain scared em off for now hehe... wusses).

The last remnants of snow.

Nothing beats the cool breeze with the sound of running water from the nearby stream.

The source of water on the right side.

Small video of area in previous 2 photos. Very cool. I think I'm in the right place, cold and peaceful? YA! (snowboarding this weekend isn't gonna happen though, since it's just too expensive to go for less than at least a couple days to the only mountain still open for snowboarding).

Some random (and quite strange) people giving out some packages to older ladies in the building that has the subway/train/department stores/movies.

Again we see the Japanese efficiency. The guys giving out packages take turns coming back to this table and restocking lol.

iPhone

Vaio meet iPhone:

iPhone meet Vaio.

Dina meet Hello Kitty (I'm sure you already saw them but still lol).

(This has been in drafts for a week or so hehe).

Yum yum: part I

Since food is such an important issue, decided to start posts just for... you guessed it: FOOD!

And today's dish: Uni Tekka Don (place is called The Don)

So basically I pass by this place everyday on my way to the subway. As I had explained before, the subway is under the biggest building in Sapporo. This building has 4 huge ass mofo department stores (each one 10 stories high I think), the movie theaters and of course the train station! So the basement (just above the subway) is the food floor muahahaha.

But I digress... as you can see, as soon as you order, they bring you tea in an amazingly cute (no I'm not gay it's just really cool) tea cup. I ordered a main dish of raw tuna and urchins, with rice, sea weed and something green that looks like "ba2leh", but with smaller leaves. This comes with a side order of cabbage salad, and miso soup.

The cute matching little plate has wasabe! You put soy sauce on top and pour the mix onto the main dish, ITTADAKKIMASU!

Akh so it's time for an update I would say.

Just as soon as the snow was nearly fully melted, and I was going to mention it here, guess what? It started to snow again haha. But it's really thin snow and didn't add much to the already receding snow. And my phone camera won't show the falling snow either since it's so thin.

Other than that, remember the huge ass electronics store I talked about before? Turns out there's more than one floor! OMFG! Wat za hell!? The second floor has cameras, TVs, watches, and other stuff like makeup(?), the third floor has home appliances, donno what the fourth has. Didn't even get to fully explore the second floor!

Asked again about phones, and there are basically two options: option 1 is to opt for the cheap phone, pay something like 70$ and then pay basically 3$/month (plus calls of course, which are free to the same company in the afternoon). Option 2 is to opt for the iPhone (which is awesome) and pay more (something like 90$ and 50$/month? Not sure about the prices). Option 2 has unlimited internet on your phone - iPhone! -, but I have internet on my laptop at home, and option 1 is just so cheap haha. Still thinking it over.

Yesterday, went shopping for running shoes. So naturally I went to the huge mall. Turns out this mall is not just one mall, it's actually one building that has 4 different "malls" each at least 7 floors, with their own shops. Explored 2 of them (not much information) and not a single sports shop... Asked and was told that there are none. (Asked my new Libyan friend and he said there actually is one, in one of the 2 I didn't go to yet... naturally would've been the last one I would check hehe).

Today had classes in the morning as usual, got there early for once! Classmates clapped and cheered me yay! Victoria (Israeli girl, whom I met in the elevator this morning so is living in the same building as me lol) introduced me to Syrian dude at canteen. Classes are amazing by the way. There are many teachers, so one day we learn grammar with one and then the next with another. Now for me, who's already horrible with names, it gets confusing to remember haha. But it also makes it so much more interesting, mixing grammar with conversation, with writing, with pronunciation. And also mixing different teachers, personalities and methods of teaching.

After class, went with some friends from class who want to buy phones. Interesting to see not one, but three Gaijin (foreigners) that don't speak the language try to communicate with a Japanese [non English-speaking] vendor haha. Interesting indeed.

After that, more international students welcome parties! This time it's the Co-op students organization. Had small dinner, then joined Indonesian girl doing traditional dance. I think the other Japanese guy and I probably looked a bit girly doing the girl dance with her but it was fun and more people joined us hehe. There's a small video somewhere, will post it when I get my hands on it.

More country bingo after that, didn't win anything hehe. But we got to choose from free stuff left over by old students at the Co-op afterwards. So I got myself a cup, a knife, a spoon, and a fork (don't think I'll use any of them soon but yalla!) and a very cute tea set. Now I know I don't drink tea, but no seemed to want it and it's so cute. And it'll be here for when someone visits me (in another location since no one can sleep over here except for Naddoush and Dal), or when I decide to start drinking tea next winter hehe. I hear the winter here makes lovers out of tea haters! As a side note, did the laundry and finally found a use for the radiator in my room haha. I'm paying for heating regardless of whether I turn it on or not (basic fee), so I might as well turn it on and dry my laundry on it!).

Made a new Libyan friend, and had dinner (another proper one this time hehe) with Egyptian girl and their Columbian friend who we met there by chance. Ate Italian, good good! Penne a la Arabiatta costs around 10$, with an orange juice or tea which is part of the service. Ah ya the restaurant's on the 10th floor of one of the four malls.

So in short, learned (and took down) "hello" and "thank you" in maybe 5 new languages today, ate lots of good food, and met lots of cool new people (can't mention them all coz it'll be TOO long hehe)! Good day if there ever was one! Oh and got cute tea set (at least I think it is :) will post photos later it's too late and I'm too lazy!).

Random cool stuff: part I

Since Saturday (and Sunday) will be spent doing nothing, except cleaning and lazying around, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write about some cool stuff that are done differently here.

I shall begin with paying the rent (which I did today). Beginning next month, it will be deducted automatically from my bank account, but this month, they gave me a payment slip that I have to settle at a... convenience store... Everything is written in Japanese so I can't explain what's written on it. But I just went there, showed him the paper, paid, and got the receipt and a stub from the original slip (I'm guessing I have to return that to them? Couldn't understand a word he said to me lol).

Speaking of convenience stores and shops, here is a list of interesting things that have happened to me so far:

• When you go into a shop, any employee near the entrance, even if wiping the floor, will yell big welcome really loud!
• The cash register has slots where the cashier puts the money, one for paper, another for coins, and it automatically counts everything, and displays the amount you paid along with the change. People usually have shopping cards or electronic wallets though, so they don't have to use cash, and can accumulate points on them.
• In big shops (like the electronics shop), there is always someone hawking their goods, yelling stuff like "WE HAVE THE BEST CURRY NOODLES AROUND". I had Pan-san translate, since to me, it looks like these people yelling gibberish, which is funny.
• As I explained before, people slurp their noodles really loud sometimes, and it is very normal.
• Chopsticks here (not the disposable ones) have fine tips, so you can easily grab the last remaining grains of rice with them.

Yesterday at one of the university's cafeterias, there was a new stand, with a guy making sushi! Muahaha. So for around 5$, was able to eat 11 pieces (the pieces are really big here, maybe as big as one and half pieces in Lebanon). Also, here they put wasabe between the rice and the fish, this guy put more than the ones I buy at the supermarket.

Another thing to mention is Japanese design! It's genius!

For example: at our lab, there is a table. Like our plastic tables, the ones that have removable legs, this one (metallic not plastic) has legs you can screw on/off. The difference however, is that you there are slots where you can put the legs, and other slots where you can put the 2 folded chairs that come with the table, and finally you just bend the table in half and close it with the legs and chairs inside! I find that amazing hehe.

One more thing is this keyboard (like all Japanese keyboards). There's a button you press, which enables you to write in English, and it automatically turns it into Hiragana/Katakana depending on what you want. So I turn the feature on and write "ka" and it comes out as か, or as カ; the first being the Hiragana "ka", the second being the Katakana "ka". It wasn't as cool until I found out how to turn it off though...

Day 3 (Sunday)

Tough choice had to be made today... Navy blue pillowcase and quilt cover, with white/light-blue sheets? Or full matching white with cool patterns (ranging from light to navy blue) set? Both go so well with my new blue curtains (that are getting heavier and heavier each minute)... Half an hour and 10,000 yen later, I walked out with both sets :) (+curtains +pillow +quilt).

Time for lunch. As many might or might not know, most restaurants in Japan have plastic replicas of their menu on display, or at least photos, complete with prices. How boring... where's the mystery? So it is that I found myself in maybe the only small restaurant where the menu was in all in Japanese, with no graphical representation whatsoever, manned by an old man and his old wife, neither of which spoke a single word of English. Less boring :)

Somehow ended up with a very tasty bowl of Chuyo (or was it Choyu) Ramen; noodles in a soup with a piece of roast beef, and egg, onions and some other stuff, all for 550 yen. Lucky!

(Naddoush will happy to learn I'm working on my slurping skills. Its is rude not to! The louder the better! Have yet to master the technique without getting soup on my glasses yet...

Finally it was time for dinner, courtesy of my new Chinese friends, Pan-san and Shi-san. Mmm very delicious. Not very healthy though, fried pork and all :) pork liver anyone? Was then joined by our Polish friend Ni-hao-san (seems his name translated into Chinese sounds something like hello, thus his new nickname) and so the drinking began with Gyu-san and Ken-san. All light-weights though, some turned bright pink, English became even harder to understand, Japanese [hilarious!!] x-rated movie. Wait... what?