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I had my koto lesson last night, and after that I decided to go to the video store to stock up for the long weekend. Today is Thurday the 14th, Coming of Age Day in Japan. This is when people who have reached 20 yrs dress up in kimonos and attend a special ceremony. But the newspaper editorials say that young people think this tradition is archaic. One cily in order to attract people to come to the event (held at the city cultural cernter), has offered door prizes including a trip for two to Disney World in Orlando. The city also rented a print club machine for the day for 200,000 yen. The attendees will be able to use the machine for free. Man, if I lived there, I would go! Free food, drink, and conversation are also offered. But I wouldn't be surprized if there wasn't a ceremony taking place today in Ota. Why? Becuase it's been snowing for the past 6 hours or so, and is expected to continue for the rest of the days. SO for the third time in a week, the Kanto plane is paralysed. (This is another reason why I stocked up on videos, as did the rest of Ota). Now, one might think that I wouldn't have the day off anyway, but I'm not so sure. Rumor has it, Japanese never cancel school. It might start later, but it's never cancelled. But one of the AETs said that the teachers at his school are actually toying with the idea of cancelling school. The procedure for this sounds intersting. In preparation for the cancellation on Friday, phone trees were given out on Wed (the forcast says snow for the next 2 days). The radio stations and TV don't announce school closings. The pricipal calls the vice, who calls the 3 head teacher, who call the rest of the teachers, who call the parents of their homeroom students. Complicated, isn't it? So on to the title of this letter. On the way home, I noticed a newly opened building called, Robo Store. Now maybe we have these stores somewhere in the US and I'm just making a big deal about it because I saw it in Japan, but maybe not. This store brings the concept of the vending machine to a whole new level. A completely enclosed vending machine store. There are no people working in the store. And what a variety! ANything from a video, to a Gucci purse, to a pen, to an ice cream bar. There was even a print club machine in the store. Now, I'm nopt exactly sure how I go about buying something. It looks like I have to go to a main machine and buy a card for X yen. Then I choose what I want, then put my card into another machine and punch in the # of the item. I don't know how the item gets from it's shelf to me, but I don't think I open up the door to get it. It probably comes out a bank-like shoot or something of the sort. Neat, but I don't think it will last. That's all for now. Valerie ps the armed forces radio says that it's snowing an inch an hour down there. the snow recordd has just been broken. for the past 50 years it's been 8.5 inches in a day, and now they have 9.5/ It's expected to stop some time tomorrow morning, and the time right now is 12:15 pm. |