robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

You can’t help but notice the abundance of vending machines at every street corner, t-junction or speed hump when wandering the streets. They provide a constant temptation for me, especially the hot coffee cans.

Wall of Vending Machines

One particular brand has caught my attention. Boss, with Tommy Lee Jones staring drunkenly at me with his powerfully weathered face I can’t help but comply and buy a can.

Tommy Lee: Lost in translation

The older version of the above photo has mostly been replaced, except on some of the more obscurely located machines. The following photo looks more like a cologne advert for a brand called ‘Intensity’ and for some reason I imagine Tommy’s photo shoot would have played out like that scene in Lost in Translation.

"Give it more.... intensity"

Please be giving… more intensity!

Rob

Tags: japan, odd stuff

OK blog post mania at the moment.. this is the 3rd in an hour!

So as we spend our last days in the USA I thought it would be good to post the list of the things we have found “strange” in the USA. We have been compiling this list since we arrived way back in July. Some of these strange things are good things.. some are annoying things…. but all are different to the “norm” life as we know it back in Australia.

Oh and it doesn’t include the obvious things like driving on the wrong side of the road etc.

• When ordering a burger, the wait-staff ask how you want your meat patty cooked (medium/well-done etc). I am pretty sure I have never been asked that back in Australia – not for a hamburger – we just assume “cooked”.
• Many shops don’t accept notes higher than $20. In fact if you get a large amount of money out at an ATM, it is dispensed in a big wad of $20’s only.
• If you give a cashier a $100 note (although not sure where you would have got it from in the first place), they hold it up to the light for a second. As if they could tell it’s counterfeit with a quick glance!
• If you see something which is $15 – it ends up being some silly amount like $16.13 once you go to the cashier because of sales tax (made up of a state tax + city tax + county tax).
• Pennies are useless. Get rid of them!!
  
• Half milk/half cream (called half-half) is common place for people’s coffee and tea. It is gooood!
• Showers are not simple to turn on. There’s only one tap and a shower head and faucet underneath (for a bath). You have to turn on the tap and then figure out some obscure contraption to redirect the water flow from the faucet to the shower head. An obscure switch or piston-like knob normally.
• A lot of cars have only brake lights on the back. The left or right brake light will flash when being used as an indicator.
• Suicide lanes – a lane in the middle of the road where cars coming in either direction can turn. Scary.
• The TV adverts here are… confronting. Erection problems, prostate issues, genital herpes.. you name it.. there’s someone talking about it.. in detail. And there’s always an incredible list of disclaimers tacked on to the end of the ad e.g. for an asthma drug – “if you have asthma which is current under control with other medication you should not take  XXX as there is an increased risk of asthma-related deaths when using  XXX “. Riiiiggghhhhttttt.
• Drive thru ATM. Actually very handy.
• Drive thru post boxes. Also very handy.
• Stores that sell guns AND alcohol are common. Scary.
• In restaurants, entrees are main-courses. So you order an appetizer (optional), an entree and a dessert (optional).
• In many bars, a pint is actually the smallest size of glass (although the bigger glass is the same size as an actual pint you would get in Australia). Weird!
• Stores and supermarkets provide what Rob and I have been calling “Fatty-Carts” for people who are morbidly obese. And, boy, there’s quite a few of them here in the states. Anyways, these carts are motorised scooters which you normally see the elderly using. The stores provide them to their obese customers to help them get around the store as they buy up big on more unhealthy goodness. Smart move by the stores.

So that’s about all the notable things we can think of. I have a feeling there will be many more strange things in Japan coming up.. starting with their toilets!

Leeane

Tags: odd stuff, usa