I only noticed this a month ago and I jog by it every…day that I jog. Does the fact that I was blind to a large rice vending machine station sandwiched between apartment buildings mean that I am become desensitized to all the novelty around me? Hmm…

At least the idea is still novel so me and another Canadian intern decided that some night rice purchasing was in order. We walked to the rice station last night and being such rice connaisseurs, decided on bin #6. Money inserted, we press button #6 and a woman starts to tell us to push another button. She tells us over and over again and we don’t quite know which button she is talking about so we press #6 again and again.

Finally the recording stops and another starts. We can open a drawer to get out rice. “Please open the drawer…please open the drawer….please open the drawer…” They want to make sure that the whole neighborhood knows that we are buying rice.

Drawer opened, we find our rice, in a grocery bag, with receipt and a sample package of katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes…if you have had okonomiyaki you are likely familiar with this). Very sweet indeed. I would have taken more time to savour the moment but the recording was going off on how we should take our rice and get outta there. Ok probably not so rudely considering all the polite kudasai(s) and onegai shimasu(s) of Japanese requests that we heard.