Juiceboxes & Trash Schedules

Alright. Halfway through the day. Two and a half hours of sleep under my belt. Two coffees - have I mentioned how wonderful the vending machines here are? I feel much better now than when I was coming to work in the morning. Sometimes I'm a morning person. Today, I was not. There was a guy at the conbini at the station who, as I was grabbing my coffee, stood in front of me to grab his, thus forcing me into line behind him. I was kind of like, wtf dude. You make me late for my train, I will not be happy, since the train will not wait. And as he got up to the register, he wasn't just buying coffee, but he also bought a newspaper and a pack of cigarettes. Agonizingly slowly. I was starting to worry about whether or not I would make my train.

I did, for the record.

The weather is really starting to heat up, but then again, it IS June after all. June, the rainy season in Japan, where things start to get humid and not-so-great weatherwise (though mostly it's because I can't stand the humidity; it makes me irritable). Back home, sometimes it would start to get hot in May. Those were not so fun times. There was condensation on the floors though from all the humidity.

Carrying around a hand towel/sweat towel has never been so important. Or those face/freshener wipes. I carry around both, cause sometimes the towel isn't enough. Thank goodness you can get all this cheap at the 100 yen store.

I'm dreading going home a little though. Today was trash day, but because I was a train wreck this morning and totally not together, I completely forgot to take out the trash today.

Japan has a special trash system that varies from city to city and housing complex to housing complex. There are specific days you're supposed to put out your trash (so the wild critters don't get into them) and certain days for bottles and stuff. Not so different from the US. At first.

It's the degree you have to separate things here that makes it seem really crazy. Things that you can make into a merry fire go in one pile (burnables), while things that don't go into the un/non-burnable trash. This includes things like plastics and whatnot. Some cities make you separate even further: milk cartons from plastic from styrofoam from paper from wood from metal from glass. Bottles (pet bottles), cans, and glass bottles (bins) usually get separated as well. Some places make you remove the cap and the plastic wrapping from around the bottle (which usually comes pre-perforated).

I live next to the school dorms, so they told me it's okay to not separate as much, for which I'm super grateful. Especially since I just threw out a whole bunch of food. That is sitting in my house. Roasting. In the heat. Because my refrigerator is broken and last night it seemed like a good idea to clean out at least the rotten meat from my freezer.

Yeaaaah. Home is gonna reek when I go back. I'm praying very very hard that there aren't cockroaches. Sigh.

Guess I'm eating out for a bit though. That or having tuna pasta. No leftovers. Or rice. But yeah, pretty much everything had spoiled in the fridge when I checked it last night. REALLY EFFIN LAME.


But oh yeah! What I wanted to talk about. Juiceboxes. And Japan's LOVE for them. To me, juiceboxes are things for small children and elementary school. Once you graduate to middle school and especially high school, it's can or bottle. But here, there are actually vending machines that sell juiceboxes and more! For it's more than just juice that comes in these small boxy things. They also have milk. Instead of milk cartons (they have that too) they have milk boxes. Flavored 'au lait' milks. The strawberry one is fantastic. One of my teachers bought me one and I was like OMG, MY CHILDHOOD. I love(d) strawberry milk. :)

But. They aren't cheap like I thought they'd be! Sometimes they cost as much as the stuff in the cans! It boggles my mind every time I see it, since it seems like it's not as much liquid for the same price... and in a carton. Maybe the boxes are more expensive here? But my students seem to like them a lot! They're tasty, but I feel like I'm a child again when I drink them.