Never Leave Home Without Your Camera

And here, I was worried Japan was starting to get a little boring.

Never leave home without your camera. I'm not the first to say that, and now I believe it. I've already missed a couple of cool shots - the guy riding his bike wearing a completely normal outfit, except for the red pumps, the girls dressed in club clothes carrying their kids, etc.

But this one ends it all for me.

OK - setup is important. In Japan, they have vending machines for everything, blah blah blah, you've heard all that before. The reality is that 80% of them are for beverages, and 19% for cigarettes. The remaining 1% sell clothing, distributor caps, haldron colliders, and whatever else will keep Japan on YouTube when people start to think they aren't the strangest country on the planet.

There is a sign telling kids they cannot buy cigarettes if they are under 18, which is sort of like putting up a sign in front of an open dog food bag and trusting his sense of moderation and respect for your will while you leave for the weekend.

So here I am, walking to the Konbini (Convenience store, AMPM in this case) for breakfast for tomorrow. Orange Juice, Natto, and Onigiri. (My first Natto experience - I'll let you know.) And as I'm walking out I see the girl with her 1000 Yen note staring at the machine. And I think "No way."

"No way."

So I pull out the camera, which I brought because I've been repeating to myself I have to carry this with me everywhere I go now, and....

I get this shot. She buys the freakin' cigarettes. I miss the shot once, getting some lady walking by, but shot #2 comes out perfect. Here's the closeup, for those of you crying "Uso" (Liar.)

Everytime I think Japan is going to get boring, it wakes me up at 3 am and throws a bucket of ice water filled with electric eels on my face while blasting Madonna through the car stereo of a Hummer parked in my bedroom.