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| Bottled Air... | (Entered Jul. 09, 2006) | When in Tokyo... | |||||||
Remember when bottled water first made it's appearance? I can, but only just barely. I seem to recall thinking it was pretty stupid, I mean, who's gonna pay for water when you can get it for free out of a tap? Well at least free from your parents tap. Anyway look where bottled water is today. Stupid idea huh? The millionaires at Volvic, Evian, Vittel, etc. might not agree with you. So what's the next step? Bottled oxygen of course! Obviously I didn't learn my lesson the first time because my first thought was: Gee, what a dumb idea! However after more consideration, I can see how people living in Bangkok, Los Angeles or Hong Kong might appreciate this more than the average person. As for Tokyo, it might not be the cleanest city in the world but having been to other big cities like Bangkok and Beijing I can safely say that there are dirtier places to be. Anyway back to the main topic. 7-11 has recently launched two flavours of bottled oxygen, grapefruit and mint (no joke) and you just know that Mike is ready to experiement again. Onward! People joke about how the only thing that's still free is air, well not anymore! One can of flavoured oxygen goes for 600 yen, more expensive than a McDonald's combo, though I suspect that you're paying for the can. The air itself probably costs like 3 yen. Both of them proclaim to relieve stress but while the grapefruit one is labelled 'body can', the mint one says 'brain can'. Not sure how this distinction was arrived at though. So how do they stack up?
I decided to do the grapefruit one first. It had been a long day and I had a slight headache, would some nice oxygen make me feel better? In hindsight perhaps it would've been better to do the mint one as it clearly says 'brain' on the label. Here I am looking sceptical.
As you can see, I was unprepared for the blast of grapefruit refreshment that hit me. The can says that there's 32 servings of 2 second inhalations, and I did about 12. Admittedly I felt pretty good right after, kind of woozy, which made me wonder if this stuff should be illegal or something, but the effects, real or psychological, wore off quickly. For a few minutes my headache seemed to be gone, but it came back again soon after, sigh. Back to the drawing board guys. Wonder if mint will prove any better?
Mint had it's chance to prove itself on Sunday. Seems to me that the best time to take oxygen is after hard exercise right? So here I am after playing ultimate for a few hours, tired and wornout. Meanwhile various teammates gather round to watch history being made. On the left is Mike, who's getting to be a regular fixture on this webpage. Peaking over my shoulder is Akili and to the right is Kumi. Did I inhale alone? No. Most everyone wanted to get in on the action and have a few puffs.
Hmm, perhaps after exercising is the way to go with this whole canned air thing. Can't be too sure but I think it did refresh me somewhat.... maybe. So what's the final verdict? Well let's just say that I'm not going to go out and buy Hakugen's (the company) stock anytime soon. Maybe if they introduced an apple pie scent?
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Harajuku to Tokyo, Park Photowalk |
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