edamame

Eeeeshk! Almost one year has passed since I left my life in Melbourne for new and mysterious place that was once Gifu. It's scary thinking how quickly time has passed, and how everything that was once weird seems totally normal. I don't even take a second glance at the traffic-directing man at the shopping mall, whose sole job is to direct people down a straight one way street anymore, or even think twice about the Motosu theme song that plays through the city-wide speakers in a North Korean-propogandalike fashion. sigh.

But, there are tiny moments and tiny discoveries like this that make me happy about my decision to stay in Japan for another year.


Sure, this looks like just another, ordinary plastic-looking keychain resembling edamame, a common Japanese beer accompaniment or snack, right?

That is, until, when you squish the soybean pod (as you would normally when eating it to get the beans into your mouth) and three little bean pop out, before going back in as soon as you stop squeezing it. What's even cooler, is that the middle bean has one of 27 different random faces on it, so even if you get more than two the odds are you won't get the same face.

Is it necessary?
Not really.

Is it kind pointless?
A little.

It is the best 630 yen I've spent?
Hell yeah!