Lazy Machines

Years ago in Japan it was sometimes difficult to find a cash machine where one could use a foreign ATM card. I recall that I stayed at one hotel where I found such a machine on the lowest floor in the meeting room area. But, alas, the next time I needed it it was closed. The machine, as it turns out, had the night off, every night. And I thought the purpose of an ATM was so one could get money at any time of night or day...was I wrong?

The most inconveniently lazy machines I ever encountered, however, we not in Japan at all, but rather in France, that land of far too few toilets. And, as you might have guessed, some of the pay toilets take the night off. I seem to remember one in particular, that knocked off around 6 PM, and I really, really needed to pee at about 6:03.

Well, anyway, these days in Japan it's pretty easy to find a foreign friendly ATM. Most convenience stores have them, and are open all night long.

But I did encounter another lazy machine today. The grocery store across the street has, out front, a machine for collecting PET bottles. It gives you one point for each bottle, and when you get to 500 you can trade your points in for 50 Yen worth of merchandise, or about 40 cents. Clearly there's not much of an economic incentive to use the machine, but one still feels as though he's doing the right thing when he does so. Still, if I find that machine sleeping on the job too many more times, my PET bottles are liable to end at the curb on plastics trash day. That'll teach it.