Depressing Europeans...

Wow. It's not often that I get the chance to talk about three of Japan's idiosyncrasies in one short post, but here goes...

To my mind, one of Japan's most enduring icons is the ubiquitous vending machine.
Canned coffee (hot or cold) is one of the most popular products offered by vending machines in Japan. The picture on the right is from an advertisement on a vending machine at a park near my place, and shows just two of the many coffee products offered by (I think) the biggest canned coffee company in Japan, Georgia. Georgia is owned by Coca Cola Japan.
The Japanese also (quite famously) have a penchant for using the English language, shall we say, creatively, sometimes with quite unintended results. You'll notice that one of the products in the picture is called "Deeppresso", a name which is no doubt intended to express the idea of this product's deep, rich espresso flavor. But really, say it out loud. Are you reminded of any kind of coffee? Would you want a nice hot can of deeppresso in the morning? Would you like to cool of on a hot day with an ice-cold can of deeppresso? Maybe you get my point... This is made even more amusing with the juxtaposition of Deeppresso with another of the company's products, "European". "Deeppresso European". Mmm... reminds me of Swedish movies...