The Sagamihara Used Tire Mart and Vending Machine Corner in Kanagawa, Japan has an amazing collection of very old vending machines. The staff maintains them and even cooks the meals for them. See old mechanical hot and cold serve coffee/tea machines, hamburgers, potstickers, squeezed orange juice, candied apples, Kodak film vending machine, ice cream machines, an ultra rare hot curry machine that worked before microwave technology, popcorn machines, machines with old nixie tube displays, and some old pachinko and video game machines.
At Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale California there is a largely unknown gem. The largest religious painting ever made – a staggering 195 feet long and 45 feet high. It’s so large it has it’s own auditorium style seating.
The story behind it is almost equally amazing. It was commissioned in 1894 and painted by Polish painter Jan Styka. To make the painting, he traveled to Jerusalem to prepare sketches and even had his palette blessed by Pope Leo XIII. The gigantic mural was unveiled in Warsaw in 1897, traveled many European cities, then joined the 1904 St Louis Exposition. It was seized when the partners failed to pay custom taxes and was considered lost for 40 years. It was found in 1944 rolled around a telephone pole and badly damaged in the basement of the Chicago Civic Opera Company. It was restored and then displayed in Forest Lawn by American businessman Hubert Eaton.
It’s hard to find detailed images of the massive painting, but the pieces I have seen are really astounding. Read more about it here.
Also check out some of Jan Styka’s other paintings such as St Peter preaching the gospel in the catacombs.
Twitch has some great channels – especially if you like watching things from other countries.
One of my early favorites was Game Center CX ゲームセンターCX. The Game Center CX Twitch channel ran about 19 seasons of the TV show. GameCenter CX was a Japanese TV show that featured comedian Shinya Arino (a member of comedy duo Yowiko). He plays old home console video games from previous decades (his own childhood) and usually attempts to get the game’s ending within a single day. It’s made more entertaining by the fact he’s not a very good player and the attempts consist of marathon sessions in which he is clearly past exhaustion. He picked up quite a following and he would do adventures playing at local game centers (arcades) in different parts of Japan – many in mom and pop candy stores. While the Twitch gccxstream channel is rarely live these days, you can always watch the archived seasons anytime you want.
During the live broadcasts, there is lots of commenting and folks helping the casual viewer know more about the sport, the reason behind the little rituals they use, see the between match vignettes, as well as getting to watch great Japanese commercials that happen during the normal commercial breaks. Excellent and fun way to watch with others.
Other fun tidbits are how people explain things like the ring announcer (yobidashi) in his unique outfit. The outfit is based on an old style Japanese workman’s outfit, with leggings and split-toed tabi-like boots. In keeping with that workman theme, he does many odd jobs around the arena.
If you’ve ever traveled, you’ve probably noticed that pilots, and a lot of seasoned flight attendants, all seem to use the same luggage. LuggageWorks makes the luggage that they use.
You’ve undoubtedly seen this bag, the Executive 22″ Rolling Bag. At $299, they aren’t cheap – but apparently the are THE word in travel bags.
Flight prices aren’t as cheap as they used to be anymore. In fact, if you’re about to fly your family and friends of 5-7 people somewhere, you might consider picking up a private jet. It might actually be in the same ballpark for price.
How much? Charter companies like XO specialize in these sorts of chartered trips. If you have flexibility, they sometimes even offer discounts and special deals for one-way trips to get their planes back/to the next pickup.
One of the things many young adventurers love to do is travel to Nepal and hike some of the amazing trails through Himalayan mountains. The popularity of these multi-day to multi-week hikes has lead to a more crowded and less authentic experiences of previous travelers, but you just can’t beat something like a week or two on the Annapurna Circuit.
You can also hike to Mt Everest base camp as well as often take a short trip up the nearby facing peak Kala Patthar to see both Everest and Lhotse (if the weather cooperates).
A third option is to go by helicopter. Sam Chui shows us that for about $1200, you can take an amazing few hour helicopter trip through these destintions:
1. Kathmandu (4,390 ft / 1,338m) 2. Lukla (9,380 ft / 2,860m) 3. Namche Bazar (11,290 ft / 3,440m) 4. Syangboche (12,402 ft / 3,780m) 5. Khumbu Icefall (17,999 ft / 5,486m) 6. Mt Everest (29,031 ft / 8,849m) 7. Kala Patthar (18,519 ft / 5,644m) 8. Cho La Pass (17,782 ft / 5,420 m) 9. Gokyo Ri (17,575 ft / 5,357m) 11. Hotel Everest View (12,729ft / 3,880m) 13. Lukla (9,380 ft / 2,860m) 14. Kathmandu (4,390 ft / 1,338m)
He recommends going in April or October when the weather is at its clearest and not so cold. He flies via Manang Air – who have a variety of packages.
Allan Su has traveled Iceland several times and gives a really great itinerary of how to spend 2 weeks (travel during June-Sept) visiting the amazing outdoor locations of Iceland. He hits both the famous/well traveled locations as well as lesser known but amazing attractions. He also gives a great set of advice on a number of handy resources from rentals to checking weather/travel conditions.
I love to travel, but during Covid that was not really a thing. Even if you did travel, it was a very muted experience as most places you would visit were closed, severely restricted, and (my personal real goals) of interacting with local culture/food/people severely curtailed. Even in 2023 many cities are nothing like what they were pre-Covid, and I suspect that travel and tourism is going to look very different as we come back out of Covid.
Recently I started watching the various Sound and Light shows of the various Egyptian locations. I was inspired by a scene in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Mewhich features the famous show at the Great Pyramids.
