WILT: シェフの農園

Directly translated by a gaijin who's severely fallen behind on her Japanese studies (me) as: chef's farm garden, this product proves once again that the Japanese have got it right.



The Japanese innovative advertising company, Dentsu, calls this little number "Chef's Garden."

Intended specifically for restaurants, this machine can grow up to 60 heads of lettuce at a time...without any sunlight.

 

How do they do it?  It's actually pretty simple.  A dozen 40 watt light-bulbs incubate 5 levels of trays (this means that 5 different types of vegetation can grow at once) containing "nutri-culture" sponges that the plants grow from.



Costing about $90,000, Chef's kitchen can produce 20,000 heads of lettuce per year and Dentsu touts that the indoor farm will pay for itself (including energy and equipment costs) within 5 years of purchase.

I had hoped to end this post with a photo from my own trip to Tokyo, but it appears that I did not find it necessary to eternally capture the image of a vending machine in a foreign land.  Thankfully, my friends living there right now don't have the same discretion.



This is from a random gas station in the countryside, which gives you a pretty good idea of the prevalence of vending machines in Japan.  From my observation, I'd say that about every 20 feet, a typical Tokyoite could purchase cans of pretty much any beverage, from hot cappuccino (or the Japanese interpretation, at least) to cold beer.

(and, no.  I didn't see any vending machines with panties for sale)