Dry ice (2004-03-14)
Today I discovered a neat little machine at our local supermarket.
Every time I buy frozen foods, I never bother to ask for dry ice which the supermarket happily provides for customers free of charge. I bought a tub of ice-cream today and at the check-out, the cashier asked me if I would like dry ice. I don't know what prompted me to say yes but I did anyway. I expected her to give me a little sachet of dry ice like those you get when you buy cakes at the cake shops, so your cakes stay nice and cold on the way home. Instead she handed me a coin the size of a nickel and told me to get the dry ice from the machine next to the water dispenser. I then went to search for the said machine with piqued curiosity.
The machine is skinny. It has a coin slot and a button on the right and a hard plastic door in the front that slides downwards. Inside the door is a fat metal tube hanging from the top flanked by two hooks, one on each side. I followed the instruction and sat the bag with the ice-cream right under the tube securing the bag's handles on the hooks. I closed the door, inserted the coin and pushed the button. A roaring sound came followed by a hugh "swoosh" and fluffy powdery dry ice was ejected through the tube and cascaded into the bag. The entire process took no more than ten seconds. What a neat little dry ice dispenser!
I don't know if it's just me or that most foreigners think like I do about Japan. This country is an infinitely exciting place to live with something interesting popping up all the time, something as trivial as a dry ice machine. It's probably just me.
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