Coca-cola has found a way to tap into your wallet!

Anyone throwing their money away on plastic bottles that are thrown away after one use? The bottled water phenomenon has certainly gotten out of hand. Of course I was impressed this summer to find that S, A and family have all bought reusable water bottles for their daily drinking needs.

Here's a little bit more information. (Okay, I'm cheating a little bit here because this is information from an NGO which I'm a member of, but still, very good information):

"Americans consumed more than 31 billion liters of bottled water in 2006 – nearly 28 gallons for every man, woman, and child. Manufacturing all those bottles required 900,000 tons of plastic and emitted as much greenhouse gas as 500,000 cars! Trucking a bottle of water 500 miles can double its climate impact – and some are shipped much, much farther."

The NGO recommends finding yourself a nontoxic, reusable water bottle and, if local water quality requires it (most don't - in fact, up to 40% of bottled water is simply repackaged tap water), a water filter. They even provide a link: Center for a New American Dream

Old-fashion or poor fashion?

If you've ever seen the movie Serial Mom (1994) by John Waters, the memorable scene of Kathleen Turner killing an innocent woman for her poor fashion sense will probably remind you to never wear white shoes after Labor Day.

Some people say that this etiquette is old-fashion and have unleashed their "daring" sense of style by breaking this so-called rule. Others stick steadfast to the rule, although many allow for "winter white" as long as it's congruent with cold weather (think white winter boots).

Now, frankly, as a guy, I knew nothing about this until seeing Serial Mom years ago, and even then I had to ask around to find out what was wrong with white shoes (not to mention I had to look on a calender to remember when Labor Day is). So I may have been aloof to this sort of thing, or even excused from it (since a guy wearing white tennis shoes is pretty excusable any time of the year, and a man wearing white dress shoes is just asking for the fashion police to scuff his shine at any time of year!), but this morning I experience my first Serial Mom moment.

Part of my morning routine is to admire the working women in Tokyo on the way to work. Basically, I consider this as natural as a morning cup of coffee, not to mention that I just can't help it. Usually I am quite pleased by the ladies of Tokyo, as they are rather refined and charming, if not debonair. However, this morning, as I was walking up the steps to exit the subway station, I noticed a woman in front of me wearing a dark blouse and dark skirt with low-heeled shoes...which were, of course, white.

Instinctively, I conjured up a calender in my head (past Labor Day) and then considered that I was wearing a sports jacket with my suit since it is getting cooler. I also noted that in the fall, people in Tokyo change to darker colors en masse (and in Spring change to lighter colors. This is socially coordinated almost to the day!), much the same way that traditional foods are served according to the seasonal changes. I hopped up the steps a little faster to get a look at the woman a little better. She was probably in her late 20s and Asian, although I couldn't tell if she was Japanese for sure. Granted, although the "Labor Day rule" is generally observed in Japan (possibly for different reasons, such as simply to coordinate with the clothes color change), people still have a pretty "daring" fashion sense in Japan. But at second glance, I decided that the shoes looked awful and then just felt bad for her. She didn't look like the type who was trying to break any rules, she just had a poor sense of style.

I suspect my coffee this morning was a little bitter, so you'll have to excuse this undeniably snooty posting. If you still don't understand, watch this (YouTube), and you'll know what I mean.

Playing your cards right

Over the weekend I finally made the first move. Honestly, I had been putting it off long enough and it was time to get down to business. I decided it was high time to put some regular exercise in my weekly schedule and join a gym.
So on Saturday I did a search for gyms located near my office which would be open early enough for me to fit in a morning workout (I know, a lofty goal indeed!). Luckily I found one that is not only near my office, but one that has another branch nearby home, and they allow members to use all their branches freely. I figure this will be good for working out on the weekends.

I visited the one near my home on Saturday afternoon and took a look. After a short tour by one of their staff, I met with the manager who explained the membership system to me, i.e. where the other locations are, the free towel with every visit, that sort of thing. I told him everything sounded great, but I would visit the location near my office during the week and then decide. He said that would be no problem, although he hoped I would return to his branch when I signed up.

Today I went at 8:00 am to see what the gym near my office was like, choosing that time to see how crowded it might be, and thus how easy it would be to get a treadmill or bicycle, etc. I was happy to find only about 4 or 5 people there, and the staff who gave me the tour said that was common for weekday mornings. Then I met with the staff member who was supposed to give me the spiel about the membership system, but I told her that I had already gotten the details from my visit to the other location, and would probably join over the weekend when I had more time to fill out the forms.

It was at that point that I was told, very kindly, that by all means I was welcome to join from any location, but they would be very happy if I joined from their branch.

"Membership is the same no matter where I join, right?" I inquired.
"Certainly. You can use any of the locations no matter where you join. However, maybe I can talk to the manager here. He might be willing to offer you a slight discount for joining at this location."

*Ah, the cards were on the table!*

What else could I do but play along? Afterall, I truly was planning to join at the location near my house over the weekend. "Well, I'm planning to join this weekend. Here is my phone number, so have your manager call me in the evening before the weekend if he would like to offer something of that nature."

I figure I have nothing to lose no matter where I join, but they seem to have something to gain... so I might as well have something to gain by being persuaded one way or the other. Actually, since I will use the location near my office more often, I might as well join there, and I was quite happy to hear the suggestion to do so.

In any case, I should be able to remain active over the coming fall and winter months, and the gym (both locations) seem to be very pleasant.