International Jet Trash

What It’s Like for Sushi: Conveyor-Belt Cam in Japan

YouTuber MJRecession uploaded this video of a shi conveyor belt in Japan, shot from the point of view of a roll. Or sashimi. You get the idea.

I love the reactions of the other customers.

Do You Recognize These Skylines?

Buzzfeed has a fun little quiz called Can You Guess The City Skyline?. You won’t see New York, Rio, or Hong Kong; only cities whose skylines aren’t as immediately recognizable.

I only got five out of 10 right. Number four really threw me.

It’s fantastic how these cities, which, if named, you may write off as “boring” or “ugly”, take on a new life when photographed lovingly. See your own city as a stranger would, and interesting things happen.

New Year’s Celebration 2012: No Electricity

Clubbing on New Year’s Eve is played out. Now it’s all about a 22-km snowshoe hike to a secluded hut in British Columbia.

A few of us ducked out of the traditional New Year’s Eve partying to leave for Squamish, BC for coffee. After that, we had to hike nearly 2km to the Diamond Head parking lot (we didn’t have snow chains), from which point we began the 22km hike to Elfin Lake.

Elfin Hut can host 30-odd snowshoe hikers and ski-tourers, though overflow arrivals can crash on the floor or in tents outside. The hut and its toilet facility are supposed to be lit with solar-powered lights, but some dumbass (or dumbasses) broke the timing systems, so it was all about propane lights, candles, and headlamps.

The hut is equipped with four propane burners, and guests take turns melting and boiling fresh snow for cooking/cleaning/drinking water.

Before adding some of our communal food to my pack, I noticed that the bottle of sparkling wine I had packed weighed more than the rest of my gear combined. At least I’d only be carrying the empty bottle back down.

Speaking of which…

Goon Bag!

One of our crew had the foresight to pack a box of wine: she then made use of the goon bag pillow when faced with a bare wooden bunk. I had only seen the goon bag as a pillow once before, when noticing a hipster asleep near Melbourne’s Smith Street the other month. I had no idea it was a national (and international) phenomenon.

(Downside: the toilets were a study in stench. A mingin’ masterclass, in fact. The dianoga that lived in the middle pit toilet was dead, floating face-down in the fecal froth. Be advised: your gag reflex will be challenged.)

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The view from Elfin Hut

Whiskey Jacks Feasting on Seeds

Howe Sound from the Trail

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(I have my own snowshoes, complete with climbing platforms. The others hired theirs from Sigge’s, that cross-country skiing scene on 4th Ave in Vancouver.)

A Day in the Life of a Suitcase

If you’re wondering what happens to your precious suitcase once you check it in, have a look at the Journey of Checked Baggage.

You’ll notice quite a few cuts in the video, and not only in the TSA screening area. Real-life suitcases get tossed around quite a bit more than this.

The takeaway from the video below, which Delta Airlines posted to its YouTube channel, is to show you that, when you check in your luggage, it becomes an item that gets shipped. There is not a crew of smiling, gentle staffers standing by to make sure that your irreplaceable snowglobe gets back home intact.

Best case scenario: baggage handlers are indifferent to your suitcase; after all, it’s one of thousands that they’ll handle in a day. Worst case scenario: it gets tossed around, and, yes, this happens.

As always, my suggestion is to do your trip with carry-on only. It’s surprisingly easy to do, and oyr handy Packing Light section will get you started.

Also, the last level in Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow had a luggage-conveyor section in the LAX level, but that’s a bit different.