roll up, roll up....

I remember very well noticing supplement tonics the first time I came to Japan. there's something very japanese about them in the fact that they are immediate and they suit modern living perfectly: if you are about to keel over from too much work, you can hold out a hand and you should be able to reach one - they are everywhere. batteries for the urbanite - the salaymans kryptonite. you can pay up to 10 of your british pounds for a classy, all-singing-all-dancing, herbal chinese number or you can just part with 100 yen and get some juice with vitamins and caffiene in it like I do.

there is something definitely appealing about the olde worlde brown bottle, like some miracle cure from the mid-west, a hundred years ago. this is old skool red-bull - who needs sulph when you've got a starbucks and a vending machine near by? chemists, the country over, have a fridge packed with these foul smelling little beauties. they kind of remind me of some of the odd tasting sweets I grew up on - like a bastard child of 'kola-kubes' and 'parma-violets', if you will. the main difference is that these drinks claim to be good for you, and because of the packaging I fall for it - hook, line and sinker.