Bringing futuristic solutions to historic streets.

Upon coming to Japan and exploring the cities, I soon came to one of many realizations: the country has a near-complete lack of public trash cans. While it’s technically possible to call into one of the many convenience stores to unload your pockets of snack wrappers into the store’s waste receptacles, there are almost always signs asking you to refrain from doing so, and you could potentially face criminal charges for dumping garbage from products not purchased in-store.

Instead, it is socially expected for any and all trash generated from snacking to be carried and disposed of at your house or hotel, so much so that it’s quite normal for people to carry around small plastic bags in your handbag or backpack to hold onto accumulated wrappers and napkins until the end of the day. As such, for those who are accustomed to having public trash cans being easily accessible, they can often end up with pockets filled with sticky waste and crumb-filled backpacks when they go sightseeing.

This cultural difference has been exacerbated considerably due to the post-pandemic boom in tourism, with millions of enthusiastic travelers flocking to sightseeing hotspots, like Kyoto, seeking to delve into the region’s charming history and food, which naturally increases the volume of sidewalk snacking. When you’re wandering through the picturesque streets of Kyoto’s Higashiyama ward, miles away from your hotel, the last thing you really want to be doing is holding the wrapper from your mid-morning Family Mart fried chicken snack for the rest of the day. So, the few trash cans available tend to fill up quickly and potentially overflow.

Fortunately, Kyoto has started tackling this problem with some high-tech efficiency. On May 27, two futuristic, eco-friendly smart trash cans called SmaGO, made by Forcetec, were introduced near the busy southbound Kiyomizu-michi bus stop, a highly traversed area for anyone looking to explore the area’s streets and temples.

The SmaGO units run entirely on solar power and feature an automatic trash-crushing mechanism that compacts waste down to just one-fifth of its original volume. They also connect to the internet to report exactly how full they are in real-time, allowing collection crews to swoop in before the trash starts to overflow and propagate to the nearby vicinity.

While these are the latest two units of a total of 34 throughout Kyoto, these eco-bins were actually donated to the city by the famous Kiyomizu temple and the nearby Rokuharamitsuji temple, with the Bank of Kyoto stepping in to provide the installation location, in the hopes of creating a more comfortable and beautiful city for both citizens and tourists.

So, the next time you venture into the historic former capital of Japan, you can rest assured that waste management will be one less thing to factor into your travel itinerary.

Source and images: PR Times
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Huddle but do not Cuddle, else you will land in a Puddle. This is yet another Muddle.

I ran out of rhyming words

#PepoPimento

Switch up your breakfast routine with an Indian take on pancakes. These are filled with colorful veggies, flavorful spices and oat flour in place of white flour. They’ll be the wake-up call you never know you’ve been missing.

Active time: 10 minutes | Total time: 25 minutes

Oats Masala Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup oat flour
• 3 tbsp chickpea flour (besan)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tsp dry fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi)
• 1 small (50g) onion, very finely chopped
• 1 small (50g) tomato, very finely chopped
• 1–2 green chilies, deseeded and very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp (15g) fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 tsp turmeric (haldi)

Directions

Combine the oats, gram flour, water, dry fenugreek leaves, onion, tomato, green chilies, coriander, salt, garam masala, and turmeric in a large bowl. Whisk well until smooth, adding additional water if needed to create a pourable batter.

Heat a lightly greased nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Pour a small ladleful of batter onto the pan and spread gently into a thin pancake.

Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown lightly. Flip and cook on the other side until cooked through and lightly browned.

Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve hot with mint chutney, if desired.

Serves: 4 | Serving Size: 2 pancakes

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 144; Total Fat: 3g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 1g; Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 305mg; Carbohydrate: 24g; Dietary Fiber: 3g; Sugar: 3g; Protein: 6g

Nutrition Bonus: Calcium: 3%; Iron: 10%; Potassium: 299mg; Vitamin A: 5%; Vitamin C: 99%

Originally published September 17, 2018; Updated June 2026

The post Oats Masala Pancakes appeared first on MyFitnessPal Blog.

This vibrant soup made in an Instant Pot is proof that simple ingredients can deliver big flavor. Sweet beets, ripe tomatoes, and tender carrots puree into a silky bowl that’s as nourishing as it is beautiful. Fragrant rosemary and garlic round out the flavor for a soup that feels anything but ordinary.

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 50 minutes

Pressure Cooker Beet and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• 2 whole cloves
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 ripe tomatoes, halved
• 2 medium beets, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the onion, rosemary, cloves and sauté for 3–5 minutes, or until the onion is softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.

Add the tomatoes, beet, carrot, and water. Lock the lid and cook at high pressure for 15–20 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then puree and strain into a medium pot.

Add the salt and black pepper and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Serves: 4 | Serving Size: About 1 cup

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 77; Total Fat: 2g; Saturated Fat: 0g; Monounsaturated Fat: 1g; Polyunsaturated Fat: 0g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 354mg; Carbohydrate: 15g; Dietary Fiber: 4g; Sugar: 9g; Protein: 2g

Nutrition Bonus: Calcium: 4%; Iron: 5%; Potassium: 585mg; Vitamin A: 401%; Vitamin C: 39%

Originally published: October 26, 2018; Updated May 2026

The post Pressure Cooker Beet and Tomato Soup appeared first on MyFitnessPal Blog.

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The first time someone called me a birder, I was startled, not only because I’m completely Blind. I had accumulated bits of knowledge here and there over the years and felt smug when I could identify birds by their songs, but I’d never studied, and it had never even occurred to me to go on an outing. Birders get up early, which wasn’t my habit, and I believed falsely that birding was entirely centred on vision. While some are, many birders I’ve spoken to describe listening as one of the key tools in finding birds to identify, especially in high summer when the foliage is at maximum density.

So on a sunny day in late summer, I accompanied Steve Garrett of the Toronto Ornithological Club (TOC), a Nature Network member group, to hear what was to be heard in Toronto’s High Park (mostly it was goldfinches and chickadees). We had our expectations set appropriately, as anyone who can distinguish a house sparrow from a bluejay can tell you, late summer isn’t the best time for birding.

Despite the season, I learned a lot. I got acquainted with the Merlin Bird ID app, and grilled Steve about birders and their ways.

Things I learned:

• A “spark bird” is the bird that first catches someone’s attention and turns them into a birder
• A “lifer” is a first-ever sighting of a bird that a birder may have been chasing for years
• And the best way to get a bird to stop singing is by turning on your ID app microphone

Steve told me the image of the classic birder has changed. The classic birder, armed with field glasses and reference manuals, isn’t quite as conspicuous anymore, because the smart phone offers options both for viewing, photographing, identifying and documenting.

Also, the idea of who a birder is has consciously shifted. “The birding community has followed the cultural shift towards diversity, equity and inclusion,” Steve told me. “When it was founded, way back in 1934, the Toronto Ornithological Club was exclusively men. Of course that’s not true anymore, and we’re actively interested in including people with a wide range of ages, backgrounds and abilities.”

This led to a discussion about an event involving the TOC and a group of Blind adults brought together by Balance for Blind Adults. One participant was Alex Bulmer, a Blind actor and director, who lives near High Park.

Alex, who lost her sight in her 20s, explained that one of the biggest barriers for Blind birding is access. “It’s one thing to walk down the street,” she says, “That’s good, cause there’re birds out on the street in the city and you can travel with your cane or your dog down the street, but you’re limited. Unless you can get into a woodland or a place that’s less navigable, I mean I can’t get into the depths of High Park with my cane or my dog, I just can’t without a sighted guide.”

I also think it’s important to tackle a common myth. Blind people have better hearing than sighted people. My conclusion is that, as a Blind person, I’m no more likely to excel at a hearing test than anyone else, but also as a Blind person, I rely heavily on sounds around me to make my way through the world and perceive what I can about it. This means that I often notice sounds my sighted friends don’t, not because I have quantitatively better hearing, but because I give more energy to processing what I hear.

Technology has also changed birding for Blind people. Gone are the days when sighted birders carried around reference books or paper journals. As a Blind person it’s all about the phone now. And as a totally Blind person, I rely on the voiceover feature on my iPhone which reads screen text aloud as synthetic speech. If an app developer has built accessibility features into their app, my experience will be as smooth as anyone else’s.

I’ve appreciated the opportunity the Merlin Bird ID app gives me to participate in community science by sharing recordings with research databases. Jim Halilton, a retired Blind tech user, became interested in identifying birds through a course called Birdability: Birding By Ear, designed and offered by Birds Canada. I asked him about the Merlin ID app. “It has helped me answer bird-song questions which I have had for decades. since having this app, and recognizing more birds as a result, I now pay more attention to birds I hear, to try to identify those I have not heard before.”

As a Blind birder I won’t be taking photos of birds, but learning their songs and calls helps me fill in the auditory landscape in a way that centres nature rather than just the human-made sounds I hear in my urban life. That persistent trill in my backyard, I discovered, is not a dying squirrel but a dark-eyed junco; I looked it up.

Prep the ingredients for this veggie-packed breakfast dish the night before — and all you need to do is throw it together in a skillet for a brunch that’s done before you even have your first cup of coffee. The eggs are baked in ramekins in a water bath with just a touch of cream for rich, decadent eggs that are tastier (and much easier) than poached eggs. You can substitute simple fried eggs to save time, if you like.

Active time: 40 minutes | Total time: 1 hour

Beet and Kale Potato Hash With Baked Eggs

Ingredients

• 8 oz. (227g) small golden potatoes
• 8-oz. (227g) package roasted beets (or can roast your own the night before)
• 4 cup lacinato kale, leaves torn, center ribs discarded (about 1/2 bunch)
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (60g) heavy cream
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions

The night before, cook the potatoes. Place the potatoes in a microwave-safe dish, add 1/2 cup water, cover, and cook until tender when pierced with a fork, 4–5 minutes. Drain, cut into bite-size pieces, and refrigerate until ready to use. While the potatoes are cooking, cut the beets into 1/2-inch pieces, cover, and refrigerate. Prepare the kale and chop the green onions; store in separate containers.

The next morning, preheat the oven to 350°F (180ºC). Spray four 6-oz. (177ml) oven-safe ramekins or custard dishes with cooking spray. Break 1 egg into each ramekin and sprinkle evenly with a few pinches of salt and pepper. Spoon the cream evenly over the eggs. Place the ramekins in a 13-by-9-inch baking pan and add hot water to a depth of 1 1/2 inches (3.8cm). Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until the whites are just set.

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the kale and cook, tossing with tongs, until tender, about 4 minutes. Push the kale to one side of the pan and add the potatoes and beets. Cook, without stirring, until the potatoes begin to brown on the bottom, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic powder, salt, and pepper and toss everything together with a spatula, continuing to cook until the vegetables are heated through, about 4 minutes more. Keep warm.

When the eggs are done, carefully remove the baking dish from the oven. Take the eggs out of the water bath and run a knife around the edges of the ramekins to release the eggs. Divide the hash between 4 plates. Using a large spoon, remove the eggs from the ramekins and place them on top of the hash.

Serves: 4 | Serving Size: 1 cup hash, 1 egg

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 267; Total Fat: 18g; Saturated Fat: 6g; Monounsaturated Fat: 8g; Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g; Cholesterol: 221mg; Sodium: 425mg; Carbohydrate: 18g; Dietary Fiber: 3g; Sugar: 5g; Protein: 10g

Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin D: 15%; Iron: 11%; Potassium: 419mg; Vitamin A: 3%; Vitamin C: 44%; Calcium: 12%

Originally published November 2019; Updated May 2026

The post Beet and Kale Potato Hash With Baked Eggs appeared first on MyFitnessPal Blog.

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