...she simply smiles graciously, which she's well aware makes her seem even more elegant, exotic, and aloof to the ever-younger interns and personal assistants of Iwaki's co-stars -- and that scares them, which delights her, because that's not a bad effect for a senior manager to have.

Shimizu totally rocks! ^_^

She always works so hard, that it's nice to see her enjoying the perks of the job. You know, when you mentioned the things vending machines sell, I thought you were going to say "used underwear"--although I guess that would probably be in the big cities rather than the small towns! I have a friend who went on a trip to Japan several years ago, and he swore that he saw one of those. He was thoroughly grossed out, and wondered how the pervy guys who buy those things could be sure that the panties had really been worn by cute girls, as advertised, and not some old granny. ~_^

Red bean ice cream sounds much nicer.