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Soft drinks and water
Cold soft drinks and cold waterIn Japan they are very fond of vending machines
One thing we quickly realised when we came to Japan is that Japanese people seem to be very fond of vending machines. There were vending machines standing almost everywhere. The by far most common machines offered soft drinks, bottled water and
canned coffee. From the machines it was actually possible to get the coffee cans either hot or cold. The cans were kept hot in the machine. It took us by surprise the first time we bought coffee from a machine and realised that one of the cans was hot.
It felt like the drinks vending machines were everywhere. On the side of the streets in the cities, in metro stations and in shopping centres. Once we found a vending machine standing in a park more than a hundred meters from the nearest house and once we found a vending machine standing next to a private home in a residential neighborhood.
Vending machines where you can buy drinks can be found in other developed countries too. It's just that they are so much more common in Japan than in other countries we have visited.
Soft drinks and coffee cans
Coffee in cans can be found everywhere. The coffee comes both hot and cold In Japan they also have other vending machines offering similar goods as in other countries such as cigarettes or hot coffee in a cup or juice.
But we also saw several machines that offered goods that we have never seen in vending machines before, and never thought we would see either for that matter. Bisquits was one that felt a bit unusual. To be able to buy bisquits from a vending machine is not uncommon but vending machines that only offers bisquits was a first for us. In one vending it was possible to buy beer. There was a sign next to the machine that pointed out that you had to be at least18 years old to make a purchase. Apparently that works in Japan. Where we live it would not.
There were vending machines where you could buy hot food. One machine offered soup and from another machine it was possible to buy noodle soup. In the hostel there was a machine from which we could buy hot dumplings or rice and meat. The food in that machine was kept in a freezer. When you made a purchase the food
Soft drinks and coffee cans
Vending machines where you can buy drinks can be found in other developed countries too. It's just that they are so much more common in Japan than in other countries we have visited. was transferred to a microwave oven where it was heated until it was ready to eat.
There were vending machines offering ice cream, in one place it was possible to buy toys from a machine, in a temple in Kyoto it was possible to buy cameras from a vending machine, umbrellas were on sale in one vending machine and in one we could buy umbrella covers if we had needed one. We think the umbrella covers were supposed to ensure that wet umbrellas wouldn't drip water.
One interesting kind of vending machine could be found in lunch restaurants. Instead of ordering your food from the staff you paid for the food in a machine and received a coupon from the machine indicating what you bought. You then brought the coupon to the cooking crew who prepared the food for you.
Maybe when we come back to Japan in the future we might follow this blog entry up and add aeven more vending machines. But this is all we managed to find on this trip. We hope you enjoyed it.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Dinner on the press of a button
"One interesting kind of vending machine could be found in lunch restaurants. Instead of ordering your food from the staff you paid for the food in a machine and received a coupon from the machine indicating what you bought. You then brought the coupon to the cooking crew who prepared the food for you." I once went into a nice restaurant in Japan for dinner and had the same experience. Gotta say while the food was fine...the metallic service did not assist the ambience of the occasion!