Japan’s vending utopia
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Vending machines are everywhere in Japan, including these handy ones at Narita Airport near Tokyo.
One of the great unexpected pleasures of visiting Japan last month for 10 days was the prevalence of vending machines at virtually every streetcorner. For travelers on a budget, this facet of Japanese society provides a welcome and viable option to many immediate needs, especially when time and money are tight.
For between 120 and 140 yen, all manner of intriguing beverages are available in the ubiquitous vending machines. Most vending involves beverage moreso than food or other snacks, though at major hotels, vending machines go the extra mile and offer, in some cases, full meals.
Packaged hot noodles are among the culinary delights offered at this vending machine at the Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel.
At the Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel, for example, the 24-hour vending machines provide a pleasant variety of hot snacks that are prepackaged and cooked before being dispensed. Be careful, the little cartons are hot, but all you have to do is carry them on the top of your drink can on the way back to your room.
Now, the Japanese vending companies appear to be very careful as to precisely what is vended. Typical US fare like chips, candy bars and gum are rare in vending machines on most Tokyo streetcorners. Citrus drinks, an infinite variety of coffees – hot or cold – energy shots of all kinds, and sometimes Kirin beers, are common fare.
Vending extends deep into the Japanese train and subway system, to the unending delight of a commuter who is running a little late, or a foreign visitor who has lost his or her way.
Japanese students collect outside the Don Quixote Hotel, close to Coca-Cola vending machines, in the Akihabara district of Tokyo.
Soft drinks? Again, rare. One exception: Coca-Cola, in attractive thin metal bottles. It is often the lone Western offering amidst a wide and very beneficial variety of mostly domestically produced alternatives.
Tobacco? Available in great quantities – but at specific locations, and actual smoking rarely occurs apart from designated smoking areas. Rarely are cigarette butts seen on the streets of Tokyo or Yokohama. And smokers in Japan, of which there are many, are very discreet about it, with few open displays of actual smoke; it’s mostly handled in a far more efficient and low-key manner.
Tobacco shop in the Akihabara district provides not only every conceivable type of product (note vending machines at right), but a place for students and young professionals to smoke without littering.
Fast-food outlets almost always have an upstairs room where smoking is permitted, and those rooms are always packed with high school and college students, mostly black-clad and busily texting on cell phones and discussing the latest news. The same for 24-hour Internet cafes, which offer smoking and non-smoking sections.
In any event, all anyone has to do have to do is find the nearest vending machine. The necessities of life are but a few coins away.
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2 Responses to “Japan’s vending utopia”
By gb on Jun 8, 2008 | Reply
was at Kokura a few months ago and saw lines of vending machines just outside my buddies condo. cool i thought, as I saw a black boss! oh damn! black boss in a vending machine… yea, as I was told… it’s a brand of coffee made by suntory since 1992. sometimes reading and studying up on a culture is not enough, you need to live there to feel the culture – to get to know what most locals take for granted.
By aw on Jan 24, 2009 | Reply
I am just curious. How do a disabled person buy the drink from the vending machine that has the physically disabled mark?