Vending Machines

Yes, vending machines. You might be thinking, "How could vending machines really be any different than in America?" Well, I thought the same thing when I got here. It's a vending machine, you can't go much different than inserting money and receiving a drink after pushing a button. Well, that's the basic part of it.

What is so different here in Japan is that these vending machines are everywhere. That is not an exaggeration. I'm not kidding you one bit. These vending machines are placed everywhere like Subway Restaurants, McDonald's, or a Starbucks. Everywhere. Across the street from each other. Right down the block. On the same block. Yes everywhere.

See these vending machines here on the right? They are the same ones in the picture above. But did you catch the red square in the left of this photo? THAT is another drink machine. I am not kidding. You can see that they are just a few yards away from each other.

And down the hill, almost to the main road just around the corner is yet another set of vending machines just like the ones pictured here.

Also note that this is in my cho. It's not on some highly-trafficked area but on a hill in a neighborhood. I don't know how often these things get restocked but they typically always have enough drinks in them. They mostly have cold drinks in them, but occasionally they serve hot drinks. It all depends on which one you go to and what it happens to have in it. See, the white one on the right has mostly teas and coffees, while the red one has mostly sodas and fruity drinks.

Well, this has been the first of "WTF Wednesdays" (AKA "Yep, the Japanese have that" AKA "Whatever I feel like righting about on Wednesday that you might find interesting") I hope you've learned something about Japan and be sure to come back!