Say it three times fast! I'm talking about vending machines, guys. First of all, aren't you super psyched that I'm slamming you with two blogs in two days? So exciting! This also marks my first post that is non-plot, if you will. Depending on how much I like this one--I should point out that I have virtually no idea what I'm about to right here--I hope to do a few of these fun little posts highlighting certain swell bits of life over here in Japan.
Anyway, less talk, more rock. Vending machines. At Rice, the vending machines are oases of sugar and caffeine, and for this I am grateful. I pretty much shower in soda at school, be it for the sake of powering through a solid night of homework or when I'm kicking back on the weekend, so I frequently make trips out to the ones conveniently located about six seconds from my dorm room. Pretty convenient, right? Japanese vending machines, though, are in a whole league of their own. I would say they aren't so much convenient as they are wildly pervasive; there couldn't be a greater profusion of them if they physically procreated and distributed their offspring through the city. It is nigh impossible to be out of sight of a vending machine, except in the privacy of one's own home. (OH GOD THERE'S ONE COMING THROUGH THE DOOR NOOOOOOOOOOOO.) Seriously, I cannot drive this point home hard enough: Vending machines are everywhere, indoors and outdoors; in schools, restaurants, arcades, train stations, trains, office buildings. And if you are on foot moving around town, you will never, ever escape the watchful gaze of their shiny glass faces.
The good news is, due to the fact that there seems to be a single vending machine for each Japanese citizen, these metal boxes of fun sell a broad array of items that's impressive to a guy who's used to plain old soda and candy bars. Actually, now that I think about it, have I even seen any machine selling candy or chips...? Nothing comes to mind. I'm pretty sure I actually have not. Wow. Let me tell you instead what one can purchase. Of course there are machines selling canned drinks, but to say that their American brethren do as well is to miss the point; one machine will contain several thousand varieties of juice, canned coffee, tea, and energy drinks that I had barely even heard of before coming to Japan, let alone experienced before. So using even the most mundane of the machines here is an adventure.
On the topic of totally new products, another common machine is one that sells, um, bread snacks. I actually have no idea how to properly translate this into English, there being a convenient blanket term in Japanese. Imagine, for example, a small, individually-wrapped round loaf of bread that can fit into your two hands cupped. This is a pretty common type, actually, and usually the put stuff like custard, red bean paste, chocolate, or just plain sugar inside.
Going a bit further out from what I'm familiar with, there's a machine that will let you pick a brand of instant coffee, cocoa; then the size and amount of sugar and milk, and will prepare that shit on the spot. Pretty nifty! Ramen is another popular item in vending machines, some of which will do hot water for you as well. Some restaurants will sell meal tickets out of vending machines; you pick what you want to eat, snag a ticket, and bring it up front. Lastly, cigarette machines are also kind of common, Osaka being a city with a high concentration of smokers--though not compared to, say, Cairo, where you inhale all sorts of interesting things. Actually, the cigarette and beer can/bottle machines are quite fascinating, less for their contents and more because they require that would-be customers present their identification to a scanner on the machine, which to me is super mind-blowing. I'm not sure if they're remotely connected to a database or if it's info stored on one's ID card, but either way I am super impressed.
So now you are super savvy about Japanese vending machines, and can proceed to write your senior thesis about it. You can thank me later for saving you like a million hours of work. Speaking of writing, I will hopefully be maintaining this publication more faithfully in the foreseeable future than I have been. Until next time, readers, stay bored!
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