Japanese Vending Machines

The Japanese vending machine is really a thing of wonder that has taken convenience to a whole new level.

On the streets of Japan, you can basically buy to your heart’s content from vending machines.

Feel like a coffee? Yep, no problem — hot or cold? Want a beer? Also no problem.

There are infinite types of food, drinks, cigarettes and alcohol all to be found in the curbside vending machine in Japan.

While some of the liquor machines close down at 11pm, the rest are there for your 24/7 convenience. You can even get other life essentials like shavers, sunscreen, music CD’s, and batteries from the vending machine.

If you are of the more deviant variety there are certain places where it is rumoured that you can buy used women’s panties from a vending machine. I would imagine that most of these type of purchases would be found around the sleazier parts of Tokyo like Kabukicho, a sort of red light district on the periphery of the Shinjuku area of Tokyo.

What is most interesting to me about this sort of mechanized dispensary culture is that in no way (that I can see as a westerner at least) has it eroded their other forms of customer service. Japan is a place centred around consumerism, but this is grounded in a deep rooted sense of place and person within its society.

A visit to any store in Japan, particularly a major chain store, will make it obvious that their customer service etiquette far exceeds ours in North America — even with their abundance of vending machines.