We need to get on the hot coffee vending machines in the United States. Then again, maybe not, I’ve been dropping money like crazy at drink machines here. It’s easy to do, they are EVERYWHERE. I easily pass at least a half dozen drink machines on my way to campus. Only drink machines, though. Eating and walking at the same time is considered rude here… I haven’t seen a single snack machine since I’ve been here. I’ve seen beer, cigarettes, ‘family planning’ aids, but no snacks. Just as well, the drink machines are sucking up enough of my cash. I take that back, since I started this post I did find a machine that vends cuppa-noodles, and there are ice cream machines as well.
As I mentioned, many of the drink machines here provide both 暖かい(warm) and 冷たい(cold) beverages. Most of the warm beverages are coffee or coffee drinks, and they aren’t just lukewarm, either. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. Aside from having too much cream and sugar (I have yet to pick a black coffee) for my taste, I’d rate it better than Starbucks, but not as good as Dunkin’ Donuts. Below is a picture of the amazingly complicated and awesome coffee vending machine on campus that actually pours you a cup mixed to your taste. It’s a lot like the ones you see in the states, except for the fact that it works.
Amazingly, I'm pretty much caught up on my massive photo backlog. I'll probably have some pics for you soon of my current origami project.
They have many more different types of vending machines. Ones that peddle out rice (you can find them in the outskirts of oyama), books (the only time I found that was at Omiya station), and snacks. Snack machines exist in places where someone is going to be sitting (or standing) quite a long time and not going out to the cobini or anything (aka pachinko parlors and game centers) Roble's game center doesn't have it, but Harvest Walk's does. Don't worry about your sanity, I too was talking pictures of the many different machines. xD Just wish I would have done that at with the arcade machines, as I got to the point where I was really good with UFO catchers and Taiko no Tatsujin. If you ever play at Roble's game center in the basement (next to the 100 yen store), you'll notice I have several high scores on several songs.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the "eating + walking = no" thing, but I do drinking and walking, which is okay apparently. Bringing drinks into stores is okay, but drinking them is bad. And, you have to remember, as being non-Japanese, you do have a chance of not having to fit in with the norm.
I don't know how you like your coffee. Having canned coffee was a godsend over there. My job teaching English occasionally took place at a starbucks, but the sizes are a tad bit small than in the states...and they can get expensive fast. I teneded to like the types of coffee that were considered really sweet by my Japanese friends. I loved coffee and caffeine so much that I invented a new phrase in Japanese....basically translated as not that I am tired.....but that "I lack caffeine". I used to say that all the time in English, so I didn't think it sounded weird in Japanese. And it did. Anyway, according to many of my friends, Max Coffee is the sweetest and I have to admit that it hits the sugar pretty well, but I consider it the best (when I hate anything bitter, like most black coffees "as is"). I loved it so much that I found the only vending machine in all of oyama that sold it after Seven Eleven stopped selling it. After that Kowai Coffee (which you can rarely find "as is", you can find it in milk/coffee vending machines at onsen), which is using in a milk-coffee form, you can find that at most cobinis. It's good. After that, Boss's rainbow blend (which is in most Boss coffee vending machines) is my pick for mild coffees. I don't know if they have them anymore, but if you're feeling adventurous, they do make "extra bitter" black coffee. It will suck off your face.
-Samuraikurisu