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A history of coffee vending that ignores Japan? I can buy seven kinds of hot or cold coffee on nearly every corner from Shibuya to the deepest inaka. People ou
by nihonde 9y ago
A history of coffee vending that ignores Japan?
I can buy seven kinds of hot or cold coffee on nearly every corner from Shibuya to the deepest inaka. People outside Japan often focus on the wacky vending machines, but the real story is the incredible availability and quality of the standard-issue 自販機. The engineering story of how vending machine manufacturers repurposed exhaust for heat while keeping cold drinks cool alone is worth the price of admission.
I'll keep my thoughts about American vending machines (and coffee vending in particular) to myself.
- Robelius 9y agoNow you have me interested. Do you have any links to follow up on?
- nihonde 9y agoI’m afraid I don’t. I saw a documentary on NHK about it, but they’re unfortunately bad about distributing their content outside Japan.
- stevefolta 9y agoThis one?: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev93FNJy7Ws> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev93FNJy7Ws>. Here in SoCal, we can get NHK World over-the-air.
- nihonde 9y agoGood find! In my recollection, it was in Japanese, but it’s probably the same content.