10 ms·

Free public bathrooms everywhere was nice, but there was still a dearth of free public water fountains -- which, admittedly, most cities don't have enough of.

Free public bathrooms everywhere was nice, but there was still a dearth of free public water fountains -- which, admittedly, most cities don't have enough of. Rome is kind of the gold standard in this regard. I loved how some of the vending machines and convenience stores sold hot canned drinks. I've never seen that anywhere in the US. Now the hot canned coffee wasn't actually good (I had to try it), but it was interesting to have that as an option. There were also plenty of vending machines that would make coffee for you (which I didn't use because I opted for free coffee in the hotel in the morning and cold green tea thereafter, which I must say was delicious).

RyJones 7y ago
I had the same experience. I had to try the hot canned coffee; I didn't try it again. Also: canned mixed drinks! Japan is truly living in the future.
- bobthepanda 7y ago
  IMO the vending machines aren't the future; they're the manifestation of a different future. When cities start industrializing, one of the first things that consistently pops up are food vendors on the street taking up public right-of-way. Food preparation is a skill that doesn't need education, people working the long shifts of industrializing societies need to eat quickly, and new city-dwellers miss their regional foods, so poor provincial migrants quickly start hawking whatever they can sell on the street. As cities grow up, they start viewing street food vendors as unhygenic nuisances. Some cities license them (New York's street carts), others try and corral them into more formal, permanent setups (Singapore's hawker food centers), and some just attempt to ban them altogether (tried in Bangkok.) Vending machines are a unique response to the Japanese need for quick food; they're small enough to fit on tiny Japanese streets, they have no labor requirements in a country suffering from unskilled labor shortages, and there's no need to waste time doing the Japanese customer-service pleasantries with an inanimate object. The American future would be the food truck. Food trucks have changed the dining scene in many areas, because a food truck and a permit is significantly cheaper than commercial leasing. And it works in the American context because American cities are full of wide streets with loads of parking, and there's lots of cheap labor to staff trucks with. But it would never fly with Japan, the same way Japanese vending machines would probably get vandalized in their first week on an American sidewalk.
  - magduf 7y ago
    >But it would never fly with Japan, the same way Japanese vending machines would probably get vandalized in their first week on an American sidewalk. Exactly: this is the same reason the wonderfully-appointed and utterly spotless Japanese public bathrooms are completely impossible in America. They'd be filled with graffiti, the washlet and other devices abused and broken, and dirty toilet paper left on the floor and urine sprayed all over within hours.
- twic 7y ago
  > Also: canned mixed drinks! Japan is truly living in the future. We've had those in the UK for years. No respectable lady would dream of boarding an intercity train without a M&S gin and tonic in a tin! https://fortheloveofgin.co.uk/5-of-the-best-gins-in-tins/ https://fortheloveofgin.co.uk/5-of-the-best-gins-in-tins/ https://thetab.com/2016/05/27/tested-best-supermarket-gin-tonic-tins-91576 https://thetab.com/2016/05/27/tested-best-supermarket-gin-to...
- rsynnott 7y ago
  > canned mixed drinks! Japan is truly living in the future. That's not just a Japanese thing. There was a minor and extremely silly political controversy a while back where someone took a photo of the British shadow Home Secretary drinking a canned mojito on a train.
asutekku 7y ago
To be fair a lot of people use the hot coffee to just as a hand warmer, coffee is just a nice extra on top of that.
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Public water fountains aren't really an Asian thing. I am hard pressed to think of an Asian country where I remember using one.
- komali2 7y ago
  Depends on the country but it's generally a "thing" in Asian culture to prefer warm water or tea for drinking. Combine that with a mistrust of the tap water and you get nobody wanting water fountains. Taiwan has them in train stations but nobody would trust them if they didn't have a chart on the wall with a detailed report of the weekly water quality inspection.
- baby 7y ago
  tbf a bunch of asian countries do not have drinkable tap water or/and drink hot water.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    There is that, but Japan definitely has potable water (as does Korea, Singapore, maybe Hong Kong). Also SE Asian countries don't bother with hot water as much as northeastern ones, but they generally don't have potable water regardless. The airport in Beijing has a hot water dispenser but I've never seen anyone use it.
    - Symbiote 7y ago
      Hong Kong had plenty of drinking fountains in parks etc, usually with a sign showing it had been recently inspected for hygiene.
      - Kliment 7y ago
        The parks in Shenzhen have water fountains too, including low-level taps for pet bowls (so it doesn't splash on them and scare them)
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
Freak_NL 7y ago
> Now the hot canned coffee wasn't actually good (I had to try it) You just have to find the one type of can that doesn't have added sugar or milk. Once you know those nothing beats pulling a warm can of black coffee from the machine. Really, the first company to introduce these on stations here in the Netherlands (or anywhere these don't exist) will turn a handsome profit if they stick to the Japanese formula for 自動販売機: small cans, low prices, decent selection, warm coffee, and located on train platforms. The novelty factor of the warm cans will take care of initial promotion. But leave out that one warm corn drink.
- masklinn 7y ago
  > Once you know those nothing beats pulling a warm can of black coffee from the machine. I'd say pulling a bottle of warm lemon / lime tea was even better, especially with travel-sore-throat. > low prices Aside from providing warm drinks, that's the big ticket right there: IME, european vending machines are basically predatory, they're way overpriced for what they provide and rely on necessity or impulse rather than just doing good business. Japanese vending machines are omnipresent, well-stocked, with good selection of useful stuff, but more importantly you don't feel like you're throwing money down the drain when you're buying from one. The prices are obviously higher than in a 'mart, but they're not "$5 for a bottle of coke" overpriced.
  - Kurtz79 7y ago
    "Aside from providing warm drinks, that's the big ticket right there: IME, european vending machines are basically predatory, they're way overpriced for what they provide and rely on necessity or impulse rather than just doing good business." Absolutely agree: I don't remember the last time I bought something from a public vending machine (or even seeing someone else doing so) here in Spain. Prices are anywhere between 2/3 times the price you would buy at a supermarket, an Airport shop kind of markup: whatever you get tastes bad as you feel swindled. When I was in Japan it was rare if I didn't get something from a machine any given day.
    - Freak_NL 7y ago
rangibaby 7y ago
It depends on the municipality. Even tiny parks in Nagoya will have a water fountain and faucet

RyJones 7y ago

I had the same experience. I had to try the hot canned coffee; I didn't try it again. Also: canned mixed drinks! Japan is truly living in the future.

bobthepanda 7y ago
IMO the vending machines aren't the future; they're the manifestation of a different future. When cities start industrializing, one of the first things that consistently pops up are food vendors on the street taking up public right-of-way. Food preparation is a skill that doesn't need education, people working the long shifts of industrializing societies need to eat quickly, and new city-dwellers miss their regional foods, so poor provincial migrants quickly start hawking whatever they can sell on the street. As cities grow up, they start viewing street food vendors as unhygenic nuisances. Some cities license them (New York's street carts), others try and corral them into more formal, permanent setups (Singapore's hawker food centers), and some just attempt to ban them altogether (tried in Bangkok.) Vending machines are a unique response to the Japanese need for quick food; they're small enough to fit on tiny Japanese streets, they have no labor requirements in a country suffering from unskilled labor shortages, and there's no need to waste time doing the Japanese customer-service pleasantries with an inanimate object. The American future would be the food truck. Food trucks have changed the dining scene in many areas, because a food truck and a permit is significantly cheaper than commercial leasing. And it works in the American context because American cities are full of wide streets with loads of parking, and there's lots of cheap labor to staff trucks with. But it would never fly with Japan, the same way Japanese vending machines would probably get vandalized in their first week on an American sidewalk.
- magduf 7y ago
  >But it would never fly with Japan, the same way Japanese vending machines would probably get vandalized in their first week on an American sidewalk. Exactly: this is the same reason the wonderfully-appointed and utterly spotless Japanese public bathrooms are completely impossible in America. They'd be filled with graffiti, the washlet and other devices abused and broken, and dirty toilet paper left on the floor and urine sprayed all over within hours.
twic 7y ago
> Also: canned mixed drinks! Japan is truly living in the future. We've had those in the UK for years. No respectable lady would dream of boarding an intercity train without a M&S gin and tonic in a tin! https://fortheloveofgin.co.uk/5-of-the-best-gins-in-tins/ https://fortheloveofgin.co.uk/5-of-the-best-gins-in-tins/ https://thetab.com/2016/05/27/tested-best-supermarket-gin-tonic-tins-91576 https://thetab.com/2016/05/27/tested-best-supermarket-gin-to...
rsynnott 7y ago
> canned mixed drinks! Japan is truly living in the future. That's not just a Japanese thing. There was a minor and extremely silly political controversy a while back where someone took a photo of the British shadow Home Secretary drinking a canned mojito on a train.

asutekku 7y ago

To be fair a lot of people use the hot coffee to just as a hand warmer, coffee is just a nice extra on top of that.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

Public water fountains aren't really an Asian thing. I am hard pressed to think of an Asian country where I remember using one.

komali2 7y ago
Depends on the country but it's generally a "thing" in Asian culture to prefer warm water or tea for drinking. Combine that with a mistrust of the tap water and you get nobody wanting water fountains. Taiwan has them in train stations but nobody would trust them if they didn't have a chart on the wall with a detailed report of the weekly water quality inspection.
baby 7y ago
tbf a bunch of asian countries do not have drinkable tap water or/and drink hot water.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  There is that, but Japan definitely has potable water (as does Korea, Singapore, maybe Hong Kong). Also SE Asian countries don't bother with hot water as much as northeastern ones, but they generally don't have potable water regardless. The airport in Beijing has a hot water dispenser but I've never seen anyone use it.
  - Symbiote 7y ago
    Hong Kong had plenty of drinking fountains in parks etc, usually with a sign showing it had been recently inspected for hygiene.
    - Kliment 7y ago
      The parks in Shenzhen have water fountains too, including low-level taps for pet bowls (so it doesn't splash on them and scare them)
- CydeWeys 7y ago

Freak_NL 7y ago

> Now the hot canned coffee wasn't actually good (I had to try it) You just have to find the one type of can that doesn't have added sugar or milk. Once you know those nothing beats pulling a warm can of black coffee from the machine. Really, the first company to introduce these on stations here in the Netherlands (or anywhere these don't exist) will turn a handsome profit if they stick to the Japanese formula for 自動販売機: small cans, low prices, decent selection, warm coffee, and located on train platforms. The novelty factor of the warm cans will take care of initial promotion. But leave out that one warm corn drink.

masklinn 7y ago
> Once you know those nothing beats pulling a warm can of black coffee from the machine. I'd say pulling a bottle of warm lemon / lime tea was even better, especially with travel-sore-throat. > low prices Aside from providing warm drinks, that's the big ticket right there: IME, european vending machines are basically predatory, they're way overpriced for what they provide and rely on necessity or impulse rather than just doing good business. Japanese vending machines are omnipresent, well-stocked, with good selection of useful stuff, but more importantly you don't feel like you're throwing money down the drain when you're buying from one. The prices are obviously higher than in a 'mart, but they're not "$5 for a bottle of coke" overpriced.
- Kurtz79 7y ago
  "Aside from providing warm drinks, that's the big ticket right there: IME, european vending machines are basically predatory, they're way overpriced for what they provide and rely on necessity or impulse rather than just doing good business." Absolutely agree: I don't remember the last time I bought something from a public vending machine (or even seeing someone else doing so) here in Spain. Prices are anywhere between 2/3 times the price you would buy at a supermarket, an Airport shop kind of markup: whatever you get tastes bad as you feel swindled. When I was in Japan it was rare if I didn't get something from a machine any given day.
  - Freak_NL 7y ago

rangibaby 7y ago

It depends on the municipality. Even tiny parks in Nagoya will have a water fountain and faucet