5 ms·

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.

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.