[goochtek]

A little random but I thought some of you might want to know what the stores were that were next to the vending machines in the photos.

Pictures:

1. Alcohol and food store

2. No store

3. No store

4. Alcohol store

5. Eel restaurant

6. No store

7. Egg vending store (direct from farmer)

8. Rice polishing vending machine (turns brown rice in to white)

9. No store

10. Sightseeing ferry office/shop

11. Apple store (actually name of company but they import brand name products)

12. No store

That's obviously only a small sample but as someone who lives in Japan I can tell you that usually where there are alcohol stores, there are vending machines. Of course there are other places they are too, but in my experience, it's rare to find one without vending machines.

[rangibaby]

I've seen photos of people gathered around beer vending machines having a jolly time from before 24/7 convenience stores took over that particular market segment.