[jonathanyc]

To my surprise, they sold these things in pretty much every big store I went to in Japan. A record store sold them, albeit in the adult records section. But an otherwise normal department store also sold them behind a curtain.

I bought one in the record store “as a joke,” ha ha. I tried to use the self checkout machine but hit an error; obviously it was in Japanese. The machine made an audible ding. A friendly clerk heard the ding and came over to help. Maybe it was business as usual for her, but I was too mortified to even look at her face to see her expression.

Also in the end I couldn’t really get into it (as it were) and threw it away. The only thing satisfied that day was my curiosity.

[1659447091]

Not to worry, the friendly clerk probably found the joke funny!

On another note, I really love the vending machine culture there. Never saw ones like this, but did end up scouring every machine I ran across for a particular white grape drink with odd chunks of something in it that I came across outside a small shop/market surrounded by rice fields. Found other grape drinks but not that one in the city.

[jonathanyc]

I loved the vending machines for drinks!! I had at least one novel drink every day and enjoyed almost all of them. If you remember the name of the white grape drink you mention I’d love to look for it, it sounds great.

[1659447091]

I wish I knew the name or had saved the can or at least a picture. I actually tried to explain to someone at a store hoping they knew what I was talking about; like in below; the result was me appreciating their culture of respect (or at least not openly saying all their thoughts) even more, because I'm sure they thought I was crazy.

It was all Japanese, I only knew it was white grape because of the picture of a green grape cluster. The rest of the can was all manner of Japanese characters of random sizes and boldness with I think a green star-burst or circle and a horrible picture indicating the fruity chunky things (or thats what I tell myself it was).