Where were the "food" vending machines?

[arancarlisle]

In Japan I saw TONS of beverage and ice cream vending machines and that was cool.

However, before going there, all I heard about was that Japan had vending machines for EVERYTHING. With the exception of one vending machine in one hotel that created HOT food, I didn't see any food vending machines at all.

Here in the US, you can get gum, candy, nuts and chips out of vending machines, but I didn't see anything like that in Japan despite being led to believe that they were all over the place.

Did I just miss them, or does Japan no longer have some of the 'extreme' food-vending machines that it might have once had?

I did see one fully automated cafeteria, where a computer scanner took a picture of your cafeteria tray in order to determine how much money you needed to spend, but that wasn't quite a "vending machine".

[The Frankensteiner]

This might be just a crazy rumour I heard, but I saw something that said you could get ladies undergarments in vending machines.

That seems pretty strange though, that you couldn't find food machines while in the vending machine capitol of the world.

[arancarlisle]

After going to Japan, I came to the conclusion that the U.S. is the true vending machine capital of the world.

[digitaljo]

This might be just a crazy rumour I heard, but I saw something that said you could get ladies undergarments in vending machines.

Here is my friend's blog ItsACinch's Xanga. Some vending machines in Akihabara were labled something about a chance to win a PSP or something.

[patchmonkey]

Vending machines that have food are generally not found because it's not considered good form to eat and walk. Also, there are so many conbini in the cities that it may not be necessary.

You can find ice cream vending machines in train stations usually, though (it's delicious in the middle of winter).

There are vending machines for almost everything else, though.

[Bueller_007]

This might be just a crazy rumour I heard, but I saw something that said you could get ladies undergarments in vending machines.

That seems pretty strange though, that you couldn't find food machines while in the vending machine capitol of the world.

As previously said, food shouldn't be eaten while walking (although food on sticks and ice cream seem to be acceptable).

There is one used schoolgirl panty vending machine in Tokyo. Each pair has a picture of the girl who the panties supposedly belonged to. The government is (was?) trying to shut the machine down, but it turns out that there is no law against it. In the end, they resorted to laws about selling "antiques" to try to shut it down. I don't think this was successful, as one of my friends said the vending machine still there last year. I have my doubts that they are actually used. Most likely, the guy buys panties from the ¥100 store, sprays some cheap perfume on them, and sells them after a HUGE mark-up.

But there are some other interesting vending machines. I've heard there is (was?) a vending machine that sells magic mushrooms in Osaka's Amerika-mura. And in Tennoji (also Osaka), there is supposedly a vending machine (actually a UFO Catcher) where you can try to catch live lobsters for like 300 yen per try. Near my old apartment in Suita city, Osaka, there was a vending machine that dispensed 1L bottles of low-grade whiskey for like 800 yen or something.

[patchmonkey]

yes, food on sticks, ice cream, etc., may be eaten while walking. But eating onigiri or sushi is probably not as polite...

The lobster UFO catcher was very difficult, I remember. It was easier just to buy a lobster and stare at it (because I don't like to eat them).