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Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

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Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#141

Post by rangibaby »

rwmj wrote: post #119
peterwwillis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it was the hot milk tea. Almost impossible to find in the West, every morning at near freezing temps I could cling to a metal piping hot can of sweet milk tea. I can't go a day in .jp without grabbing a can. What really surprised me is how in a place like Tokyo the machines seemed to only reliably function using change, whereas in Norway you pay for bus station lockers and public toilets with credit cards.

"Royal Milk Tea" is easy to make (although it's hard to clean the pan afterwards). Boil a cupful of milk with a teabag in it. Once it's boiled, take out the teabag and add sugar. In fact I think I might have one right now ...

I make mine Malaysian style:

1. Make a syrup out of brown sugar by heating it in a pan with some water. The real recipe uses palm sugar but brown sugar is close enough.

2. Put it in a cup, then evaporated milk, then strong black tea.

3. Mix to taste. The three layers don’t mix together on their own. The more you mix it the sweeter the drink gets.

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#142

Post by WillReplyfFood »

rip_lavabit wrote: post #111
rangibaby wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the reason there are so many vending machines around is preparation for a disaster; vending machines from at least the last 15 years will dispense drinks for free in the event of a disaster. According to this site Coca Cola dispensed around four million free drinks on 2011/3/11 (Great East Japan Earthquake). http://www.cocacola.co.jp/vending-machine/emergency-support

If the vending machines are giving stuff away, what will CNN fill airtime with, when they can't complain about looters?! Just kidding, I know they will just speculate about the possibility of it instead.

A japanese riot- i guess thats a thousand disapproving stares..

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#143

Post by gkanai »

eagletusk wrote: post #55
on_and_off wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who buys stuff in a vending machine in the middle of nowhere though ? I am really intrigued.

Miki Meek a radio producer who I meet on a 4 day trek through Guatemala has a This American Life about a phone booth in the middle of nowhere in Japan with no connections to power, people go there to talk to deceased loved ones. It's a beautiful piece of radio journalism. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/597/...

That's based on an NHK documentary called 'Kaze no Denwa' (Telephone of the Wind.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg69F5gewkA

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#144

Post by gkanai »

peterwwillis wrote: post #96
ISL wrote: post #2

Getting a hot chocolate out of a vending machine while the sky is dumping snow is one of life's many sublime pleasures.

For me it was the hot milk tea. Almost impossible to find in the West, every morning at near freezing temps I could cling to a metal piping hot can of sweet milk tea. I can't go a day in .jp without grabbing a can. What really surprised me is how in a place like Tokyo the machines seemed to only reliably function using change, whereas in Norway you pay for bus station lockers and public toilets with credit cards.

More and more vending machines work with Pasmo/Suica stored credit cards these days fwiw, especially those near the train stations or conbinis.

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#145

Post by gkanai »

spike021 wrote: post #12

I'd love to visit Japan, and Hokkaido specifically. Seems like such a nice place.

Hokkaido is a land of contrasts. Amazing natural spaces, great food- especially the seafood, but also the best milk in Japan, etc.

Hokkaido is also one of the poorest prefectures in Japan and has struggled since the economic bubble collapsed 3 decades ago. You see a lot of abandoned houses, and whole towns look empty as youth have moved to Sapporo or other larger cities for work and leave only the elderly to farm or fish, etc.

The Spike Japan blog stopped in 2014 but is a very interesting look into the rural collapse of Japan, and Hokkaido specifically.

https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/

Note that if you go just by that blog, you'd not want to visit. It's a great place to visit, to ski, etc. but there is the other side that SpikeJapan highlights.

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#146

Post by krapp »

barking wrote: post #133
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they kinda invaded Korea for a long time for one. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-there-a-conflict-between-Korea-... explains that one. European as in west-European? That part is relatively culturally and ethnically diverse; northern and eastern Europe are a lot less so, and tolerance towards foreigners is lower there. The English and French still really dislike one another for example, and they're much closer toge…

I don't think the English and French living in one another's countries try to keep their ethnicity secret.

I'm neither Japanese nor Korean so I can't really speak for either culture, but Japan and Korea are not England and France, and they don't necessarily view themselves the way Westerners view them.

[0]https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/05/07/national/media-...

[1]https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/gq8y87/japan-racism-zaito...

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#147

Post by krapp »

ersii wrote: post #131
barking wrote: post #94

In many ways Japan seems like a paradise. Crime free, almost, 70%+ forest coverage, technologically advanced but still respect for long-standing cultural traditions. It's unrivalled social cohesiveness comes at the cost though of a lack of diversity. For example, I read somewhere it gets less than 100 asylum seekers a year.

> For example, I read somewhere it gets less than 100 asylum seekers a year. I'll clarify that image by tell you they roughly get 9000 asylum requests a year according to the Japanese Government themselves [1]. They are however extremely reluctant in accepting any of the requests, which is what I assume you were speaking about. To some I can imagine that's quite a shock and horror, for some, it's a dream. "Japan acce…

And, it may be worth mentioning that Japan is more tolerant of immigration than asylum-seekers. Often, when Japan's refusal to accept refugees is held up as an ideal, the fact that not most foreigners in Japan aren't refugees seems to be overlooked.

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#148

Post by krapp »

davidw wrote: post #41
krapp wrote: post #36

When the story about the Bodega startup[0] came out, it occurred to me that what they were trying to do was essentially what Japan is already doing with vending machines - automate retail at scale. Unfortunately, Bodega tried to undermine, transform and rebrand the local culture in a way that many found offensive, but that aside, I wonder what particular cultural elements make vending machines seem so successful in J…

> particular cultural elements make vending machines seem so successful in Japan Not being vandalized is mentioned in the article. People in Italy were always kind of surprised to hear about US newspaper machines - the ones where you put in some coins - and you can take out as many newspapers as you want, essentially. They'd joke that people would regularly take them all in Italy, and in Naples they'd probably just h…

>People in Italy were always kind of surprised to hear about US newspaper machines - the ones where you put in some coins - and you can take out as many newspapers as you want, essentially

Honestly, I have no idea why those things even exist or how they make anyone money. It's baffling.

Re: Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

#149

Post by Chris2048 »

bsder wrote: post #72
bdowling wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More common are the vending machines that will sell you a ticket for a meal, which you then hand to the person who will make your food and give it to you. I'm not certain if that scheme is done for fraud prevention, or if it is done for convenience in order to have fewer employees.

> I'm not certain if that scheme is done for fraud prevention, or if it is done for convenience in order to have fewer employees. Well, it sure stops both the indecisive idiots and the morons who can't unweld themselves from their phone. One of my favorite moments was at a Superdawg in Chicago Midway. The standard, high-maintenance indecisive Californian was at the head of the line: "Well, I don't know. Maybe the but…

They need to start a chess clock when it's your turn.
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