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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

#151

Post by bemmu »

rangibaby wrote: post #103
squimmy wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The photo 5th from the bottom actually appears to be of a coin-operated rice mill!

Rice vending machines are actually pretty common in the countryside where there may not be staffed rice shops or supermarkets

Our use-case is that my wife will receive gifts of unpolished rice from relatives, which we then need to haul to the vending machine to polish.

It's actually quite enjoyable, as you get to run your fingers through warm rice pouring out from the machine.

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

#152

Post by bschwindHN »

sly010 wrote: post #67
bschwindHN wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah sorry, I mean how the machine verifies the validity of the card.

It's asymmetric key cryptography. Every vending machine can verify signatures using a CA certificate. Charging stations and a vending machines also have a signing key signed by that central certificate. Whatever is written on the card is signed by whoever wrote it. Charging a card goes like this: - Read everything from the card (data + signature) - Verify signature + expiration dates, etc - Extract amount on card - D…

The "local signing key" is the interesting part to me. I guess only vending machines in certain areas can get IC card support. I wonder how often those local keys need to be rotated.

That's a great answer though, thanks for writing it up!

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

#153

Post by oculusthrift »

odiroot wrote: post #118
rangibaby wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Crime free It's because there are police everywhere, which keeps petty crime under control. There is a bounty for turning in lost money (and if it is not claimed after a certain period the person who turned it in can keep the whole amount). Police are also mostly respected here because they (mostly) are helpful and don't harass citizens. Someone being beaten or shot by police like overseas just doesn't happen here.…

This may be a bit ignorant but why do they care so much about someone being Korean / of Korean ancestry? Both are East Asian. It's really hard to understand for my European mind.

the main thing is the country is something like 97 percent japanese and there is extreme pressure to conform. anything different is judged.

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

#154

Post by Danieru »

beefsack wrote: post #65
saryant wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the Fukushima earthquake I was walking from Ebisu to Roppongi (all the subways were shuttered). A cold evening and I wasn't properly dressed. Then I turned the corner and saw a machine with Tommy Lee Jones' staring down selling hot cans of Boss Coffee. Made the night a little easier.

I used to love the coffee vending machines until I accidentally got one with jelly chunks in it and was afraid to ever try again. We had a Cup Noodle vending machine on our university campus which sold the elusive curry flavour, possibly the food I'm most nostalgic about from my time living over there.

Just a small guess, but was that a Dydo stocked vending machine?

Dydo stuff tends to be what the absolute cheapest vending machines offer. About five times I have bought a Dydo coffee, and five times I have decided to never do so again. Any of the Coca-Cola or Kirin (Pepsi does not exist beyond the brand here) stocked vending machines should be good and safe.

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

#155

Post by davidw »

krapp wrote: post #148
davidw wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I guess people are honest enough that they buy the newspapers.

Compare and contrast: in Italy, until recently, you could only buy newspapers from newsstands, who had some kind of monopoly on their sales. You couldn't get them from a grocery store, and certainly not from a vending machine.

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

#156

Post by oculusthrift »

iand675 wrote: post #45

The odd thing to me about Japan's vending machine situation is that it's largely drinks. Not much in the way of the snack vending machines that one frequently encounters in the U.S. I suppose it's probably due to the Japanese aversion to preservatives / prevalence of convenience stores, but one would think they'd have come up with some tricks like the ones they've perfected with cup noodles.

some train stations have banana vending machines

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

#157

Post by oculusthrift »

batiudrami wrote: post #79
wakeless wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beer isn't in 'publicly' accessible vending machines any more as far as I can tell. It is however often available in the foyer of a place that normally sells beer (that might be currently shut.) Ski resorts are my main source of vending-machine beer. Nothing better than cracking a can of Sapporo Classic in your first gondola ride of the day.

It depends where you are in Japan. I haven't seen them around Tokyo (not to say they don't exist though) but other cities have them.

only place i saw them in my entire trip to japan was in a hotel. And it was a little underwhelming because there was cheaper and a higher selection of alcohol at the Lawson 5 feet away from the hotel

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

#158

Post by masklinn »

on_and_off wrote: post #50
komali2 wrote: post #9

Those Japanese vending machines blow my mind. I got lost on takao mountain once and was utterly hopeless of ever finding civilization again. I found abandoned and rotting tractors the forest had taken back, weird half completed concrete structures, the trail was gone, I was well and truly lost. Then, I turn a corner, and find a goddamned vending machine. Powered. With stock. I followed its power cord back for a solid…

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

People hiking/moving around, but they're also part of the country's disaster-preparedness system, they'll dispense product for free in case of disaster.

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

#159

Post by masklinn »

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.

> For me it was the hot milk tea.

Mine was the hot lemon tea.

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

#160

Post by masklinn »

bjornsteffanson wrote: post #115
squimmy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>technologically advanced You might revise your opinion about that somewhere around the hundredth time somebody tells you that you have to communicate with them by fax.

I would definitely describe "putting two coins into a vending machine to receive a ticket to hand to someone in exchange for a tasty bowl of ramen" as more technically advanced than "table for two?...[waiting, waiting]...one ramen, please...[waiting, waiting]..."everything ok here?" "yes go away" [waiting waiting] ... "here's the bill"...[waiting waiting]..."have a nice night" Advanced tech doesn't have to be high te…

The country is a very very strange mix of advanced and retardedly old tech.

You can get hot drinks from bending machines in the middle of nowhere and just have to input a phone number in the GPS to be guided to a ryokan deep in the mountains of Akita, but kerosene heaters are almost universal (central heating is not a thing outside of large/business hotels) and many businesses require fax or physical stamps.

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