With over 5 million vending machines in Japan, the hightest density anywhere in the World, and with something like 1 machine for every 22 inhabitants, you’ll bump in to these brightly lit things a lot when visiting Japan! In Kyoto from outside of our Ryokan we could see three of them and one evening on our walk back, we counted over 20 machines.

Mostly they sell drinks, both hot and cold, in little tins, usually a variety of coffees, bottled water and energy drinks.

Urban myths abound about the weird and wonderful things that you can find in Japanese vending machines, but we found nothing untoward in any of them.

So, make sure you have a pocket full of change as they are well worth exploring.

Eenie, meenie, minie mo…