Shibuya Banana Vending Machine

Just look at this banana vending machine! Fruit vending machines have been around for a long time in Japan, following in the illustrious footsteps of many other type of vending machines, and here is the famous banana vending machine of Shibuya. Japan truly is a nation of vending machines, although we seem to be way behind peak vending machine, as every year we see less and less of them around. At the island of Oshima for example, where quite a large part of the local villages were buried in ash and lava after a volcanic eruption you can still see the tops of old vending machines sticking out of fields of nothing here and there. So although we still get nice new vending machines every now and then it is nothing like the eighties. People who like fruit vending machines might also be interested in the cut flower machine in Shinjuku station or the apple vending machine in Suidobashi station here in Tokyo! The banana vending machine is easy to find, it is just at a corner of the lowest spot on the huge Tokyu Hands department store in Shibuya! Enjoy!

Touch Screen Vending Machine

As noted in a few online foreign media there’s a new contender in town when it comes to the title King of the Vending Machines! Huge, grey and black, touch screen paneled machines have been cropping up here and there in and around Tokyo and the Kanto area, maybe even farther. They first appeared right after the March 11 earthquake and naturally they were all installed turned off, in order to save energy. Recently more and more of them are being turned on and while I still haven’t tried one myself, here’s two examples caught in the wild, the first one being at Tokyo’s Hachioji Station and the other one being in Kanagawa prefecture’s Odawara station. It’s is, as you can see, not advisable to shoot an LCD display with a polarizing filter on your camera and I still haven’t figured out a good way to shoot these screens with any kind of camera. I guess I will have to learn, unless some kind photographer reading this takes pity on me and gives me a helping hand with some advice (other than just stopping down like crazy). Next time you’re in Japan, give these machines a spin!

Coca Cola Vending Machine

In the fields near Shinchi Station, Soma City, I passed this vending machine all alone in a flooded rice field. Later, I learned that this very same spot used to the location of a famous historical village, ancient farm houses wiped out.

Book Vending Machine

You know how I love the Japanese vending machines? Well, here’s another one I don’t think I have mentioned properly on the blog before, it’s a soft back book vending machine! Found on the Ebisu station train platform (you can see the train going to Shinkiba station on the left of the picture). It has a variety of popular and best selling pocket books lined up, something suitable for everyone it seems, at prices around 550 yen. I wonder what kind of vending machine I should feature next?