Akihabara is a district in Tokyo known for its electronic stores, manga (Japanese comics and novels), anime and video games. I was in need of a charger for an old computer and unbelievably found a used one for a great price at one of the hundreds of electronic stores here. We also wanted to check out “creepy vending machine alley”. Vending machine alley was very strange. It had the most eclectic items for sale in vending machines. The strangest items were wrapped boxes in white paper covered in kanji. The price ranged from 500 yen to a little over 1,000 for these boxes. It will always be a mystery what was in the random boxes since Elle tried to buy one in all of the machines that sold them but not one time did it work with her coin. I am sure it would have been a disappointment. It could have very well been a can of soup. Or maybe a computer charger…
So very interesting! I read that vending machines make up a huge section of the fabric of Japan whether you are in a big city or out in the countryside. There are 5 million vending machines to be found across the country. That’s one vending machine for every 23 people and these babies rack in more than $60 billion annually! THANKS for sharing your experience.
Crazy industry!
Vending machine ally sounds so interesting. Crazy how many different things you can get in those machines in Japan!
Hot sweet potato even!
I love Japan’s vending machines!