Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Vending Machines Gone Wild!!!

okay, so i'm sure everyone knows about the vending machine fetish in Japan. Here are some interesting, neat and some might say strange vending machines found all over Japan. Follow this link for a video of my favorite Vending Machine, it's an underground parking tower for bikes. In Tokyo you can park your bicycle underground, neatly, safely and automatically. You swipe your card, doors open, and you place your front wheel on a docking device that whisks your bike away into an underground storage facility that can hold up to 144 bicycles.When you want to retrieve your bike, you swipe your card again and in ten seconds or less, your bicycle magically reappears.

Pornography, Beer, and Eggs


Japan is vending machine heaven. You can get pretty much anything you like from vending machines. Sometimes a row of vending machines will replace an entire store! There are vending machines that sell pornography, bread in a can, and even fresh eggs. There are reports of fetish items still for sale in Japanese vending machines, if you know where to look.

Cigarette for Adults Only


Cigarette machines are only seen in antique stores in America these days, but they are still used in japan, where the legal age to buy tobacco is twenty. New technology is being developed to keep underage smokers from using the machines. New machines require a “taspo” (tobacco passport) card, an ID issued by the Tobacco Institute of Japan. Manufacturer Fujitaka has another machine in development that uses face-recognition software to “see” how old the buyer is. The face recognition is around 90% accurate in judging a person’s age. It has yet to be approved for public use.

Toilet Paper

No, you don’t get to go for free everywhere. Some places still have coin-operated toilets. In Japan, you can use the facilities, but you’ll have to pay for the paper, at least in some public areas. But you might get lucky: Japanese businesses often hand out free samples as part of their advertising budget, since the individual packets have advertising printed on them.

Live Lobster Claw Game


This machine in Osaka is not exactly a vending machine -it’s a claw game! You pay your money and test your skills at catching a live lobster, which is also the prize. Have fun carrying it home!

Coke


Vending machines are so popular in Japan that they’ve been made into a popular toy, which in turn was the inspiration for these life size Coke Bots!

2 comments:

  1. I would love to try their age recognition scanner just for fun to see if it could guess my age acurately! xD

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  2. Check out the newest, most amazingest vending machines at http://www.vending-machine-scene.com

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