There are many surprising and fascinating things about Japan from sumo wrestlers to deadly blow fish to a complete lack of public trash cans. But one things I had the most fun with was: the vending machines. This is widely reported on by many travelers that visit Japan, but its just too much fun for this American to pass up.

The (I am not making this up) Japanese Vending Machine Manufactures Association reports that there is somewhere in the realm of 5.5 million vending machines in all of Japan. That’s 1 machine per every 23 people in Japan–or that roughly means 1 vending machine every 2 feet in Tokyo.

At on average 150 Yen ($1.25 USD) per drink, they are a bit pricey, though I probably spent somewhere in the realm of $75 (USD) while in Japan trying out all the different drinks and concoctions available. By concoctions I mean: there were hot drink machines, cold drink machines, soup machines, food machines, underwear machines, dried fish and peanut machines, coffee machines, ice cream machines, porn machines, ramen noodle machines and more (yes, you read that correctly, I did not mean to write ‘corn’). The drinks were various from pop (like the Coke Big Boys below) to fruit juices (possibly the best apple juice I have ever had, ever), sports drinks, energy drinks, corn chowder drinks, red tea, green tea, corn tea, brown tea, ice tea, hot tea, milk tea, and just plain tea. Oh, and beer, see photo below. (Oh, to be a teenager in Japan.) Enjoy the photos. Click the following link for a collection elsewhere on the web of some of the strangest Japanese vending machines.

If someone wants to try to explain why this is the case culturally in Japan, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.