By Dino Nama
I’ve heard rumors, and now I’ve done some researching. It’s true, Japan has just about about any kind of vending machine you can think of. To list a few of the vended products:
Pringles
Instant Noodles
Alcohol (based on the honor system)
Shoes
Flowers
Neckties
Batteries
Car Brochures
Eggs
Underwear (new and used)
and yes… Live Lobsters
Why you might ask? It might seem that Japan’s eagerness to “westernize” carried over after WWII, and that the western consumer culture ideology of “more and now” has brought their vending services to such a height in product variety. I think that it begs the question: will there be a return to the glorification of hand-made products? Or will our sheer population size, mixed with the invented tradition of a consumer culture, keep us on a path of “more and now”?
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