FOR MILLIONS OF Japanese such as Kai Ishii, the day begins with a quick canned drink on the way to the train station. 'When I was a student in Britain I really missed the vending machines,' says the 22-year-old salaryman. 'They're a lot easier than running around before work having to find a store.'
Throughout the day, he can get all he needs without ever having to interact with another person: subway tickets, beverages, bento lunch boxes, noodles and rice balls, cigarettes, toilet paper, beer and batteries. After all, Japan boasts the highest concentration of vending machines on the planet: 5.6 million, or one for every 20 people
Over the years there's little that hasn't appeared behind a coin-operated glass display case: ice, eggs, pet beetles, umbrellas and, in one brief but bizarre boom, schoolgirls' used panties. Drivers on remote highways can sometimes be seen pulling up to an electronic pit-stop for those essential purchases of adult videos. This month, the city of Sendai will conduct trials with machines that will accept contributions to a charity in Miyagi prefecture. As well as slots for items such as chilled drinks, the machines will feature buttons to divert change from purchases to a worthy cause, as well as accept larger donations.
Nothing is safe from the machine. In the days when flesh-and-blood humans staffed Japanese love hotels, bashful couples stood by the reception as a liver-spotted hand slid a key out from beneath a curtain and a croaky voice announced a room number. For some, being served by granny was a libido-killing moment.
But punters are increasingly spared such embarrassing encounters. A push-button computer panel displays vacancies and a female-voiced vending machine inside each room times the love-making session, while automatically locking the door. The only way out is to pay the machine (or start a fire).
'I prefer this way because it's more private,' says 23-year-old Yuki Nakamura, a regular visitor with her boyfriend to hotels around the west Tokyo area. 'It used to make me feel uncomfortable if I had to see the person behind the counter. Besides, machines don't make mistakes the way people sometimes do.'