When We Travel,

we often see vending machines,

in railway and tube stations,

but nothing like these!

not only the size of them, but the variety of of goods sold,

 a wall of over 150 gachapon vending machines has been newly installed at Akihabara Station in Japan, for fans of the miniature capsule toy-dispensing gachapon vending machines, Kenelstand is your new best friend. Wall-to-wall gachapon vending machines filled with fun, whimsical and sometimes surreal miniature toys have recently popped up at train stations around Tokyo,

branded as “Kenelestand” and designed by Akira Mabuchi, the wall-to-wall gachapon boast a sleek, black facade with scattered illuminated squares highlighting the current selection of toys. But these are not your typical toy cars or trains. Geared more towards grownups, the rotating selection includes whimsical toys like miniature designer furniture from Tendo Mokko, miniature kissaten foods, miniature Japanese kitchen tools,

 the Kenelestands are operated by Kenelephant and are currently located at Shimbashi and Akihabara stations,

the selections constantly rotate in and out so there’s no telling what you’ll find when you visit, but clearly there’s something for everyone,

 my thoughts for having a vending machine like this the UK? we need bigger stations!

One Of The Many Great Things About Japan Is Vandalism,

that is the lack of it,

 which means amongst other things that Japan has the highest penetration of vending machines per person (there’s roughly 1 vending machine for every 23 people in Japan) and the fact that the majority of them are outdoors is a testament to the country’s safety and respect for property, very rarely are these machines ever vandalised, 

 outdoor vending machines, especially the ones in remote locations, and some buried in snowfall, became not only a photographic subject for Eiji Ohashi, but also a welcome oasis from the harsh winters of Hokkaido, where the deep snows can become more than a little bit of a problem, “but even then I can get warm drinks from the vending machines. When I hold a warm bottle that I buy from the vending machine, my feelings relax.”

 “In Hokkaido where I live, winters are harsh and snows are deep,” says Eiji “Every day can become rather inconvenient” due to the constant snowfall, but heavy snows also bring wintry wonderlands and the discovery of small pleasures,

 a collection of black & white photographs by Ohashi are available as a photobook, 

 You can also see more of his work online, 

and no I am not on commission, I just thought His photographs just looked so nice, and different.

It Is A Given,

that many people get hungry after the shops have closed,

 particularly in rural areas, so what todo if you fancy a sausage in the middle of the night? well in Germany your prayers are answered with the sausage vending machine,

we have featured a few vending machines before, but this sausage one if a first for us, there are over 570,000 vending machines in Germany, but despite their popularity they are expected to compliment, rather than replace traditional shops, operating in areas where a shop may not be economically viable, “Vending machines will play a complementary role in brick-and-mortar retailing,” Wolfgang Kampmeier of the Berlin-Brandenburg trade association told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, so now we have a sausage vending machine, where is the bread roll, butter and fried onions vending machine? image Credit: DPA/PA.

Over The Years,

we have often featured vending machines,

all of these from previous post,

of vending machines,

in Japan, where there are so many way out machines, where you can buy so many way out in the wild products, 

like this one that sells live crabs!, so it was with intreat that I watched this video,

of a vloggers trip to a Japanese vending machine shop, it is a mug of coffee long and for myself great fun to watch.

Gashapon" Is A Onomatopoeic Word From The Two Sounds,

"gasha" (or "gacha") for the hand-cranking action of a toy-vending machine, and "pon" for a toy capsule landing, 

photograph Kanpai!, and you will hear that a lot at Gashapon Official Store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, it features over 3,000 coin-operated machines and probably millions of collectible toys and figurines, most machines are in the 200 to 500 yen range, at today’s rate £1.11 to $1.41 to £2.77 or $3.52, but there are ‘premium’ machines, which can cost up to 2,000 yen £11.08 or $14.07,

this is the world’s largest gashapon capsule toy store – a 1,250m² area decked with over 3,000 gashapon machines filled with various figurines, it would almost seem like Japan invented these machines, but they were actually inspired by the coin toy machines created in the United States in 1965, according to a recent Timeout article, the Gashapon Official Store in Ikebukuro is home to 3,010 machines, just make sure you bring plenty of change!

In My Day Vending Machines Had Chewing Gum Or Chocolate,

but not so nowadays at the Mondrian South Beach, in Miami, world of luxury: Front desk manager James Bryant III, shows off the Semi Automatic vending machine at the Mondrian Beach Hotel the machine, which is in the hotel lobby, is a 21st century makeover of an Automat, behind the glass is row upon row of white, high-gloss boxes, identical but for the descriptions: 'Sunset Dinner Yacht Cruise for 2', 'Sony PSP-2000, Black,' '2000 Bentley Azure Convertible,' and 'Gunpowder Tea Candle.' 'When admirers ask where you bought your 2003 Bentley Arnage convertible, we dare you to say you bought it from a vending machine,' reads the $90,000 car's description,

Screen displays show details of a $90,000 Bentley

you can also buy things like a Jean Paul Gaultier dress - or a set of 24 carat gold handcuffs, it peddles a jumble of more than 60 items priced between $10 and $1.2 million in a large, sleek rectangular display, I know it means you do not to leave the hotel, but in the case of the Bentley I would like a test drive!

Some Time Ago I Mention A Vending Machine In America,

where you can buy a Bentley Arnage convertible , or a set of 24 carat gold handcuffs, but I never thought I would see one selling live products, furthermore if you buy one and it is dead-on-arrival, they promise to give you three free, what are they? crabs! they are Shanghai hairy crabs, delicious to eat and they could be on a street corner near you, (if you live in China!), the inside of the machine is kept at 5 degrees Celsius, a temperature cold enough to make the crabs go into a state of hibernation, converted into yen, the prices for the crabs range between 120 and 600 yen (depending on size), by cutting out the cost of store personnel, the seller can offer the crabs at 30% less than the usual price, there is also a vending machine selling fish, but they are dead, or one selling bananas, the first of its kind in Japan, now let me think, if I was making vending machines what product would I make a machine for next that is not already out there?

An Interesting Fact I Never Knew,

there is said to be one vending machine for every 34 people living in Japan!.

so if you live there you are never far a way from a vending machine, we have featured vending machines a few times on the blog, but in the latest development you do not have to go to the machine, it comes to you! 

without any driver it will cruise a predetermined route on city streets, especially around areas that might need it like public parks or apartment complexes. After getting stocked with hot or cold beverages and temperature sensitive snacks like chocolate and jelly, it will move at about 15 kilometers per hour (9 miles per hour) and sell its goods via the attached touch panel and a smartphone payment system,

with the cooperation of Chiba City and approval by the Kanto Transport Bureau, this little car will putt around the Wakaba 3-Chome district of Chiba, five days a week including weekends, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. photographs and story from the PR Times, amazing!

You May Be Aware,

that I am thinking of buying a new mobile telephone,

whilst looking for the phones themselves I noticed an ever-increasing number of accessories for them, but these are a must have for the serious on the go mobile user, smartphone panties or pantsu, they stretch over the base of the device and cover it's private parts, the telephone's most thumbed area, the hole that on some telephones a cable goes into, if you haven’t figured it out already, these cheeky accessories were invented in Japan, by the world’s largest toy-maker, Bandai,


the stretchy gadget undies are made of silicone to fit most smartphone models and cost ¥200 ($2) a piece, you can find them in Gashapon machines (Japanese vending machines) across Japan, if you’re interested, sets of 7 panstu are available on the J-Box online store for $38.50, it might seem expensive, but you should change your pants once a day, so you have a weeks supply! they’re guaranteed to make your phone stand out, so if anyone is going to Japan, let me know as I would like a pair, the polka dot strawberry ones.

Would You Buy A Photograph,

of a strangers face?

it is getting to be surprisingly common in Japan, let me explain, we have featured several posts about vending machines, and here is the latest one in Shinjuku, Tokyo, that has been getting a lot of attention on social media for dispensing ID photos of total strangers for 300 yen, at today's rate £1.86 or $2.30, Gachapon capsule toys are really popular in Japan, so popular that you can find them virtually everywhere, dispensing all kinds of collectibles, from small action figures and dolls to souvenirs, 

 capsule machines have been around in Japan for decades, but back in March, one particular such machine in Tokyo went viral on social media for dispensing something very unusual – ID photos of total strangers, so why would you want the photograph of a stranger? according to Japanese news site Nippon.com, thousands of people have done just that over the past couple of months. Some of these people bragged about their weird find on social media, which caused the machine in the Kagurazaka district of Shinjuku to go viral,

“It’s so interesting. I wonder who it is,” one buyer said. “I bought it for something to talk about, but now I don’t know what to do with it. I’ll enjoy showing it to the people at work. I might put it on display there “I thought it would be fun to stick an ojisan [middle-aged man] photo onto my smartphone, so I came to buy one,” a visitor says, adding, “As long as it’s an ojisan, anyone will do.” installed in March, the unique gachapon machine became so popular that people started coming to Kagurazaka from as far as Osaka just to get one of the 10 possible ID photos. Some even made it their mission to complete their collection,

it was the brainchild of a Tokyo entrepreneur by the name of Terai Hiroki, who explained that he came up with the idea after thinking that, in a time when everyone is wearing face masks, it would be nice to look at a random face, “Everyone wears masks in the pandemic as a matter of course, so there’s no chance to see other people’s faces,” Terai said. “ID photos seem to be as close as you can get to seeing their real faces. You can wonder about what job looking they’re for, what kind of people they are, and what their names are. It’s fun to imagine all kinds of things.”

Terai said that, in order to preserve the authenticity of the project, the 10 photos dispensed by his machine are genuine passport and job resume photos. He asked 10 random people to allow him to sell their photos in a gachapon machine and even accompanied some of them to have their pictures taken, the young businessman admitted that he was certain his unusual capsule machine idea would sell very poorly, but at the end of April he launched a second round, with even more ID photos of random people, I wonder how much the random subjects are paid? will this type of machine ever catch on in the UK? I have no idea.

We Have Seen Many Vending Machines,

but this is the first time we have seen a farm fresh egg vending machine,

it was spotted at Hamburg MOTTE-chicken, more famous for it's 'rent a chicken program', the machine is filled with farm fresh eggs which are sold at just €2 for six bio quality eggs without depending on shopping hours any more, you can not get fresher than that! open 24-7.

Over The Years,

I have seen or heard about many vending machines,

 but this one has got to be the biggest and most expensive so far,

in Singapore this one dispenses exotic luxury cars, Autobahn Motors spared no expense in developing an engineering marvel, You make your car selection via a custom app on an immersive touchscreen, then, within two minutes, your car appears, the 60 cars are housed inside of a 15-storey building,

the used car dealership offers Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Ferraris, and more, for instance, there is a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador, it can be yours for only $402,000 USD, would you care for a 1995 Ferrari 512 instead? With a little more than 9,000 miles on the speedometer, it can be yours for only $598,900! If you really want a throwback and a financial steal, go with the 1955 Morgan Plus 4, it is only $56,000, so what is next? a vending machine for boats, or maybe aircraft, that you can buy and fly away in!

Have You Ever Put Money In A Vending Machine,

and wondered, 'how does it do that?'

 well here are the answers,

 but what has really happened is that employment agency jobsintown.de have placed 3-D pictures of what your job could be like on the side of vending machines in an effort to get you to contact them for a new job,

would their approach be called thinking inside the box? many thanks to Mr. Tony for the link.

What A Totally Brilliant Idea,

instead of having E-Scooters,

why not have a hydrogen scooter? images: Mob-ion, the French Gov’t, via Ride Apart, originally launched as a prototype back in June, the hydrogen-fueled Mob-ion TGT promised more than 150 miles of zero tailpipe emission riding from hydrogen canisters about the size of a reusable water bottle, 

European and Asian scooter riders use their bikes as everyday transport. They depend on them, in other words, to get to work, go to school, and to run errands, and many scooterists in densely populated European cities (like Paris), don’t have access to home garages for overnight charging,

just pick up a filled canister, leave your empty one and off you go! “There is no need to refuel at a charging station,” reads the French government page (through Google’s translator). “Just go to one of the dedicated vending machines. Kind of like going to buy some drink cans.” but I guess in the UK we will stick with E-Scoters, as it happens France has plans to invest more than €7 billion by 2030 to develop more hydrogen solutions like this one, of which € 2 billion will be spent between now and the end of 2022, go green, go clean, go hydrogen!

I Made A Post About Earrings,

last week,

 images courtesy Genki Hirano, and today I read about these glass octopus tentacle earbuds, they were made by Genki Hirano, who is a Japanese glass artist based in Iwate prefecture, the earrings I featured last week were illuminated, these stand out because they are so different, 

the earbuds were made for a design festival last year in May, Hirano decided to respond to the theme of sea life by creating glass octopus tentacle earbuds,

unfortunately, the glass tentacle earbuds were only available to the lucky few who attended the design festival,

but all is not lost, the earbuds proved so popular that toymaker Ikimon collaborated with Hirano to make his design more widely available, a few days ago the tentacle earbuds were released for sale through gashapon vending machines for just 400 yen, at today's rate £2.48 or $3.08, although they’re made from plastic and not glass, they come in 6 different varieties that include squid and other forms of tentacled sea life, I am not sure if they can be shipped internationally, but if you live in Japan, here is a fairly exhaustive list of the different locations that plan to stock them.

I Keep Seeing An Advertisement,

where a existing customer, despite being loyal,

 never gets as good a deal as a new customer, apparently it happens in the food and drink market as well, take Coca-Cola, this lime drink was released on March 4th, 2019 and is limited to vending machines within Japan as the flavor has been adjusted to taste similar to Japanese Limes,

 Pepsi also leaves their loyal worldwide customers wondering what their latest product tastes like, Pepsi Japan Cola is a completely original recipe that uses citrus to add the distinctive taste, but here is the thing, it is not made with limes, lemons or oranges, it's made with the very popular Japanese fruit yuzu, the flavor of yuzu is somewhere in between a lemon and an orange, Yuzu is an extremely popular flavoring for desserts, drinks, and topping on foods, Pepsi also went the extra mile to use even more Japanese ingredients, such as salt, Japanese salt is famous all of the world for being very crisp and delicious,

 and of course Nestle has for year pandered to the exclusively Japanese market as we have featured many times before, although these Matcha, Cranberry and Almond Kit-Kats are available over here, they combine cranberries, raspberries and almonds to perfectly balance the bitterness of matcha, these kit kats have a nice smooth matcha taste with a sweet fruity and crunch mixture, so at least Nestle has tried to bring the flavour of Japan to the UK, but I cannot help but wonder what Japan cola lime taste like, or Japan cola - Yuzu, but there it is I guess the rest of the world is not deemed worthy.

Those Pesky Zombies,

it would appear are at it again,

 or so we are led to believe, for some of us the zombie apocalypse is imminent, to others they are sceptical but cautious about denying it, so here is a quick guide to the basics, 

Zombie Apocalypse Survival Instructions,

Know Your Zombie

Not all zombies are created equal, so it’s important to be prepared for whatever version of the undead you may face. Here are a few classic types:

Basic walkers: These classic zombies are slow and steady in their quest for flesh. They’re relatively easy to neutralise but travel in growing packs, and once they start piling up against barriers, you better watch out.

Runners: Start training, because these zombies are fast. You will not outrun them, so you’ll want to fortify your apartment and wait it out.

Stalkers: These are the biggest threat to apartment dwellers. As quadrupeds, they can scale buildings, which means most apartments will become giant zombie vending machines.

Your Defence Starts at the Door

It’s all about the materials; here’s a breakdown of the strengths of various options based on the number of zombies needed to break through:

Doors:

• MDF door (3 zombies)
• Solid wood door (7 zombies)
• Steel door (14+ zombies)

Locks:

• Traditional knob (1 clever zombie)
• Knob plus security chain (2 zombies)
• Deadbolt (5 zombies)
• Bar lock (9 zombies)

and I guess the most important page if all else fails, Battle the Undead

There are plenty of things in your apartment that you can use to eliminate the zombie threat. Anything blunt, sharp or heavy will do the trick. Here are a few items everyone should have lying around:

• Baseball bat: highly effective, simple to use and inexpensive
• Kitchen knives: remember to keep them sharp … really sharp
• Household tools like hammers and screwdrivers
• Pots and pans
• Fire extinguishers: All apartments have them; gather several to bash and distract unwanted zombie callers.
• DIY polearm: Duct tape a kitchen knife onto a shower bar to defend yourself at a safe distance.
• DIY mace: Lock a frying pan onto the end of a bicycle chain and swing it around like a mace for small groups of undesirable undead.
• Safety first! To defend yourself against bites, use a cooking board, cookie sheet or even the lid of your toilet as a shield.
• Remember to resist the urge to do things using fire or chemicals to fight the zombies, because you may harm yourself.

If you do go toe-to-toe with a zombie, heed your target’s vulnerabilities:

Head: 100% effective
Arms and legs (cutting them off): arms 40%, legs 75%.

many thanks to forrent.com for these helpful tips and advice, there are also many more on their site, remember when the zombies come aknocking it is to late to look up this resource!