Day 1: Kirin Nama-cha
¥150
Over half of the hotel’s vending machine was alcohol and I don’t drink coffee anymore. So, the choices were water or this. It’s just basic unsweetened green tea.
Day 2: Pocari Sweat
¥170
The premier sports drink of Japan. It has what plants crave. Also, a slight, salty, citrus flavor.
Day 3: 7-Eleven Grape Soda
¥118
I’m technically cheating since you can only get this at 7-Eleven and not a vending machine. Very similar to any American grape soda. Very strong scent, flavor a little bit tamer than the US.
Day 4: Oi Ocha Roasted Green Tea
¥133
Similar to the green tea from day 1, but this is roasted. It is also kept hot by the machine or at conbini’s. The best way I can describe the flavor is imagine the smell of a smoldering fire, it’s like that somehow.
Day 5: Dr Pepper
¥110
This is the first time I’ve seen Dr Pepper here. As an aficionado, I had to see what was different. Nothing significant. Tastes pretty much the same to me. I do notice they advertise only 20 flavors as opposed to the normal 23.
Day 6: Mankatsu Sandwich
¥800
An uncommon food vending machine today. I’m sure most people wouldn’t trust something like a sandwich from a vending machine. But, this machine is actually stocked every morning by the restaurant across the street. I picked up the mankatsu sandwich, which is a breaded pork cutlet sandwich with the restaurant’s signature sauce.
Day 7: Kirin Lemon
¥140
After doing a bit of looking around, I figured out one of the drinks in the hotel vending machine was, in fact, not alcohol as I originally thought. It was simply a lemon soda. Tastes like pretty much every non-Sprite.
Day 8: C.C. Lemon
¥140
It’s very lemon.
Day 9: Mitsuya Cider
¥130
Cider has a different meaning out here. It’s basically a mix of a lemon-lime soda and ginger ale.
Day 10: Creepy vending Machine Corner
¥????
So I was travelling around a lot today, so I didn’t have a chance to visit any vending machines. But I did have some vending machines to show saved up. This is a corner in Akiba pretty close to the sandwich vending machine. It has been here for years and is generally known as the Creepy or Weird Vending Machine corner.
The products in these machines are also unusual by standard vending machine, well, standards. Many containing white boxes with strange stories written on them.
Day 11: Fujiya Nectar, Peach
¥130
Have you ever wanted the syrup/juice that is in the peach cups to be a drink?
Day 12: Suntory Nacchan! Apple
¥140
It’s apple juice.
Day 13: Mitsuya Special Lemon
¥130? (forgot to picture vending machine)
This honestly tastes almost the same as Mitsuya Cider. I can barely tell any difference.
Day 14: LAS Cola
¥70
I stumbled across this machine with extremely cheap drinks. I wanted to know what the generic COLA can was. It indeed tasted like cola.
Day 15: Seventeen Ice Mint Chocolate Ice Cream
¥180
A great way to get rid of those pesky 10-yen coins I’ve built up.
Day 16 & 17: Nothing
¥0
Day 16 was a very busy travel day and I had no chance to hit up a vending machine for anything new. Day 17 I was not feeling the best so I was sticking with what I knew before my flight.