I remember the first time I saw a beer vending machine in Japan. It was about 9 years ago in Osaka, somewhere near Americamura.
Over the last few years though I've not seen many. Either it's because I've basically stopped drinking alcohol, or because of efforts to cut underage drinking. Still, if you leave the big city centres and head for quieter areas you'll still find them (often outside liquor stores).
Unlike the new cigarette vending machines there's no need to show the machine any proof of age ID card - the hardest thing is choosing just how drunk you want to get and selecting the appropriate size can.
I'm just walking to my in-laws' house from a station in Saitama, north of Tokyo. We're celebrating my brother-in-laws' birthday (who incidentally is Scottish), but I won't be drinking. It was after myself and my other sister-in-law's English partner (yep, 3 British
partners in one Japanese family!) drunk a whole crate of beer between us here at New Year about 3 years ago that I quit drinking. It messes with my head, sees whole days spent with hangovers getting nothing done!
I'm sure we'll have some great food though - and birthday cake!
Joseph
This is a
Tokyo Live Blogger post posted from the iPhone.
You can read more by this and other live bloggers or follow them
via RSS.
