Indeed. Most of the things I’ve read about in the English-language press I’ve never actually seen over here. Sometimes I’ve even looked for them, to no avail.

The rages in Japan:

1) Cellphones.

2) Brand goods (Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc.)

3) The flavor of the month that for some reason takes off from every store and snack company all at once as if there was actually a meeting among all the foodstuff companies where they decided the next big push. It was mango for awhile; now it seems to be “salty caramel,” which I am finding is quite good, especially Tully’s’ (the American coffee chain) “Salty Caramel Latte.”

These rages have been going since at least the bubble economy, and don’t seem to be slowing down.

There are many, many vending machines in Japan, and most of them sell drinks (hot or cold), some sell rice (5 kg or 10 kg), some eggs, some pantyhose (unworn, I might add), but the soiled panty thing is really something you can probably only get in sex shops, which is where you can get stuff of that kind in your country, too.

Are you sure this isn’t some industrialized meets 3rd-world burka?

David B.

Does it have The Orange soda?

Been there for 4 years, never locked my Audi… never got stolen (unfortunatly shall I add). Meanwhile the night I didn’t close the window before a typhoon was a costly one… (crappy design of the windows control buttons on the armrest… If you use it to lift up when exiting the car you inadvertantly push some of them half of the time and open the windows of the passenger side)

Can we have a categorisation of the posts ? I come here for the steampunk links. Not for these kind of crap that made me run away from digg….

You mean we don’t? I better go pour mine out…

As for flavours-of-the month, when I was last in Japan (1991), it was tiramisu – which even existed as (deeply troubling) toothpaste. They seemed to be coming out of a blueberry phase, as well…

But I still maintain that when someone in Japan does something weird… It’s still weirder than when someone in the US does something weird.

Coligny: Run far far away!

And what’s wrong with dried squid? It’s tasty, and certainly no weirder than cut-up pieces of dried cow (aka beef jerky).

Huh. What’s in the box? *kick*

Do you want a drink? It’s warm by my body temperature

See my reports from 2005 and 2007:
http://news.3yen.com/2007-10-20/ninja-vending-machine/

Th ghst f lvs Prsly hs prpsd tht hmstrs ln cld wlk n grtr sfty (thgh, n rlty, rdnt crm lvls r n dcln, dspt th Lch Ns Mnstr’s pnn t th cntrry) by dsgsng thmslvs s hcky pcks.

Ths s tr bcs sd t nd m wrtr, nd my dtr hs n d wht bng n dtr mns.

G Nw Yrk Tms! Sn y wll scp th Ntnl nqrr!

Really, this spoof news item and the remarks about “raping” vending machines are cruel mockery to those afflicted with, and attempting to deal with, this difficult condition. You should be ashamed.

Hiding behind a sheet means you can’t see them coming.

If buying something makes you feel safer, then for the cost of that sheet, why not buy some mace spray, or an airhorn, or something?