Whenever we go to Japan, we like going to Akihabara and visiting the capsule toy (gashapon or gachapon) stores there. The little toys are much cooler than the ones that you'll find in U.S. vending machines. I took some photos of my most recent visit to a capsule toy store in 2108 (see below). There were toy versions of eyeglasses, cameras, sushi, buildings, chibi characters, anatomical parts and much, much, much more.
(I have been teaching myself Blender to make virtual gashapon. I call the series Plastic Punks.)
Above, a video about the biggest capsule toy store in the world. It's in Ikebukuro, which has really been built up since Carla and I spent five months there in 1987!
