hot chocolate + heated vending machine

i will admit japan does have some very cool things (among all the weirdness) that i have never seen anywhere else. one of these seemingly simple amazing japanese inventions is the heated vending machine. it's just so cool. well first off there are tons of beverage vending machines here (snack machines not so much) everywhere. on random street corners, in front of stores, by train stations and sometimes in a random residential area there will be one, two or even three vending machines in a line waiting to be fed with a few coins and spit out a drink for you. it's very convenient!

sometimes if there is a bank of machines there will be one that serves soda, green tea, water, sports drinks, juices - a nice variety of cold drinks. then another machine will have hot drinks - hot tea, many coffee varieties, milk tea and hot cocoa. and some machines have a hot and cold section, the coolest! the hottie bevs come in plastic bottles (not exactly sure how that works) or in (adorable, if i do say so myself) little baby cans. it's just such a genius idea to offer hot and cold. i love it.

coming on 9 months here i finally got my first hot vending machine drink this evening on the way home from school. i knew i had about ten minutes until my train came and as i got to the station the red marked hot vending machine beckoned me. i was debating between a warm milk tea in a short bottle and a hot chocolate in a baby tin can. hot choc won. i put in my 120 yen and out came this little piping hot hand warmer. it felt so good and as i sat down on the platform, drink in hand, i was just so pleased. kind of a novel idea but its so good! it heated my hands right up and once i cracked it open the drink was the perfect not-too-hot-but-hot-enough temperature. it was grand - cheap and convenient. and it actually tasted as good as, or maybe even better than starbucks - score!