No Giant Robotic Spiders

(Written on the 5th May)
Japan seems a very logical culture in many ways. Things that in England are a real ballache, well here they just seem to work. Take being hungry in a station. You just make sure that doesn't happen in England. It's financial suicide if you make it a habit of it - so you resort to vending machines stuffed full of sugar and crisps. Maybe a sandwich or a pasty if you feel like you want to treat yourself. [just to say - I'm sorry to have written so much about railway stations, but I seem to find myself blogging in them and I've noticed I'm talking about them probably more than anything else interesting (like the giant robotic spider down the road -I'm not even joking- but I don`t want to bore you writing about that....)]. So, back to every day life and stations. Well, in Japan if you're hungry, even small stations have a range of food. Granted, there are some over priced ones - but just as easy to find are these little noodle bars. They have ticket dispensing machines which you use the good old passmo to pay with (remembering to touch the special area) and then you eat a good meal, for about 3 US dollars. And Passmo is even built into new mobiles - and it just works. Really well. Also attached to many stations are shopping centres twice the size of the Bullring in Birmingham - probably over 20 in Tokyo alone. And even in malls you can't escape vending machines. They are everywhere. Literally one every 20 square meters through the whole station. Even walking home last night, on a 15 min walk from the station to the house i'm living in, I counted 7 - all on a mile long residential road. Some seem to be owned by private homes. The equivalent of living on a busy road in London and planting a coke machine in the middle of your privet hedge next to your car. Not a bad idea - but I don't think one would last ten min at night in most English towns. And before you ask, (I can hear everyone thinking it) I haven't found any used pants vending machines. I was told, without asking I might add, that they've been outlawed. It's a shame as I was hoping there would be some deposit ones where I could generate some extra income by cashing in my own. But it is puzzling - I mean, why would you want used pants anyway? I'm at a loss. I know a couple of friends who'd find clean pants vending machines much more useful. I'm not mentioning any names.