Gachapon!

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Stephanie.

Japan has a lot of vending machines. On any given corner you can find vending machines selling hot drinks, cold drinks, hot soup, etc.* You can also find ones similar to the machines dispensing toys in U.S. supermarkets, and these are gachapon machines. You put in your money and you get out a plastic ball that contains your toy, figurine, phone charm, what-have-you. You can get all sorts of things including corporate mascots (on my last trip we found one selling mascots from Mister Donut), anime characters, or even cats made of plastic sushi.

So when, on the way back from Gioji, we spotted a gachapon machine vending Buddhist figurines, OF COURSE I had to get one! I put in my money, turned the crank, and out popped a red-bottomed plastic ball. I waited until we were back at the hanare to open it, because it might have little pieces that would fall out, and upon cracking the ball, I got…
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Another one for Rachel

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Stephanie.

Sitting in Kyoto Station, eating Mister Donut, looking out over the concourse.

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Kyoto Station

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Stephanie.

And here’s a shot of Kyoto Station that’s exposed correctly for the levels of light in the concourse, rather than for the levels of light on a tray of donuts up on the balcony, unlike my previous post.

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On Hotel Amenities

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Toby.

The U.S. may have some catching up to do with Japan when it comes to hotel amenities. So far we’ve seen:
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