Photo/Illutration This vintage vending machine park is located beside a used tire shop in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. More than 100 antique vending machines that still operate sell everything from candy to sake and ramen. Many are from the 1970s and 80s and are nearly impossible to find anywhere else in Japan. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)

Many moons ago, in my teens, I came across a vending machine with "Akarui Katei Seikatsu" written on it.

I assumed it dispensed chewing gum and put some coins into it, and out came a tiny box.

I put it in my pocket and went about my day without looking at it. I met some friends, and remembering the gum, I asked if anyone wanted any.

They said, “Yeah, thanks,” and I opened the box to find a rubbery ... what the ...? Oh my God! I’m not one to invoke the Almighty’s name lightly, but between my fingers, I was holding ... a condom!

Everyone was speechless for a split second. Then all hell broke loose. Decades later, even today, my friends still torment me about this.

In Japan, you can buy just about anything from vending machines.

From A to Z, amazake (a sweet drink made from fermented rice) to zucchini, with things such as eggs, "omikuji" fortunes, and rice in between. According to CNN, Japan has the highest ratio of vending machines in the world per capita —an astonishing one machine for every 23 people.

Sagamihara Retro Jihanki, an outdoor museum next to and run by a used tire shop in Kanagawa Prefecture, is a trip! And a trip down memory lane.

Old Showa Era (1926-1989) vending machines are lined up along a gravel parking lot. Initially set up to entertain customers waiting to get their tires fixed, replaced or rotated, now the machines are a destination on their own.

There’s a small area with upright "dagashiya" (candy store) games for kids, consisting of roulette, pachinko and games in which the object is to complete a task by pressing various buttons.

Homegrown vending machines offer things such as chilled Gekkeikan sake (with no age-ID checker), canned Yoshinoya beef over rice, warm ebi-katsu (shrimp cutlet) sandwiches, and hot Bon Curry with Showa Era movie stars Yoko Matsuyama clad in kimono and Shofukutei Nikaku in a baseball cap.

All these goodies entice people to insert Reiwa Era (2019-present) coins into the retro machines and await the cold or hot treat to make it through the machine to the removal opening.

Unfortunately, the prices are not from the Showa Era: the sake was 350 yen ($2.25), canned meat over rice 800 yen, sandwich 280 yen and curry 400 yen.

I found equally nostalgic the "Made in USA" vending machines that, for example, advertised 7-Up drinks for 10 cents and machines with spiral coils that sometimes malfunction, leaving items hanging inside instead of dropping to be retrieved.

For a blast from the past and a “bright family life,” this is the place.

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the Sept. 15 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series "Lisa’s Things, Places and Events," which depicts various parts of the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University.

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