Beau's Blog

Ever wondered what happens when you add together spending a month in a hot and humid place + want to get to know the local tasty drinks + don’t want to break the bank + enjoy a balance of experiment and commitment? You could get anything! I got a tasty new 30 day challenge that helped me explore Tokyo in June! Here were my rules for each day.

• Find a vending machine I had not bought a drink from before
• Buy a drink from said machine that I had not tried during the 30 day challenge
• Note the location, cost and a quick take on the drink

It’s worth noting that in Japan, vending machines in general and especially drink vending machines are extremely common – typically located on the street/sidewalk. For this challenge, I did not have to do any research or map-looking to locate vending machines. I relied on the simple strategy of going about my day, making sure to incorporate some walking knowing that while out and about, I would end up at a vending machine. On day 1, I decided at the end of the challenge that I would plot the location of each vending machine on a map. This provided a wonderful incentive to get out and go places since I knew I didn’t want a super boring map at the end of the month. Here it is! Below is a tease featuring some of the vending machines in Tokyo’s dense city center.

Unsurprisingly you can see a cluster… I spent the month living there in Ebisu just south of Shibuya.

How did I decide on what drink to buy? Here were some of the thoughts that went through my mind as I approached a vending machine.

• Which of these have I not had during the 30 day challenge?
• Am I simply drawn to a drink? Can’t really crave what you never had but intuition still exists sometimes.
• Are there any seemingly uncommon drinks? If so, perhaps I would like to take advantage of this opportunity and leave more common drinks for later days when there may be sparse options
• Have I been having more sweeter drinks lately? If so, perhaps I would like a likely less sweet drink
• All else equal, cost is a useful tiebreaker

Cost was a useful tiebreaker. Speaking of which, how much did these drinks cost anyway?

On average for a drink, I spent 144 JPY = 1.03 USD.
In total, I spent 4,320 JPY = 30.86 USD.
I think it’s pretty funny how close to exactly $1/drink I spent.

_{All USD figures assume the exchange rate as of June 15^th 2023: 1 USD = ~140 JPY.}

I consider myself a competitive person, so I naturally have to ask – who were the winners and losers? And what did I think about the drink in the moment?

3^rd Place: Day 24 – Kirin Lemon
“Surprisingly not too sweet or lemony. Very nice! Excellent carbonated drink for a hot day.”

2^nd Place: Day 13 – Tsubu Tsubu White Grape
“Sweet as expected and really well done. Easily top 5. Nice tsubu tsubu.”

1^st Place: Day 10 – Fruits Tea (from Craft Boss)
“This divine drink of the gods cost me little more than a dollar. Might be the best purchase I’ve ever made. I guess after 5 hours of running, anything will be amazing.”

Last Place: Day 9 – Nippon Oolong Tea
“Very dark heavily roasted flavor. Least favorite drink so far.”

Most Bizarre: Day 27 – Ramune jelly
“Sweet but not crazy sweet. Big clump of jelly – actually the whole drink is jelly. Oddly minty. This was the most surprising drink… I will recommend it to people wanting something different.”

Here is the full data spreadsheet
Here is the full photo album
A few thoughts on Japanese vending machines

• Vending machines are convenient in Japan but in general, I recommend buying drinks at stores. Of course, the right time and place is valuable so it makes sense to buy from them from time to time. That said, buying these drinks at stores is a better deal. There’s typically lots of selection, the same sized drinks are a little cheaper and larger volume versions are far more economical.
• Many of these drinks are sugary! I’m not sure how much sugar there are in these drinks but a very common reason for these drinks not being as tasty as they could’ve been was that they were too sweet. I found myself consciously making an effort to eat less dessert in June since I knew I was getting lots of sugar and fulfilling my sweet tooth here.
• There are both cold and hot drinks in vending machines. Cold drinks are way more common. At least this was true in June – perhaps some of the space dedicated to cold drinks goes to warm drinks somehow in the colder months?

I came away from this experience satisfied to be far more able to recognize drinks in vending machines. That said, there were a ton I didn’t try – I don’t think it would be too difficult to do this for 90 distinct drinks.

This is perhaps the silliest 30 day challenge I’ve done and it was great. I love that it provided an incentive to go on for walks, explore new places and try new (usually yummy) things.

I’m excited to use 30 day challenges more in the future! If you have ideas for ones I may enjoy attempting, let me know.