Convenience stores and drink vending machines make up about 50% of our diet in Japan. They are inexpensive and offer quality items to eat, plus various other essentials. We frequent 711 and Family Mart at least twice a day. We eat delicious sushi ($3), onigiri ($2) and egg salad sandwiches($3), plus desserts a plenty. For around $15 we can feed all four of us and they take credit cards! (Japan is still mostly cash and coins)
The drink vending machines are every three blocks it seems. They sell green tea, various juices and coffee, some vending machines even sell hot beverages, ice cream and cigarettes. Their price varies by 10 yen depending on how popular or wealthy an area. There is a recycling container next to the vending machine, the expectation is that you drink near the vending machine (Japan recycles 85% of it’s cans and bottles. However instead of landfills, Japan incinerates all other garbage and is second only to the US per capita for single use plastic)
It is not polite to eat in public or while walking. We eat our 711 finds in our hotel room or right outside the 711. It is reluctantly ok to drink ice coffee or ice cream while walking. It is part of the effort to keep the communal space clean and respectful to others.
The coffee offerings are genius. You purchase a cup of ice from the freezer and then make your own iced coffee at the machine next to the cashier. The coffee rivals starbucks and cost 110 yen (80 cents).
These stores are open 24/7 and we have them in the countryside village we visited.
Bochner Family Adventure 