A Little Travel Surprise in Japan: Freshly Ground Coffee from a Vending Machine

Text and photos by Mr. Nao Shin Kou (Mr. Neurotic Bear Blog)

Friends who follow my Facebook page probably know that I planned a short trip to Japan’s Tohoku region during this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. Being my first time traveling abroad, I was naturally a bit nervous, so I opted to go through a travel agency to arrange the itinerary. I figured it was better to pay the “tuition” early on—after all, it was my first overseas trip, and I didn’t want minor hassles to spoil the experience.

So here, I’d like to give a little shoutout to Southeast Travel Agency. Their service was genuinely thoughtful, their attitude attentive, and the scenic spots they chose were all highly representative of the local area (though Japan is much larger than Taiwan, so long drives were inevitable, cutting into our sightseeing time—but the beautiful countryside scenery helped ease the fatigue).

That said, near Sendai Airport, there was almost no trace left of the tsunami. On the way from the airport into the city, all I saw were lush green fields and many newly built houses. The resilience of the Japanese people is truly admirable.

As I mentioned, most of my time in Japan was spent on the road, and such sights weren’t entirely new to me. This photo shows the first rest stop I came across after arriving in Japan. At the time, I just thought it was a small, charming stop, and the variety of items sold inside was completely different from what you’d find at rest stops in Taiwan.

Later, I learned that all highway rest stops in Japan are operated by the same company, which explained why the ones I encountered in Tohoku all looked so similar.

But what I want to talk about isn’t the rest stop itself—it’s this.

It was a coffee vending machine I spotted in a corner of the rest stop. When I was in elementary school, there used to be something similar at the bus terminal near my home, where you could choose between hot or cold drinks, and the machine would dispense a freshly made beverage—not just a bottled drink like we commonly see nowadays.

I thought I’d never encounter something like that again in my life, but to my surprise, I found a blast from my childhood in Japan.

So I immediately started operating it with great excitement (yes, using my very broken Japanese).

I chose hot mocha, no sugar or creamer.

Then, while waiting for the coffee to brew, an animation-like sequence played—whether it was showing the actual inner workings of the machine or just an animation, I didn’t have time to verify.

Ta-da!! When I got my coffee, the cup even had a lid on it. It was slightly smaller than a City Café cup, and as you can see from the photo, the portion size was decent. I could tell it was fairly generous just by the weight in my hand.

As for the taste?

It lacked the usual bitter, burnt notes often emphasized in dark-roast beans, but it did a great job bringing out the chocolatey sweetness typical of mocha. Of course, we can’t expect premium flavor at this price point—for example, the floral or fruity notes you’d get in high-quality mocha. This coffee cost around 60–70 Taiwanese dollars, about the same as a convenience-store takeout coffee.

But the taste was so much better.

After getting it, I took a sip right away. If it had tasted bad, I would’ve added some hot water to cool it down and finished it at the rest stop. But I didn’t—I chose to bring it with me in the car, sipping it all the way to the hotel where I’d spend the first night.

Originally, I thought I’d have time to explore more during the trip, or maybe on the last night in Sendai, I could sneak out to a local café and try some Japanese single-origin roasted coffee. But we ended up spending too much time at the Oirase Gorge, so by the time we reached Sendai City, it was already 8 PM. After dinner and a stroll through Ichiban-gai, we didn’t get back to the hotel until 10 PM—and the hotel was quite a distance from the city center...

So for this trip to Japan, that freshly ground coffee was all I got. @@

But it’s okay—I had Boss with me XDDDD

What? You don’t know where that reference comes from?

Check out the next video then!

 “Mr. Nao Shin Kou” has more great articles here: http://bear-oj.blogspot.tw/