©1987 Lawrence I. Charters
Off Duty, March 1987, pp. 12-13.
Vending machines have almost become a cult item in Japan; their number and variety is probably unequalled anywhere.
Once upon a time, a group of American service members, family and friends went climbing near Kofu, an old castle town a few hours inland from Tokyo. It was March, the air was fresh, and the climb was demanding, but these were no ordinary Americans. Experienced rock climbers from the West Coast, they were confident of their abilities, and equally confident that nobody, Japanese or American, had scaled this particular mountain in centuries-if ever. Reaching the crest, they were astonished to discover an old stone Shinto shrine-and a recently stocked Coke machine.
You don’t have to climb a mountain to become a connoisseur of Japanese vending machines. Walk just a few blocks in any direction virtually anywhere in Japan, and you can’t help but discover an entire army of these devices. In theory, vending machines are an American invention, but when the winter frost melts away, enough vending machines are uncovered in
Tokyo alone to stock the entire United States.
Getting solid figures on the number of machines is difficult. One trade group states there are over 100,000 machines selling just beer, sake, whiskey and other alcoholic beverages, and there are easily ten times that number selling soft drinks. There are machines selling stamps, cigarettes, and hot coffee, as in the U.S. But there are also machines selling magazines, instant noodles (complete with chopsticks), batteries, horoscope fortunes, train tickets and hundreds of other items.
Vending machine “liquor shop” in Sasebo features Live Beer. Photo by Lawrence I. Charters, scanned from print.
Veteran vending machine watchers (and there really are such people) rate machines according to their odd contents, blinking lights and size. Some seem large enough to hold entire automobiles (“For just ten thousand ¥100 coins this car can be yours!”).
In the early spring, before the blossoms come out, vending machines add a touch of color to city life, and searching out unusual examples is a safe hobby-usually. One woman service member, after months of idle speculation, finally scraped the grime off a machine located in front of her home. Leaning close to peer through the still-dirty window, she looked inside-and immediately fled. She still worries that some of her Japanese neighbors might have seen her, and wondered why she was buying condoms.
For those uninterested in vending machines, March brings other things to life in Japan. The traditional Japanese name for early March is keichitsu, the “end of insect hibernation.” About this time, residents soon discover that their hotel room, apartment or barracks serves as home to a large number of creatures who don’t help with the rent. Some people stay home in a vain attempt to evict these unwanted guests; everyone else, it seems, goes to the Nagoya Fertility Festival.
Many will visit Nagoya for the annual spring fertility festival. These are displays in a strine of “female fertility symbols.” Photo by Lawrence I. Charters, scanned from print. [Off Duty refused to run the photos of “male fertility symbols.”]
Strictly speaking, the festival is held in Komaki, a few miles north of Nagoya, and is formally known as the Honen Matsuri. Tagata Shrine is the chief sponsor, and the purpose of the festival is, well, to promote fertility. A long, slow parade along the banks of rice paddies is aimed at ensuring a good harvest. Prayers are offered for abundant crops. Farmers offer donations to the Shinto gods, again hoping for good crops. But this is not why tour buses arrive from virtually every military installation in Japan.
Heading the parade is a priest who constantly sprinkles rice on the spectators, to promote another kind of fertility. (Incidentally, that’s why rice is thrown at newlyweds). Most of the parade participants, in fact, seem little interested in fertile crops, carrying instead some very clear symbols of a different nature. Tour guides call the various wooden objects and banners “male fertility symbols,” but when you see the largest portable sacred object, draped in sacred cloth and measuring over twelve feet long, the term “fertility symbol” seems inadequate.
A shrine in Komaki, near Nagoya, dedicated to female fertility symbols. Photo by Lawrence I. Charters, scanned from print.
Tagata Shrine has been collecting unusually shaped rocks and branches for generations, and these “natural male fertility symbols” are on display on the grounds of the shrine. Another shrine, on the other side of Tagata Station, collects female fertility symbols. If you’re up to it, there is also a museum near the bus parking lot which boasts the largest collection of animal “male fertility symbols” in the world.
Held March 14-15, the festival is a splendid way to spend a weekend and send back home some “only in Japan” photographs. You can usually choose between a one-day tour of the festival and a two-day tour.
For those who can’t get away there is always the Haru Basho, the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka, from Mar. 8-22. Shown every day on NHK TV’s Channel 1 starting at 4 p .m., the Spring Tournament is notorious for exciting upsets, and is often called the “stormy basho.” If you’ve never seen this 2,000-year-old brand of wrestling, now is the time to give it a try.
March is also the start of the cherry blossom season, with blooms appearing first in Kyushu and gradually working their way north, appearing in Misawa, in northern Honshu, sometime in late April or early May. The New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo celebrates the season every year with a spectacular Cherry Blossom Festival featuring a great meal combined with traditional Japanese music, dances, and sometimes demonstrations of sword fighting and similar skills. Held this year on Sunday, Mar. 15, the Festival is very popular, so get your reservations in early (Autovon 229-7121 or commercial 03-440-7871).
Don’t, however, expect to see any cherry blossoms in Tokyo until early April. This is actually a bonus, since Tokyo parks are usually deserted in March, especially on Mar. 21, Shumbun no Hi, a national holiday celebrating the Vernal Equinox. After the first cherry blossoms appear in April, and continuing through Golden Week in early May, Tokyo is too packed with people to be enjoyable. Take your camera and enjoy the city while you can.