10 Things You Can Do in Japan (And Not the US)

Halfway Anywhere ^ | 2/13/25 | By Mac

[DallasBiff]

One of my favorite things about traveling is being able to see how laws and social taboos (what silly things they are) change across countries.

Differences between Japan and the United States extend beyond simply bowing and taking off your shoes to enter places. The following ten things are not only rare in the United States, but most of them are also illegal. And so naturally, I feel compelled to do all of them whilst adventuring in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Snip

Buy Cigarettes from Vending Machines

Japan has an interesting relationship with cigarettes. Should you need a pack of cigarettes, you do not even enter one of the dozens of convenience stores sprinkled throughout the country, you need only press a button on a vending machine (for around 4-5 USD). How do they keep minors from buying these? Some sort of ID reader? I guess I will have to give one of them a try.

[alexander_busek]

I read about that years ago. I also read that actual school-girls were not involved in the fabrication of that product.

What then?! Hamsters?!

Regards,

[Rummyfan]

There are still cigarette vending machines in Italy. But you need to insert your codice fiscale in order to prove your age... kinda the Italian equivalent of our Social Security card.

[NorthMountain]

Canned fish.

😎

[Clutch Martin]

I spent many a cold winter night walking the streets of various port towns in Japan with my peacoat on, my woolies still shaking under the biting cold. Off in the distance down a block or two would be a vending machine with cans of hot, sweet and creamy coffee. It was really good coffee, in fact, the first cup of a really good strong coffee I ever drank was in japan in a restaurant with heavy cream and lumps of raw sugar.

[ronniesgal]

most pervs are easily fooled- look how many guys get tricked when they are trying to seduce a 10 yr old on line?

[NorthMountain]

I’ve had warm canned tea and coffee from vending machines in S. Korea; it was surprisingly good.

[NorthMountain]

trying to seduce a 10 yr old on line

Because on the internet, "Nobody knows you're a dog" ...

The Internet: Where the women are men (Classy Green-eyed Blondes, even), the men are women, and the 13 year old girls are FBI agents.

[struggle]

struggles 10 things you can do in Japan that aren’T as obvious as this stuff:
1. eat horse sushi
2. take a dump without toilet paper and walk away clean
3. print baseball tickets at the convenience store
4. find weed in the wild, but go to jail for 10 years if you smoke it
5. smoke vapes that are essentially cigarettes with heaters
6. buy a huge house in the country for $10k
7. ride in a bus that’s only slightly smaller than both lanes of road
8. go to a public bath
9. drive your truck into a river if you don’t want it anymore
10. fight with monkeys while hiking

[Bullish]

Yup they were literally everywhere, along with phone booths.

[EvelynMcHale]

I was born in ‘75 and graduated high school in ‘93, and there were still cigarette vending machines in Waffle House restaurants in Georgia in the 90’s.

[T.B. Yoits]

I still see cigarette vending machines. I recall one where patrons paid the bartender for tokens to put in the machine, which prevents minors from buying them and also prevents employees from stealing them if they were sold off a shelf.

I believe casinos were exempted from indoor smoking laws.

Companies still manufacture and sell cigarette machines:

https://www.megavending.com/cigarette-vending-machines/
https://www.amequipmentsales.com/product/new-cigarette-vending-machine/

[kosciusko51]

6. buy a huge house in the country for $10k

Will they let foreign retirees do that? Asking for a friend.

[struggle]

You can buy property, but you’ll need a visa to live there.

[kiryandil]

If one can go, eight can go.

[kiryandil]

LOL CGEB reference

[HartleyMBaldwin]

And they do.

[rxh4n1]

“I read about that years ago. I also read that actual school-girls were not involved in the fabrication of that product.”

More Chicom counterfeiting?

[Reeses]

Until recently, the age of consent in Japan was 13. It's not that Japan was one big Jefferito Epsteinishi Island; problems were rare. But the age has been raised to 16, in part because of a steady stream of American soldier "teens" deflowering children.

The age of consent in New Jersey has been *lowered* to 13, with the added condition there being a maximum 4 year age difference. Government high schools in New Jersey are now an undocumented-Democrat free-for-all.

[IAGeezer912]

I had a whale burger at a kiosk in Bergen Norway. It was the size if a hockey puck on a bun with a rubbery texture. It tasted like a Michelin tire.