Sunday Snapshot: Gashapon
11th March, 2007 by stuart
Gashapon machines, or egg droppers as I like to call them, can be found everywhere in Japan. They’re the vending machines that sell little plastic toys aimed at collectors, usually of something from a video game or anime. PB reader, Jonathan, sent in this photo of the rows of Gashapon machines from the Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara. He actually sent in a few pics, so I have to show this one as well. It’s part of the non-smoking/litter/burning kids in the face campaign that’s been going on in Japan for a while now. I haven’t seen this particular one from Kyoto station yet:
Thanks Jonathan! Please keep sending in your photos to stuart [at] plasticbamboo.com.
March 12th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I’m not going to send you a photo, but I’ve just stolen you one.
Hope you don’t mind.
Love your site.
Cheers
March 12th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Aah, I’m starting to feel sorry for cigarettes after reading that sign.
March 12th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I love these no smoking signs. It’s so…polite. It’s very “Japanese” and the best part is, it works. You rarely see someone walking down the street smoking anymore. Even in crowded Tokyo.
I took a pic of one of these from Shibuya a few months ago here: http://www.timarai.com/blog/2006/10/22/three-random-pictures/
I’m going to try to take as many as I can. Some of them, like the one posted here, are just plain weird yet endearing. (^_^)
March 13th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I actually took a photograph of that same sign. I found over a dozen of these signs while I was traveling around Japan, and not one of them did I see twice. I took photographs of every one of them.