By Emily Connor
One of my favorite things about Japan are all of the drinks. And no, I don't mean the alcoholic ones (although they can also be nice!), but the countless numbers of canned coffees, sodas, teas, soups, and so much more that can be found in convenience stores or in 'jidouhanbaiki' (vending machines) scattered throughout the city. Vending machines are so abundant in Tokyo that I used to joke around saying that it would nearly be impossible to die of dehydration in the city. I'm not sure of the exact number of vending machines in Tokyo, but I once heard that the people to vending machine ratio is something to the effect of four people per one vending machine. That's a lot of drinks. Unlike in the US, though, what really sells drinks in Japan is if they stamp the words 'kikan gentei' (limited-time only) on the display or on the drink itself.
Limited-edition stuff sells like gold in Japan. It can be something extremely obscure like red-bean flavored soda or salt flavored lattes and just because the product will only be available for three months or so, everyone has to buy it and try it at least once, snap a photo and then post it on the Internet somewhere. It's a phenomenon. I've seen so many bizarre drinks in my days that I can't even begin to recall all of them, but some of my personal least-favorites have been peppermint soda, ''Hawaiian'' blue colored soda (I never knew ethnicities had flavors!) and also a new concoction yogurt-type drink containing vinegar and lemon flavors. Just who comes up with these things? And why do we all buy them? Even I have been guilty of buying drinks, photographing them and writing about them on my personal blog in the past... It's just addicting!
Granted, not all of the limited edition drinks are bad, per say. Some are really delicious, such as a hot canned chai latte that I love to drink the winter. Once in a while game and anime companies also collaborate with drink companies to create highly collectable and awesome beverages, which excited my inner otaku-ness. I also freaked out when one drink company recently combined two of my favorite things: ginger-ale and the color pink. Pink ginger-ale-- can you imagine?!
Are all of these drinks really necessary? No, of course not. But they're something uniquely Japanese and interesting, and I'm really glad that the beverage companies continue to conjure up such fun drinks. If anything, at least they're interesting conversation topics and something to talk about when nothing else comes to mind. So next time you're in town, give one of Japan's funky drinks a try... You (maybe) won't be disappointed!
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