Vending machines are huge in Japan. They're everywhere in Tokyo, usually selling a variety of cold drinks (water, various vitamin lemon waters, teas, soda, etc) and hot drinks in cans (coffee, hot chocolate, even soup). There's also lots of tobacco vending machines (have I mentioned that I hate how much everyone smokes here? Especially in even restaurants?), some alcohol vending machines since although the drinking age is 20, no one really cares here. But there's also lots of odd vending machines...
Here's an interesting page on vending machines in Japan. Lingerie, porn, flowers, I saw one with quick meals, umbrellas... Not mentioned in this article are the used girls' underwear vending machines... Supposedly they were stopped in 1993, but they can still be found occasionally, selling very expensive underwear, as seen here.
Japan certainly is an odd country when it comes to sex. Love hotels, where you can rent a room for a couple of hours, often in some kind of a fantasy setting... Take a look at this gallery and this one. Apartments tend to be so small and crowded, and often have thin walls, that it's hard to get some privacy so they're frequently used. Wikipedia says about 2% of the Japanese population visits them daily.
And no, family members who have reading this, I haven't even seen one... :p Probably passed them in Kabuki-cho (a sketchy area of Shinjuku at night - people, Japan is a lot safer than the US, but you still want to be careful, especially in Kabuki-cho and Roppongi, where the gaijin-aimed bars are located) while out with friends during the day but didn't realize it.
I did get groped last weekend while at an izakaya by a Japanese guy who stumbled out of the bathroom and past me, turned and just... grabbed my chest before stumbling on again. I was too shocked to do anything about it. I was talking to two guys from his group (they were seated next to us, I was waiting for my friends before he left) and they just said, "Sorry, he's pretty drunk..." I also had a businessman reach out and touch my cheek on while walking with friends on Halloween (I was a cat and painted on whiskers) and ask if I would be in Japan long enough to have a drink with him. ..... The professor for one of my classes organized a nomikai, which I didn't go to but a friend did, and apparently he brought hentai (porn) manga and showed it around to everyone.....
But! Most of the Japanese guys I know are incredibly sweet, and just get very stumbley when drunk. And very touchy-feely with other Japanese guys. Haha, it's very common to see guys hugging each other and holding hands when they're wasted. I don't think anyone else I know has had anything too bad happen (even on the subway, which is notorious for being trouble), either.
Just such an odd contrast. People don't kiss in public in Japan, holding hands is very common but kissing definitely not. Japanese don't say I love you much - I like you is used to mean I love you and I think still not that common, and marriages are often not that happy, as the businessmen work long hours and are hardly home except to sleep. And yet love hotels, porn, and the like are far from hidden. I think it's not as obvious in daily life as people make it out to be, but it's still definitely there. Interesting to see how different it is from the US.
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