Diapers From Japanese Vending Machine

[Thistle]

Hey all. Just got back from a trip to Japan and thought I'd share an interesting find. I was coming back to my hotel late one night and decided to stop by the vending machine to buy an ice-cold beer. Yes, you read that right. In Japan you can get beer and tons of other crazy stuff from vending machines that are scattered almost everywhere you go.

Some of you who have been to Japan probably already knew this, but it turns out you can also buy baby diapers from some vending machines too, especially in places like hotels and resorts. I don't know why, but I was totally amazed by this. Diapers? In a vending machine in a hotel lobby? I've seen them here or there in the states, but it's very rare and always in airports. And then they're only in unappealing steel cases like the ones you buy condoms from in rest stop bathrooms. Yuck.

But there they were in this Japanese vending machine, there for the taking. Now, even though I have a small frame, there's still no way I can wear baby diapers (believe me, I've tried), but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what these were like. I could see they were cloth-backed, unfortunately, but I've accepted the fact, grudgingly, that the days of plastic-backed baby diapers are over. So I dropped in 150 yen (about $1.50) and sat back to enjoy the show.

In Japan, some vending machines are your typical pop-and-drop affair. But many of the machines are becoming pretty sophisticated. This one had a robotic arm that unfolds from the side of the machine, zips over to the coordinates you input, grabs the item and drops it in a bin for you to collect. My prize came out tightly rolled up and wrapped in plastic. I shoved it my bag and headed back to my hotel room. As I made my way upstairs, it occurred to me how great these machines must be for young DLs in Japan who are embarrassed about buying diapers in public, as most of us are. All you'd have to is wait until the middle of the night, head to one of these machines, drop in some coins and scoot out of there. It's not ideal because they're not adult-sized, but hey, it's something.

Turned out there were two diapers included in the packet. Each was white with coloured Mickey and Minnie mouse pics printed along the tape landing area. They also have light blue Mickey and Minnie patterns on the rest of the diaper. Disney is very popular in Japan, btw. They're one-tape diapers with a light blue elastic gather and even a yellow-line wetness indicator, which I found a bit odd. You usually only see that on adult diapers like Depends. One other thing I noticed was that they didn't have much of a scent, for whatever reason.

Here's a small pic. apologies for the quality - I was using a cell phone camera:

Anyway, this may be old news for a lot of people here, but I found it pretty cool. Anyone else have pics of (or info on) diapers from Japanese vending machines or machines from other countries? I know IKEA offers free diapers from vending machines in the bathrooms of some of its stores, but I've never gotten one because the bathroom is always so busy...

[sydney9194]

That's pretty interesting that you found a diaper vending machine. What would have been better is if they had an adult diaper machine next to the one you found.