The Big Gulp 飲み物

     I have already done a post about eating, so it is only fair to do one on drinking, too.

     On ever street corner, and in front of most stores there is a vending machine which dispenses both hot and cold drinks,even if the store sells drinks. Usually these contain tea, water, coffee, juice, etc... but there are some variation from place to place. The price ranges from 100-150 yen. 

     This post will mostly be pictures unless the drink was particularly surprising or unexpected because it is difficult to describe slight variations in taste. 

In any case, here are some pictures of things that I have been drinking. 

The powdered drinks or teas.

I like Japanese green tea better than American green tea.

In general, the coffee here is more bitter than what I've had in America.

The Juices:

The OJ tall carton tastes like oranges that are just over-ripened and has no pulp at all (texture like apple juice) which to me is really weird and surprising.

The "healthy" one tastes like v8, but better somehow...

Most of these are quart sized containers which the convenience stores sell with giant long straws. 

Do you drink juice a quart at a time?

   

The Canned Coffee.

I don't even know, do they sell canned coffee in America? Not bottles, but cans?
 I think rainbow means cream and sugar - at least that's what it tastes like.
The carton of coffee tastes like sweetened condensed milk in coffee.
The percentage # in the corner indicates what ratio of cream to coffee.

Starbucks coffee tastes the same in Japan.

This is milk. I had to ask someone how to tell the different percentages of milk apart. 

This is whole milk (see the 3.6 milk-fat).

And everything else...

Convenience stores コンビニ are great.