Capsule Machines in Japan

Game centers in Japan are everywhere in urban areas. Kids don’t have as much park space as kids in the US would, since everything is much denser and land space is much smaller, so they often hang out at game centers. And, if you go to a game center you might see rows and rows of these:

These are capsule machines, or as kids call them gacha-gacha after the sound they make. Capsule machines aren’t limited to Japan only, but the variety and prevalence is much larger than in the US. You can find capsule machines all over the place, and the variety of stuff you can get is staggering:

To the bottom-right you can even see a “Buddhist statue” gacha-gacha machine. I saw those in Kyoto a lot too. They even had one for my favorite Japanese song, Matsuken Samba:

The capsule machines can cost anywhere from 100-yen, to as much as 500-yen per capsule. Also, be aware, there is usually a small basket nearby where you can put the opened capsules (do not throw away in regular garbage if possible). So, once you’ve opened your capsule and removed the contents, just put in the basket.

As for Matsuken Samba, he sits on my bookshelf now here in the US: