Tokyo has a vending machine on nearly every block, which makes it hard to find the good ones. Most are drinks. A few hundred are something else entirely. This is the shortlist: the twelve we would build a day around, from the first machine you meet at the airport to a parking lot that is basically a vending museum. All of them are pinned on the Tokyo map.
Oranges, squeezed while you watch
In Shibuya, the Feed ME machine drops 3 or 4 whole oranges into a juicer behind glass and fills your cup in about 40 seconds, for 500 yen. It is the machine that went viral, and it deserves it: watching the oranges roll down is half the point. Start your Tokyo run here.
Akihabara, the capital
If you only have time for one neighborhood, it is Akihabara. The district's mascot product is a 500 yen can of literal air, the ultimate joke souvenir. Its oldest legend is the canned oden machine outside the old Chichibu Denki building, selling hot oden in a can since the 1990s, when the all-nighters needed dinner at 3am. The electronics shop closed in 2015. The machine never did. And somewhere nearby is the "cursed" corner, a cluster of unmarked machines selling weird, unrelated objects. Nobody can tell you what will come out. That is the point of Akihabara.
Hungry after all that? Local meat institution Niku no Mansei runs two machines with heat-and-eat mains and pork-cutlet sandwiches.
Business cards, printed on the platform
In Shinjuku, a station machine prints business cards on demand. Nothing explains Japanese work culture faster than a vending machine for meishi. Also in Shinjuku, the soy milk megamachine stocks more than 36 soy milks, hot and cold, which is several dozen more than anyone needs.
The 100 yen burger
In a residential street in Katsushika, a homemade-looking machine sells handmade burgers for 100 yen. It is a neighborhood legend and the cheapest meal on this list by a mile. Do not expect fast food. Expect someone's lovingly made burger in a box.
Wagyu, frozen ramen, and dinner at the station
Tokyo's food machines have gotten serious. In Shinagawa, a station machine sells premium Miyazaki wagyu, pricey but exactly the gimmick wagyu fans want. In Ikebukuro, 1,000 yen buys a frozen bowl of a serious ramen style, Iekei or tsukemen or Jiro, at a sleepy commuter stop. For more regional food from machines, see our regional delicacies guide.
Pokémon at the gate
Your last Tokyo machine is probably at Haneda. Terminal 1 has a Pikachu-yellow Pokémon Stand selling official Pokémon Center merch, including the elusive Captain Pikachu plush. It has saved a lot of forgotten souvenir runs.
The day trip: a parking lot of Showa machines
If you have a spare day, make the trip out to the Sagamihara vending machine park: about 100 working Showa-era machines in a tire shop's parking lot, many of them older than the people visiting. It is the spiritual home of vending culture and the best day trip on the map.
Tokyo has plenty more, from bug snacks in Ameyoko to natto doughnuts and canned bread. They are all on the Tokyo map, filterable by neighborhood. If you are heading west next, read the Osaka guide and the Kyoto guide.