Vending machines are everywhere in Tokyo: every street corner, every dark alleyway, every train station, every parking lot. Everywhere. Sometimes they stand alone, sometimes they are in pairs, sometimes they are in gangs of three and sometimes a whole row of them line up on one side of the street and watch you go by.

There is something animate about them. After I photograph them, I remember them. When I see them again, I recognize them..it’s like that feeling of bumping into someone you have met somewhere before. They remind me of jukeboxes a little. You have a relationship with them, an agreement…you give them your coins, push the right buttons and the machine gives you what you want. At night, their bright paint and little blinking lights entice you from afar.

“How about a beer?” they ask.

Or, in their quiet understanding way they remark: “I bet you could use a cigarette right now.”

I am going to miss them.

boop beep boop beep ding-ding-ding-ding-ding

Good night my friends..

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