Same here. I never buy from vending machines in the US or Europe. In Japan, the prices are low and the quality good, so I bought several things, including ice cream. There's no way I'd buy the garbage ice cream we make in America from a vending machine, but the stuff in Japan is pretty good and a nice treat on a hot day, and was only Y140.
Slightly OT, but I haven't heard this: are the vending machines in Japan dispensing real ice cream and not soft-serve? Very interesting, if so I would imagine the mechanics have to be far more robust/complicated. Or is it still soft-serve, but just higher-quality?
edit: by soft-serve, I mean any of the thinner ice cream/frozen yogurt alternatives as opposed to the (usually very thick) real ice cream.
No, the machines I got ice cream from were dispensing real, solid ice cream. They were shaped as cones and on sticks for easy handling, but they were real ice cream, not that soft-serve crap.
Yes, I imagine these machines would have to be pretty robust to maintain those temperatures in Japan's hot climate.
Note: some varieties actually had waffle cones; others did not. There were also handy recycling bins right next to the ice cream machines, placed by the vendor, just for the rubbish from that machine.
