Grasshoppers, flowers, ramen to umbrellas: Why Japan has vending machines for everything

Japan is home to more than 2.6 million vending machines, meaning there’s roughly one machine for every 45-50 residents. These machines sell everything ranging from fresh flowers and hot ramen bowls to umbrellas and even edible grasshoppers. For Japanese consumers, the appeal lies in speed and convenience getting what you need instantly without waiting in line. To understand how the country got here, and how these machines actually work, Popular Science spoke with David Widjaja, a former vending machine industry employee and current owner of Japantogo LLC, an Ishikawa-based company that exports Japanese vending machines internationally.Japanese vending machines a surprisingly ancient inventionVending machines are far older than most people assume. The world's first known vending machine was built by the Greek engineer and inventor Hero of Alexandria in ancient Egypt during the first century AD, originally used to dispense holy water inside temples.