In which we eat a swan and roam a graveyard

More Tokyo

Minasan, mata konnichiwa. Last week, you and I forgot our worries and wandered the streets of Tokyo, making memories to last a lifetime. Today we continue our explorations in an attempt to absorb the world’s most unabsorbable city.

Let’s begin.

p.s. At the bottom of this post is a list of Free or Inexpensive Things I Especially Enjoyed In Tokyo, in case anyone has a trip planned and wishes to pursue activities that imprint indelibly on the psyche.

We’ll kick off the day with a visit to the egg vending machine, which discharges eggs at a cost of 6 for ¥500, or roughly $3.

The egg machine is located in a quiet residential neighborhood, which poses a mystery. Other than “tourist-trap novelty”—which this machine is not, based on location— what might justify the existence of an egg vending machine? Is there a scenario in which a person might urgently need 6 raw eggs and prefer those eggs to be more expensive and less fresh than the eggs available at one of Tokyo’s 24/7 convenience stores?

We conclude that the egg vending machine is not a site of transaction but, instead, a shrine to some ancient god of whimsy whose domain refuses English translation. Hopefully our ¥500 offering will appease the deity.