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Fuuuuck the best place I've ever had ramen ran exactly like that, hope they're able to update smoothly
They remembered my wife and I 1.5 years after our previous visit, the lady said "oh my, it's the tall American, welcome back!", so they earned my loyalty
You sure they didn’t just say that to every tall American looking person and just happened to be right the second time you came back?
I worked as a waiter for years when I was in college and did randomly remember people like that who stood out for whatever reason.
I'm laughing here because we had one particularly difficult British guy one time and when he ordered a cheese plate at the end of his meal our lovely French dessert chef arranged the selection as a smiley face. It was INCREDIBLE.
There was some debate in the kitchen. I delivered it. He smiled in fairness.
I'm sure because the first time I'd been there they said "welcome in" and showed my wife and I how to use the vending machine as it was a little non-standard even for Japanese people, then referenced that when we came back the 1.5 years later when we gave our order tickets over.
I DID wear a green backpack and red hoodie combo during our Japan trips, so it's likely tall white guy + red hoodie + green backpack was enough to remember us, but it's still impressive to me
Very interesting because the bills will be different sizes similar to other countries currencies. Before they were all fairly fat sized bills.
Honestly it can be worked around, I know places have stickers that read "does not accept new 500 yen". They can have change machines 両替機 or a counter person that can give out old 1000 yen bills from 5000 yen etc or a token.
It's also not that expensive to replace the cash receivers on vending machines. There's a reason they're on panels. You can basically just pop out individual pieces and swap them
I was about to suggest this. I'm not an expert but I've seen the inside part of different type of money accepting machines and they seem relatively easy to adapt, at least from a layman's point of view.
I know commercial washing machines are relatively easy to fix yourself as an owner since that's sorta how they're sold, I don't suspect this part of the vending machine is that much harder.
Yes...if you don't have a 15-year-old machine where it's hard to get parts.
You'd be surprised on how long companies make parts for their old stock and what Asian countries you cna just order them from.
We have almost 30 year old typewriters that we easily get parts for at my job. Most people don't use typewriters anymore, plenty of people still use those money machines in japan still.
This sounds like a great opportunity for someone to design a retrofit for common vending machine models.
Did some Japanese sleuthing. Big firms will be fine, as many commercial PoS systems need simply a firmware update to know what bills to accept.
https://www.necplatforms.co.jp/solution/retail/newbill/index.html
There are a number of ticket machines that are supported with a simple part exchange, a bunch of models listed here:
https://www.elcom-net.co.jp/lp/newbanknotes/#replacementBox
The site says there is a possibility that units pre-2017 would be incompatible with an upgrade, but I'm just guessing it's to ensure customers don't get angry that they can't fix their machine from the 80s.
reading this article it's very trickily worded, talking about the "cost of new machines" but never making mention of whether or not the existing machines can be retrofitted with new receivers
The US went through this back in the 90's (I think) . It's a pain but, a cost of doing business.