Even up at the mountain, convenience rules. This photo might just be showing the world’s highest placed vending machine.
📸 A Symbol of Japanese “Omotenashi” (Hospitality)
These near-summit vending options reflect a core Japanese value: anticipating needs, even in the most extreme places. For exhausted climbers battling altitude, thirst, and fatigue, the sight of a Vending Machine feels almost miraculous.
As one climber wrote:
“At 3 a.m., shivering in the dark, I bought a ¥700 canned coffee from a machine run by a hut with no running water. It tasted like heaven.”