You are thirsty late at night? Nothing at home? Bad luck for you if you are in Switzerland, unless you happen to live close to a motorway and one of the 24-hour shops along them. You find vending machines at the station, but they charge 2-3 times what the bottle of Coke would cost in a shop. In Japan both vending machines and "kombini" (24-hour shops) are incredibly ubiquitous. If you have to walk farther than 20 meters to the next vending machine, that indicates you reeeally live somewhere far off. They are just everywhere, prices for drinks are the same as in any shop and they look really fancy too.
The kombinis are another phenomenon. These shops are open 24-hours, 7-days a week. And there is not just one in every area of the city, but literally at every corner. From my dormitory in Fukuoka for example, I could reach 5 kombinis within 5 minutes walk. For me it's incredible that it makes economical sense to have that many shops. They offer food mostly take-away and convenience food, hygiene articles, mangas and magazines and drinks, some serve as a small post office as well. Supermarkets on the other hand seem to be rather scarce.
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