Even amphibians love Japan’s unmanned drink dispensers, but what do you do if you want your change?


Among the many great things about Japanese vending machines is that they never fail to take paper money. When you slide your 1,000-yen bill into a Japanese vending machine, you can be certain it will accept your payment as surely as a human salesperson would.

Of course, that means that you’ll need to get change back, and thankfully the change levers on Japanese vending machines are just as reliable as the bill slots. But while the machine recently used by Japanese Twitter user @Yu___EKkozo was in perfectly good working order, getting his change turned out to be a problem.

▼ “Sorry to be a bother, but I’d like to get my change…”

Nestled around the change lever’s housing were a trio of tiny frogs, one perched atop the lever and two hiding out below. They didn’t seem interested in vacating their territory, either, which presented @Yu___EKkozo with a dilemma, but also the rest of Twitter with smiles and laughs, as other users left comments like:

“Super-super cute!”
“If I didn’t notice them until I touched them when I reached for the lever, it would totally freak me out.”
“Hahaha it’s like the vending machine has its own sales staff.”
“I’ve never seen this happen before.”

But despite that last comment, other Twitter users were ready with photographic evidence that apparently frogs are actually pretty fond of Japan’s vending machines.

https://twitter.com/Chu_Tako_E/status/1033605395896459264 https://twitter.com/heiheimuramura/status/1033641823674097664

Still, no one’s quite sure why this is such a coveted spot among well-savvy amphibians. Some theorized that the temperature around the change lever housing might be cooler than down on the ground, but since the frogs are camped out in an indented part of the machine, it doesn’t look like they’d be getting much of a breeze.

Another possible explanation one commenter shared is that since vending machines remain lit throughout the night, they often attract small bugs, and the frogs might be waiting for nightfall and their dinner to deliver itself.

As cute as they are when they’re occupying the change lever housing, the frogs do present a problem if you’re paying with anything other than exact change. Luckily, as several commenters pointed out, Japan’s vending machines are designed to automatically spit the remaining change out if a certain amount of time passes without a button being pressed to select an item for purchase. The exact amount of time varies by manufacturer and model, but is generally less than a minute, so by the time you get out your phone to snap a photo of the amphibians, your change should be on its way shortly.

Source: Twitter/@Yu___EKkozo via IT Media