You've probably already heard this, but vending machines are everywhere in Japan. It's not really the wonderland of products at the push of a button the rumors would lead you to believe, though; it's mostly drinks. (Although you really can find bizarre undergarments.) I'm mostly a tea-drinking girl, as the other drinks are often way too sweet for me, but I couldn't resist this bag of "Mix Candy," flavored like five popular vending machine drinks.

I had hoped the candy themselves would be shaped like bottles, but they were just your normal lozenge shape. The C.C. Lemon and Dekavita C are, not surprisingly, fortified with Vitamin C -- too bad the Dekavita C tastes bitter and almost-medicinal, like something a swindling snake-oil salesman in a top hat might have sold out of a battered doctor's bag at the turn of the century. The other flavors are inoffensive, refreshing and citrusy, my favorite being the green Bubble Man flavor, which is actually bubbly. Plus he has the coolest individual-package design, I think. I absolutely loathe Dakara Life Partner -- a grapefruit-flavored sports drink -- as a drink, but it's won me over in hard candy form.

As my candy collection is growing faster than I can possibly eat it, I brought these to the summer English workshop where I've been teaching for the past two days and passed them out to the high school kids in an attempt to quickly get rid of them. A good number of the students gave me one of the hard candies they brought in exchange, so my candy-reduction goal wasn't exactly achieved, but I did get to see what flavor the kids preferred.

And we're in agreement: it's Bubble Man all the way. The only candy left in the bag? Dekavita C!