Among the things that endear you to Japan are drink vending machines. They carry soda and juice and water, to be sure, but also green tea, and – best of all – cans of coffee, with various amounts of milk and sugar, both cold and hot. The most common is Boss Coffee, whose logo features a mustachio’d man with a jut of jaw and a pipe clamped firmly in it. Others carry the face of actor Tommy Lee Jones, who does not look happy to be the boss, looks too sad to be in charge of anything.

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