The concept of Japanese rest stops is very similar to the ones along the American highways, except that they are much smaller in scale, compared to their western cousins and more generic (hmm… this is quite controversial as it’s almost always Macs at the American ones…).  Being a first-time driver in Japan, it is my virgin highway rest stop.  What struck me was, vending machines.  You should see the variety of food they sell from the vending machines, no wonder, it’s the vending machine country!  Was too awed by it to take photos of them, I’d need to dig deep into my photo troves to see if I actually captured one.

The rest stop consisted of many many tables (just like the typical food court in Singapore), corners for local products for tourists, a central food counter where you have your pick of food from various photos on the ticket machine. Once you have paid, a ticket appears and you give it to the lady at the counter and you will be given a number.

You know how frustrating it is when the food that finally appears differs so much from the pictures (e.g the prawn appears 2 sizes smaller, a few strands of noodles compared to the abundant amount featured, one baby drumstick instead of the giant one etc)? Well, it looked exactly like the one in the photo, all set with the nice chopsticks, spoon and bowl.

And the best thing was.. it only cost me 500 yen! Who ever said that food costs a bomb in Japan? They must have been frequenting high class restaurants.  Beside the main eating area, there was a snack shop attached to it.  As usual, I stocked up on drinks, pockey (yum!) and other tit-bits. No road trip is complete without the sinful tit-bits!!