KOCHI -- At the entrance of the Muroto Schoolhouse Aquarium in Muroto, Kochi Prefecture, a granite-style "stone monument" inscribed with the name of a defunct school, "Muroto Municipal Shiina Elementary School," has attracted attention frpm the public.
The "monument" is actually a soft-drink vending machine covered in a stone monument design. A beverage manufacturer catered to the aquarium's request to do something to show the facility was originally an elementary school.
The aquarium opened in April 2018 in the building of a school that closed in 2006. With cooperation from local fishermen, it exhibits creatures that live off the coast of Muroto. The aquarium has proved popular, with more than 250,000 people visiting it in the past 1-1/2 years.
The school emblem remains on the outside wall, while a fish tank exhibiting lobsters was previously a long and narrow hand-washing stand. As such equipment is installed at a height forcing adults to bend their backs when using it, visitors are likely to picture a scene in which students used it all in a line.
The museum's staff members, including Director Motoki Wakatsuki, were being asked by visitors almost every day whether this place had been an elementary or a junior high school.
In the summer of 2019, when Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc., based in Tokyo, proposed adding another vending machine on the facility's grounds, Wakatsuki conditionally accepted the proposal, saying, "It would be good if it's a vending machine designed like a monument that will tell people this place was an elementary school."
An official of the company's sales promotion section was initially surprised by Wakatsuki's suggestion, saying, "Don't you want a design showing fish swimming in the sea?" The two sides eventually agreed to install a vending machine in which people cannot see the products from the front.
The vending machine, installed in mid-October 2019, is 1.8 meters high and 1.2 meters wide. Other than the front, the vending machine has been designed to look like a granite, and the school song and history have been written on its sides.
According to the company, there have been cases in which vending machines were completely covered in designs featuring the animation "Yuki Yuna wa Yusha de Aru" (Yuki Yuna is brave) in Kanonji and Sakaide, both in Kagawa Prefecture, where the animation is set. However, a company official said, "In Japan, there should be no vending machine with a design that makes products show their backs to customers."
The frequently asked question from visitors was supposed to be clearly answered by the company's efforts that brought about this "refreshing" vending machine. But Wakatsuki said with a wry laugh, "Actually, we are still asked the question, 'What was the name of the school?'"
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