The automat is something of a strange echo from my childhood.

When I was maybe 5 or so, my mom took my sister and I to Chicago from Kansas City. That train ride in and of itself is something of time capsule in my memory. My sister remembered the glowing handrails (radium?). I remember the lounge car where passengers sipped cocktails and watched the lights at night rush past outside. The women dressing, in my fuzzy recollection, like extras in The Thin Man.

Chicago was where I got to buy a pie, or some kind of dessert, from an automat. What a magical thing to give a kid some coins and just tell them to go grab what they like…

There are a number of things from my childhood that I came to find later were just gone. (Or obscure now to the point they are essentially gone.) Imagine my delight when the film Dark City featured an automat.

I was surprised in Tokyo to find something of a hybrid. Those places where you place your order, pay through something like a vending machine at the entrance of the place. The order goes back to the kitchen and, after you've sat down and waited a short time, your order is up.

Struck me as an efficient way to not have to have someone running a cash register, seating you, taking your order.

Also, there's a documentary called "The Automat" [1] that I tracked down just recently—have not yet watched. (Looks like it's streaming on Amazon, FWIW.)

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4554690/

> My sister remembered the glowing handrails (radium?)

That reminded me of the "glowy tape" my brother and I used to play with when we were kids. It had come from my grandparents' estate, and we had no idea what it was for, but it was fun. My father thought it was from WWII, as he had vague memories of it being used to mark the corners of furniture during 'lights out' air raid drills. I now assume it was radium, and am not overly happy with my childhood self playing with it.

> Those places where you place your order, pay through something like a vending machine at the entrance of the place. The order goes back to the kitchen and, after you've sat down and waited a short time, your order is up.

I know those places but at this point the USA seems full of them, or at least LA/SF. They aren't the same style as the Japanese ones but there are tons of places in California where you can walk in and order from a touchscreen and they just call your number when your order is ready.