So apparently 7-11s are becoming a tourist stop in Japan. This actually makes perfect sense to me. I have not done any time in Japan, but I have spent a lot of time in 7-11 and other convenience stores in Taiwan and Mainland (Lawsons). There are lots of jokes about Americans who go somewhere and want to see McDonalds, but a proper Asian 7-11 is quite different. Even back as far as my student days the ones in Taiwan were interesting. I think they were one of the first places that had a register that automatically had you pay sales tax, which mom and pop stores did not. You might think that paying taxes would not be a big draw, but the receipt also doubled as a lottery ticket, which you could not get at a mom and pop. The amount of semi-prepared food (and microwaves and stuff to heat it) just keeps growing and you can do your banking, pick up a package, get train tickets and do a lot of other stuff there. If you think about it they are basically becoming like the old post office (the ones outside the U.S. with a bank inside and a place to check on the state of your pension and such), the local place where you can get in touch with the system. And grab a snickers and a beer while you are there.
This actually goes back a bit. I talked to a student a few years back who was going on one of those summer study tours to Japan. They had to do a research project of some sort to justify the credits, and they picked a study of the architecture and uses of Japanese convenience stores. The professor agreed that it was a good topic, but also pointed out that this student had the best spoken Japanese in the whole group, and was letting their distaste for talking to strange humans to push them into a topic that would mean they did not have to talk to anyone.
That, of course, is one of the attractions of places like this. If you want to get stuff done without talking to people, a proper convenience store works really well. Get your morning baozi from a proper place and you may have to talk to someone. Get them from 7-11 and they will not be as good, but you can avoid that annoying human contact.
Bonus pictures
H-mart convenience store in the Philippines
Hello Kitty 7-11 in Taiwan
