I will push it now.
Is it there? Oh yes they got it.
Cheese!!!
Hello everyone...
I am Ask Japanese's Cathy Cat.
Do you know how convenient Japan is?
Convenience stores are open 24/7, the trains are on time.
And there is an un-rivaled number of vending machines.
So today we will go on a place that is featuring vending machines.
Let's go.
In Tokyo there seems to be a vending machine around every second corner.
I love going round them and finding new drinks and crazy themed drinks.
Today I went to Gunma prefecture a few hours away from busy Tokyo
to find a unique vending machine restaurant
called "The vending machine diner".
Wow there are really strange vending machines here...
I have seen them for the first time.
The vending machines are super retro.
Some have been in use for about 30 years.
Now, those machines do not sell drinks, they mainly sell hot food.
So today my challenge will be to go and try all their items on the menu.
What type of place is this?
We have retro vending machines here.
This gives kids nowadays a chance to experience them, even if they don't know the old vending machines.
What I find rare is that it's food and not drinks.
It is. Nowadays it's hard to find food vending machines.
When were these food machines popular?
Around the 1980s. During that time there weren't any 24hr convenience stores.
If you wanted to sell something 24hrs, it had to be in vending machines.
So the old vending machines were like the convenience stores of nowadays.
That's right.
Mr Tomaru actually thinks of new food items.
So they always have a variety of new and fresh items in the machines.
Also my tip you can't use bills here so break them down into coins first.
Alright, let's get us something tasty.
Let's get udon first!
Let's get some tempura udon out of the machine.
It started making noises.
4...3...2...1...
Do they get done this quickly?
It made a clicking sound. Wow that's so fast.
Let's look.
It's steaming hot.
Wow. It doesn't look that different from udon in restaurants.
Let's try it.
This is so good.
It's so hot.
The tempura is soft now but looks good.
The vegetables inside still have a bite to it. Nice.
This one doesn't seem to have any toppings.
I can only need ramen noodles.
Or is it there? It's here!
There is sliced pork meat.
There are some bean sprouts.
Wait there is more. Two slices of meat.
Looking good looking good.
Let's try the meat with the noodles...
This looks tasty.
This is so good. The meat is super juicy.
I often get instant noodles but this is totally different.
The noodles are fresh and the meat is juicy. This looks tasty.
It has a rich soy sauce flavor.
I prefer this to convenience stores ramen noodles.
It's so cold in here... - It's a fridge.
How does this get so hot in such a short time?
This is a spiral staircase, and the first one comes out like this.
Then hot water and soy sauce flavor pour into it.
That's how it gets so hot. The hot water is 90 degrees hot.
Toasted sandwich vending machine.
There are two flavors. Ham and Cheeeeddaaaar Cheese.
That's funny. They also have a taster menu.
Grated garlic mayonnaise plus sliced garlic.
There is some ham inside, it says.
There are also other things. See, they have cute pictures drawn all over.
"It's hot so there are tongs" it says.
N"It's super hot so please use the tongs, ok?" and here it says "munch munch"
"Be sure to do it!"
"Don't burn yourself!"
Frog: "What the heck! This is friggin hot!"
And since it's so hot there are some mittens too.
There is also a designated tray here.
If I use this right, I should be able to eat some tasty toast.
Let's first try the Ham and Cheeeeddar Cheeese toast.
One two. Let's push this.
It says "Toasting" in Japanese here.
Since it's burning hot, let's use the tongs like they said.
Alright then...
Wow this IS hot.
Let's get it out.
It smells of tasty toasty toast. Smells tasty.
Let's have a look inside.
Outside there is ham, inside there is Cheddaaaar Cheese. The stretchy kind.
Let's dig in.
I like that it has a crunch outside.
Inside it's gooey.
This is super good.
Grated garlic mayonnaise , sliced garlic and there is some ham wedged inside.
and apparently it has "crazy salt" inside...?
Crazy Salt people!
Let's use the cute mittens.
So hot.
Let's put it over here. Blep.
Let's try out their taster menu.
I like the smell of garlic and toasty bread...
It's rich in garlic flavor, but I can take it. It tastes really good.
I tried your taster menu. It was really nice.
There was a lot of garlic inside. - Yes I tried doing that.
Sorry for my garlic breath. *breathy voice* SO MUCH GAAARLICCC.
I am ok.
Do you do these taster sets a lot?
Yes I do. I design food variations that I am interested in.
And then I ask the customers how they like it.
Before I had variations like sweet bean paste and cheese and such.
That's totally different. Sweet beans and cheese?!
What did your customers say to that?
At first they were taken aback but then... most found it tasty.
The machine says HESS PACIFIC... does that mean that's a German and Japanese maker
working together on these machines?
I think that what this might have been, yes.
Is Pacific a vending machine company?
Pacific doesn't make vending machines anymore.
They produce aluminum foil, for cars and such too.
That's why the toast earlier was wrapped inside aluminum foil!
That's it.
We found an interesting connection here then.
There are two doors to get in.
If you put money in, one of these will turn and one sandwich will fall out.
Beneath here there are two hot plates.
They will both wedge in the toast and toast it.
Then when the time is over, the hot plates will open and drop the sandwich.
That's why they were crunchy and really toasted.
Can you believe it?
There is even a vending machine for hamburgers here.
It's not Guten Morgen (Good Morning) but Guten Burger (Good Burger).
It has something resembling the German flag here too.
Guten means "good" in German.
It says Guten Burger in a German style, but in contrast we have a Mexican burger here.
I will enjoy this contrasting menu a lot.
Let's spend 1, 2, 300 yen on this.
300 YEN!
Let's go! Mexican!
It takes just over one minute.
Seconds until my Guten Burger is done 10...9...
What? How? It's suddenly super fast.
5...4...3...2...1......
It's boiling! So hot!
It says "Mexican" on it. There is also a cute stamp of a girl on it.
Can you see the stamp? Cute!"
Let's open the Mexican!
That's how it looks.
Inside the box, the burger is wrapped up one more time.
Wow. So many hallepeno peppers on this! It's covered in it.
And the meat it actually quite big for a Japanese burger.
It's not just meat. It tastes of onions and other spices.
It's soft and the hallepeno peppers work perfectly to complete it.
When you match it it's not too spicy.
It matches perfectly.
Wooop Mexican! It's a little bit spicy now.
Last one is the sliced cheese with cheddar cheese, sliced cheese burger.
Let's go!
(Counting in German) Eins... Zwei... Drei...
Dreihundert Yen!
One came back out. Let's do it again...
No good again...
It's a bit of an older machine, so stuff like this can happen sometimes.
Let's use a different coin.
AH!
I just spoke German to the half German machine, so maybe it just didn't understand me.
Eins ... Zwei .... Drei....
Launching the sliced cheese, ceddar cheese double burger NOW!
It has so much cheese inside, I can't open it because of all the cheese.
Lots of stretchy cheese.
K'POW CHEESE!
The most popular thing on the menu in the automated diner is this:
Tartare sauce meat with bacon.
I really want to try that, so let's dig in.
Meeeeat!
Let's go!
Hot hot hot hot hot hot
Tartare meeeeat.
The tartare sauce is all gooey.
There are so many things inside. Let's eat!
Tomato sauce and Tartare sauce really go well together.
I understand why this became their most popular item.
Tomato sauce from Italy and Tartare from... maybe France?
And since it's a German machine, we got an European taste right here.
European!
Do you get visitors from abroad too?
Yes, I do. Many come because they have seen us on YouTube.
Since it's automated vending machines, you can use them without talking at all...
Yes, but I am thinking, if we get more foreign visitors, maybe
we can add some English descriptions too.
Please do! Hope that will happen.
Thank you so much for today. It was a real feast. I am stuffed.
Japanese vending machines are really something else.
What I found most tasty was the toasted garlic sandwich.
Everyone, I hope you get the chance so use some of the Japanese vending machines too.
If you are from abroad, and you come to Japan, be sure to
find some cool Japanese vending machines and try them out.
That was it from Cathy Cat today. Mata Nyan!
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