Hello Friends and welcome to another video This week we're gonna be visiting some of the most unique vending machines in Tokyo. Yes, that's right, we're heading back to Japan and we're gonna be hitting up their vending machines, hard. Now for some context, there are a ton of vending machines in Japan, like they are everywhere and they mostly sell convenient items like hot and cold coffee and tea Water and sports drinks, for people to grab on the way to school or work or in our case, to fend off jet lag. Apparently Japan has the highest vending machine per capita rate with one machine for every 23 people, which isn't really a stat I thought existed until right now But it makes sense, because it almost feels like you're outnumbered when you're there and people have mentioned that these 5 million some vending machines Can make up to 7 trillion yen per year Which is about 70 billion dollars and I will say that on our Japan trip last year We definitely partook in many of the vending machines stationed around Tokyo Especially because of how convenient they are If you have a pass mo or Suica card for the subway, you can just get whatever you want whenever you want however It was only after our trip that we discovered how many different kinds of vending machines there are like ones that sell hot foods like pizza fresh produce mystery electronics snails in a can there's even a vending machine restaurant with no people in it. It's just a room full of hot food vending machines So in light of all of that, we've scouted out four interesting vending machines in Tokyo to visit while we're there All right, to Tokyo we go So obviously the first step to getting to our Japanese vending machines was to fly to Japan Now in Tokyo we stayed at a hotel in the Shinjuku area Which has like a giant train station that served as a hub for us to get all over the place in Tokyo It's a really big station I think you can take a train within the station to another part of the station and our vending machine adventure day was like our third day in Japan, so needless to say we were a little jet-lagged but excited to explore All right So we are right now here in shinjuku park near our hotel and we are ready to set off on our vending machine excursion Our first vending machine was one that we had seen written about online That contains a couple of interesting food items and is located in the Kichijōji area. Kichijōji? Does that sound right? I feel like this video is just gonna be full of me saying Japanese locations pretty badly. Mediocrely. Yeah, so just be prepared for that. So, let's do this I could probably use a coffee from like a normal vending machine. Yeah. Yeah. Let's hit one of those first. Multiple. That's a win So we hopped on the subway heading west to get to our first vending machine now Kichijōji is a semi-residential but very cool and desirable area That's a little outside the center of Tokyo that besides having many shopping alleyways and boutique restaurants is also the home to some very scenic parks that house many interesting vending machines alright, so we are here at Inokashira park, yes. Yes, perfect Nailed it! Yes With rinrin Who is a Japanese YouTuber and Lolita model who helped us out last year with our Tokyo makeover, and she is here to help us identify what unique things we shall be eating from these vending machines and maybe eating a couple herself. I don't know I won't put pressure. But maybe, maybe she wants to try one or two yeah Now there are a lot of vending machines in this park But one that's caught my attention, in particular, is this one that has canned bread in it? I mean once I heard of canned bread I was like I need it, I need it. That baby needs it, too, we all need it now canned bread is something that I didn't think actually existed outside of Spongebob, like it's in that one episode where Squidward goes to the grocery store and is like Amazed to find it So when I heard about the opportunity to eat canned bread IRL I had to go for it and inside that same machine, there's also grasshopper and hornet larvae? Hornet larvae. Now to clarify, the hornet larvae are for eating, not for like growing into your own colony of hornets, but besides seeming like a sort of interesting snack I was very intrigued by the idea that this vending machine like paired these two things together So up first we purchased our bread Okay, so it says pan can because pan is bread in Japanese and can is, you know c-a-n Oh, so It's very simple, Okay, and then this one it has a little dad joke down here. This is (Japanese) caramel panda No, Panda, and this a pun cuz of bread and panda Panda so we decided to get the strawberry flavored bread for 550 yen or about five bucks. Oh, it's light, actually! It sounded so heavy but it feels so light. I like that It says for emergency snack on the bottom right. And then we had to purchase the insects Now we decided to go for the hornet larva over the grasshoppers I think besides sounding more unusual, the hornet larva were also more expensive. So those were the ones I wanted What can I say? I have expensive taste. This way, right? No the other way the other way. Yeah. I'm nailing this you guys Oh, I'm so glad it's in stock Now, I didn't know this beforehand But as rinrin read like on the signs on the machine apparently, people eat hornet larva for its like nutritional benefits? "For morning energy or noon energy or night energy 24 hours" Wow, so like a 5-hour energy. It sounds like something Chris Traeger would eat I know I agree the store next door actually offered toothpicks to spear the larva So we grabbed a couple and then found a place in the park to sit down and try our goodies Alright, so shall we start with the bread in a can or the hornet larva? Bread, please. Smells really good. Oh, it smells great actually. Oh Look at it. I mean it is just kind of can-shaped bread. Was it air sealed? Yeah. It's our Casper mattress I almost expected it to like expand once I took it out of the wrapper, but it stayed the same cylindrical shape it's like the leaning tower of pan in a can it was quite squishy though. It's kind of fluffy actually and it was kind of like laced with like a strawberry marbling throughout oh Did it just split in half? Yeah, it felt like a croissant. It does kind of look like a croissant They're sort of like air holes in there. You know, I mean. It's a cronut guys. Oh This is what everyone's been waiting for So after a lot of lead-up, all right cheers Cheers it was time for us to actually eat the bread Mm-hmm. I really like it. It's Jam It tastes different in here. It kind of tastes like fruity pebbles. Really? It has the texture of a croissant but the flavor of a fruity pebble I like it and I wasn't the only one who liked it. The pigeons are in route guys. They want this Yeah, I mean listen, this is like their jam. Literally it was like almost a pun. It was like close to a pun I think. I just said the word jam. Tyler also tried the bread. Oh hell yeah. Squidward was right. Yeah, this is amazing It definitely tasted good But it was really more of a strudel in a can, or like a danish in a can versus like the plain bread in a can that I imagine the Squidwardian version to be. But, this is probably more of a desirable product. No, this makes sense as a snack actually Yeah, and it makes sense to be in a park. Yeah, like you could just take this on a picnic So after the bread it was time to taste the hornet larvae I think I've slowly roped rinrin into trying the hornet larva. She's holding a toothpick. So she can't turn back now. Oh (RiNRiN gRoANiNg) Those groans that you're hearing, is Rinrin being skeptical. Subtitle: "Rinrin groaning" Now I wasn't exactly expecting the larva to be quite so soggy But when I sniffed them they smelled okay, actually it kind of doesn't smell that bad It kind of smells like a sort of like a soy sauce like a saltiness. Yeah Which Rinrin confirmed when she read the ingredients. There is soy sauce! Oh, there is the hornet larva, some sugar, and soy sauce. That's it So there was some stuff in there to soften the blow. That's a juicy one. Look at that, Cheers (cHiLd nOiSeS iN bAcKgRoUnd) Rinrin, did you just fake out eating it? Rinrin's betrayal aside, my first reaction was that it was honestly not all that bad. What I'll say is I can't tell it's a bug. It actually does taste a lot like the fermented soybean kind of thing. It kind of feels like that where it's kind of like a chewy bean. Rinrin and I had been talking earlier about how it kind of smelled like Nattō. Which is a slightly slimy fermented soybean dish, and it kind of tasted like that too. I see. Do you want it Rinrin? I'm just so scared because I'm allergic to bees. Oh, yeah Rinrin, you didn't tell us! I forgot! So Tyler ate it in her stead. Oh, it's good and weirdly, he was into it I like that I want to get the big guy. All right. So Tyler found like a straight-up full-on hornet in there. That's not a larva That's just a hornet mama. Little crunchier. That's like, really good. And apparently he liked that too. It's good dude, it's like right up there with the bread. It's like jerky almost! It's good. I don't know how to react to you right now Because I, I agree with you that it's like not that bad, but I wouldn't call it good. I feel like he was either hamming it up for the camera Or maybe we were like feeling the energizing effects of the larva a little bit. They're like wiggling more. Yeah, so larvae doing great. But at that point we had only really eaten a couple of larvae each So that seemed unlikely. Okay, so that was vending machine stop number one! Rinrin's still holding everything So we plopped back on the train and headed over to unusual vending machine number two in Harajuku Now the Harajuku area, is like a fashionable shopping district with many stores, boutiques, and kind of Instagram cute food locations. However, this vending machine has nothing to do with any of that, It is a super spicy vending machine. But not like Flaming Hot Cheetos or Taki spicy, like carolina reaper or ghost pepper magnitude spice. Which definitely seems entertaining, but doesn't seem very profitable or desirable as a vending machine product. So is this where we start our mini "hot ones" interview? Basically! Now the machine itself is very eye-catching because there are a lot of flames and skulls on it as well as disclaimers and Instructions of what not to do with spicy stuff. (sign) Something spicy was collected. How to feel the pain is each person. Please never use it in play. Don't take this one to a love hotel ;) Now, there were so many pictures of peppers on the machine, that I kind of thought that they might be selling like Carolina Reapers in a bag, but it turned out that they were like rice crackers in super super spicy sauce. But it seems like a traditional Japanese like snack but turned into really spicy After looking at our options for a while we decided to go with the Scorpion ones. It says, "Call! The pain of the Scorpion. Extremely spicy. It's also a little bit more expensive So, I don't know maybe it's fancier. And this snack had a Trinidadian scorpion pepper sauce on it which is apparently like the second spiciest pepper in the world, and it kind of Ominously came in a few protective layers. For a second I thought it was one of those things it like you like have a clerk open for you. One thing I would like to note is that this machine was selling the same cat purses that the larva vending machine in Inokashira park was? I don't know what's going on with the coin purses They're just like part of the whole like canned bread, hornet larva, spicy snack, rotation. They just naturally go together. That's what it is But regardless we had to get a cat purse, so I bought this disgruntled looking black cat. Surrogate Crusty for the trip? Yeah, so with our haul in hand, we settled in and braced ourselves for the spice. Alright so Rinrin tapped out, which is definitely fair. It smells pretty spicy. From the sign we know that this is at least a million Scovilles of heat, and to put that in perspective something like Tabasco sauce is supposed to be about 2,500 Scovilles, and Tabasco is not not spicy. So this thing is crazy The Scoville thing is like really exponential. Scoville is the hypebeast of measurements is what I would say We did have some water nearby and Tyler also had his own like escape route planned. There's an ice-cream place right there. That's the place we went to last year at the end of our Tokyo fashion makeover video? So I'm just gonna get that. And without further ado we gave it a chomp It did hurt my mouth and make me like salivate a lot. First bite tasty, a few seconds later a little painful I mean the crunch. But I feel like Tyler was quite visibly affected. (Tyler coughs) We had brought our remaining bread in a can to use as a chaser, which actually came in handy. You want the PanCan? Can me. I'm surprised I'm still talking. How are you doing Ty? Hiccuping. Oh you're hiccuping? Oh, yeah, if you hiccup then you know, it's spicy. Are you having a meltdown? Tyler is having a meltdown. What a fun passing snack. Did you eat all of the PanCan? It's okay you can have it. He's off- he's worse off than I am Should I have a second one? Go for it. So after trying it, I would say that this is more of a spicy challenge than a real food I don't think I could eat a whole bag of them, even though I like them. Which makes it kind of a weird choice for a vending machine Because I feel like you might want to try it once but probably not do it again Maybe that's why they have the cat purses. Alright, Imma go get some ice cream. Okay, I guess I was vending machine number two. It destroyed Tyler, but I'm still standing (Safiya laughing) Now having seen what happened to Tyler, Rinrin wanted to take a go herself R: Well, Itadakimasu (Bon Appetite) S:Which was bold Especially since she opted to lick it which I feel like is the worst way to go. It's like having a hole through my tongue. It's like I pierced it. It's gone. I feel like this makes me look pretty badass. So I'm liking this I'm liking everyone else and with our taste testing, spice quelling, and I guess my peacocking done We grabbed yet another vending machine coffee. I'm gonna drink like five of these today. I love crafts boss crafts boss Is boss and headed over to vending machine number 3, or should I say vending machines plural? Since we were really going to what has been described as a creepy vending machine corner I am not calling it that. People call it that. T: They do call it that! S: Other people call it a creepy vending machine cluster So I figured we had to go check it out ourselves So we took the subway east to Akihabara Which is what I would describe As a busy neighborhood that is known for being a center for anime, gaming, and tech culture. It also has a lot of themed cafes like maid cafes, as well as a ton of Gachapon or capsule machines that sell little collectibles It's a capsule machine selling mini capsule machines Alright, now we just need to find a vending machine selling mini vending machines The creepy corner is a short walk from the station like over a bridge and down a residential street So we found it pretty quickly and took a little peek inside. Rinrin's freaked out a little bit I am, we kind of just stepped inside a bit and I already got the creepy feeling up my legs The corner itself is under a dilapidated looking apartment building or house and I think it objectively looks a little haunted. and that I think is why people think this is creepy to be fair We did come at like the exact right time of day to be freaked out. Cause it's like 6:00 p.m And the sun is setting so it's like what's going on here? But the vending machines themselves Do also look a little dusty like maybe they've been abandoned I mean looking at how rundown this particular one is is doing it for me and they do sell what seems to be a Purposefully odd set of items like plastic bugs, plastic figurines, chargers, some bells The bells are almost the weirdest ones, like don't ring those bells There are also a lot of notes and signs that seem like they've been left behind for you to discover Rinrin started reading one that was inside the vending machine Hold on hold on ... What?? What? what's happening? No, it says something really gross. I don't even know if you want this in your thing. the sign apparently says (and I'm paraphrasing here) that you can enjoy these bath salts for 650 yen, but they would not recommend sticking them up your girlfriend's butt. Is that a concern? What are they like pop rock bath salts? Like, what? Alright, I feel like the creepy vibe is now dissipated for some reason They're just trying to mess with us. If these are ghosts, they're just horny ghosts, It's fine. Now, besides the pop rock booty salts and the other random items, one of the other things that this corner is known for are like mystery box vending machines that have notes on each box. There is like a little description on each one Mmm, is it dirty too? Yep. Don't put it in your butt. Talking about I don't want to be quoted saying this kind of stuff. Like I don't want to be quoted for that butt thing either. So besides that first one nook of vending machines We also discovered a few more inlets facing the street around the corner There's even more back here which seemed to be filled with more just random items. What's this sign say, Rinrin? Well, it has a warning well Hell no. I'm coming out. Hold on. It says please don't leave your cardboard boxes here There are actual people living here and there's a sleeping baby Alright, I'm okay even though the evidence was piling up that this corner wasn't actually that creepy alright there's another popcorn machine back here There are a fair amount of cardboard boxes to be fair The design of the place was just kind of rundown And like a little funhousey. Why do I feel like I'm gonna bout to get jumpscared It's hard to tell like where the alleyways go And once you're inside them, they're very claustrophobic and you can kind of see between the machines So you unexpectedly catch glimpses of people walking through the other passageways Hey. I was just like looking at Rinrin. I thought it was a mirror or something. Hey Rinrin. Hello. Uh, almost. So after taking a look at our options of what we could actually buy, though there were some interesting items I was most intrigued by the mystery boxes because well They're a mystery. Now Rinrin has told us that most of the like little notes that are written on these boxes are pretty inappropriate We've found one that seems to be decently YouTube friendly I think it's about a comedian Owing money and then running away. Why am I kind of nervous and when I pulled it out there was another note on the side This feels like escape the night Here's the note Is it the same thing? The note actually said happy Reiwa era which is the new Imperial era of Japan that just started pretty recently So if nothing else this mystery box could only have been in there for a couple of months. There are some words on the inside. It's a choco bat It looks like chocolate sticks like thick Pocky which I would say is a pretty normal item given all the suspense it tastes a little stale but It's good. I think of all the things we could have gotten, that's pretty safe. Mm-hmm. Chocolate on your teeth. Oh, I'm sure. There was, however, another note on the inside of the wrapping. It's an address. That was a little strange We're not going to the address. We're not going to the address in Atami. It's so far away! It's not even Tokyo We're gonna keep the bats and we're gonna we're gonna keep it at that So in addition to our choco bats Tyler had been just generally interested in hot food vending machines and there happened to be a hot popcorn machine like right there so we bought a bag for 220 yen Oh It's on. And it basically just takes a bag of unpopped kernels Puts them into an internal microwave for about a minute or two and then serves them to you Oh, yep, there it is ready Oh, it's freakin hot Okay, there's no way of telling like how long the kernels have been in there unpopped but they tasted pretty good Oh, that's great. Want some popcorn? Alright, this is a great thing to do (R: Thank you!) with a vending machine Hmm. It's really good. Overall my final take is that the whole creepy thing? Seems to be sort of like a publicity stunt to get people To come to the vending machines and you can tell after reading a lot of the signs and notes that it's all meant to be Like a big practical joke this house it is mess everything. That's definitely what's happening. It's just a prank. It's just a prank, bro bra Rough though. I think it is a fair warning to not put bath salts up your butt Alright, so that was the creepy corner Yeah, it is obviously nighttime right now, but I do have one final vending machine that I wanted to visit That is nearby. It is hot ramen in a can so I was thinking we could go and get some dinner Exactly. So I had seen this hot ramen in a can in another Japanese vending machine video and it seemed like a pretty solid thing to get after a day filled with exciting things but not really things that you want to eat a lot of so I thought it would be a fun quick thing to Grab and try out to finish out the video. Boy was I wrong. Are we lost? Maybe! So we had been working off of this video in particular to locate the machine which told us that it was somewhere in Akihabara but not exactly where however in the background of this shot You can see the K bookstore on the opposite corner So I figured if we went to the K books in Akihabara, we would find it But when we got there, there was no ramen in sight It was then that I realized that this video was from 2013 which I kind of forgot was a long time ago So probably either the K books or the vending machine had moved in the you know Like six years since then still determined to find some soup We started just searching online for any clues. Okay, we've been looking for the hot ramen for a hot second I think we might have found a lead my original lead may not have been a lead at all. We're gonna find it besides that we also tried asking one of the maids who was Advertising her maid cafe on the street for pointers while Tyler just started running around the streets by himself The maid told us that she had never heard of a hot ramen machine but there was a hot Oden in a can machine nearby that she knew of which is another type of Japanese soup at that same moment. Hello. Tyler called me Oh, you found it and told me that he had found a hot Oden machine a few blocks away, man He must have moved fast. Where did he go? He's he left. There he is. Oh look he's running. How did you find it? I ran around the block. I found it. This is such a wild quest for ramen in a can. They've all been pretty easy to find until this point Tyler suspects that this is the same corner that we saw in the original video Oh Is this it and it's really just that the K books has moved to a new location And they've gotten rid of the ramen from the machine and I think he might be right So turning our attention back to the soup which one should we get? They had either a fish ball or a beef tendon Oden and we chose the beef. Oh, yeah, it's hot Oh, it's hot Ooo my fingers Oden is known for having a lot of different veggies and items in it notably daikon Which is like a type of radish It's not really like ramen, but at that point I was down for anything surprise its larvae Oh No Oh smells good these hot soup cans usually have a toothpick inside with which you eat all of the solid bits Sorry, I render and I've stuck my finger in it now. I think it's this that you're supposed to yep There you go. But our toothpicks seem to have something already on it. This is konjac so I ate that first So, how does it be good for you? Oh, it's good for me. It tastes good for you. It tastes good for me. Got it Besides that I think you're just supposed to drink the broth. Oh, that's actually really good Broth is awesome. Which makes it hard to share with multiple people Oh, I Bit into the too thick. So rinrin sat this one out. We were missing some spoons I think a little bit just a little bit I was surprised by the amount of stuff that was in there good like things just kept coming out. That one was good I ate a fair amount of my own hair which was mediocre But the radish was good and they were generally pretty solid including this egg which we found about ten minutes into eating the soup Overall I would say that this soup was pretty good and it feels hearty I'm into it and as a vending machine product It makes sense If you want like a hot dinner on the go but for us I'm not sure it was worth all of the time. We spent running around looking for it, though I am amazed that in the end. We found any hot soup in a can at all So I guess I'm not in a position to complain but with that we had visited all of our unique Japanese vending machines as well as one more normal coffee one today Overall, I thought that all of the machines were pretty fun and left quite an impression I'm not sure We fully answered the question of why they all exist except for maybe just as a side hustle for selling cat purses But I think they all employ some version of the be kind of out there for press purposes Tactic, so even though they may not actually sell items that are desirable for everyday use - minus maybe the Odin they do attract new customers through articles videos or just word of mouth So there's sort of like low maintenance versions of instafamous foods/attractions Personally my favorite part of the day besides the larva, of course was just getting to see different parts of the city We did spend a lot of time on the train and I think next time we're in Japan We'll definitely be visiting some more unique vending machines, but maybe not spicy ones for Tyler's sake Thank you guys so much for watching And once again a big THANK YOU to rinrin for helping us explore these vending machines if you like that video Make sure to smash that like button and if you want to see more videos like this Make sure to shamash that subscribe button here are my social media handles and a big shout out to Audrey for watching Thanks for watching Audrey, and I will see you guys next time
