A Fried Chicken Vending Machine in Otaru, Hokkaido

15 comments

1. Stuff like this is why I love Japan more than just about any country I’ve ever visited..

2. Yeah we need this in the US

3. wow

4. How good is it?

5. Anyone know how it works? Does the machine just keep it warm?

6. Interesting concept. Are they actually fried in the machine, or do they have some sort of re-heating process?

7. I wonder how they keep bugs and rodents out of these things.

8. We have ones for Gyoza too! 🥟

9. Lol the coin return lever looks like fried chicken.

10. And no doubt it tastes better than from my local deli.

11. They’re frozen. I was surprised when I first shopped one of these machines

12. [Here’s a video of those two machines](https://youtu.be/sJKIS1jzpro?t=366) – it’s served frozen.

13. They’ll do anything in Japan but fix their plastic problems

14. I’ve always told myself I want to take two trips to Japan in my life. Once in the summer to places like Tokyo/Osaka and once in winter to visit Hokkaido.

15. I just recently got some corn chowder and had a nostalgia flashback to standing on a snowy train platform gripping a skinny hot-to-touch 100¥ can of corn soup, trying to balance drinking it to warm my insides or holding it to warm my hands. Sometimes I switched it up and got heated zenzai. I would have gotten very large if there was a fried chicken vending machine there too.

    Heated vending machines are aMAZing, and they should be standard everywhere.