Frozen home-style cooking with unbelievable tastes.
If you ever find yourself away from the bustling crowds of Kyoto’s cultural hotspots, wandering around the quiet industrial pockets of Fushimi Ward, you might just stumble across a culinary surprise that many travelers will miss, and it comes by way of a vending machine standing at the entrance of a food factory.
In most parts of the world, vending machines offer soda or snacks, but in Japan they are a conduit of creativity, with some even providing edible bugs or help finding a person to marry. This vending machine, though, is a window into the world of Kyoto cuisine: the Obanzai Gacha.
For 400 yen (US$2.50) you can enjoy a bundle of three frozen packages, but due to the “gacha” element, you’ll have no idea what they can contain until they clatter out of the machine. But what sort of obanzai dinners could you be getting…and just what is obanzai?
While Kyoto is famous for its kaiseki cuisine, which is an elaborate, multi-course fare, obanzai is its humble cousin, the traditional home-style cooking of Kyoto that is rooted in the philosophy of not wasting anything and using seasonal, local ingredients. It’s the kind of nostalgia-seasoned cooking one might have during childhood visits to their grandparents’ house, with dishes like simmered radish or grilled eggplant in broth.
This vending machine on the doorstep of the Nomura Foods factory, about a 30-minute walk from Fushimi Station on the Kintetsu-Kyoto Line, offers a curated selection of these traditional treats for a limited time. When we heard about the Obanzai Gacha and how delicious the food being sold is, we couldn’t resist and went to investigate the veracity of this claim.
Looking at the machine in question, we were astounded by the aura of an extraordinary bargain: considering it’s 400 yen for three bags, it’s just a bit over 100 yen for each.
With many standard gacha machines, you insert the necessary coins, turn the handle, and out pops a capsule, but with this vending machine, things were a little different.
For a start it was a vending machine, with no handles to turn, but more surprisingly, it was entirely cashless. For a country that’s still very cash-heavy, it’s a remarkable choice the operators have opted for. No cash and no credit cards; people can only use one of the many forms of cashless payments, like PayPay and transportation IC cards.
After payment, we received a container with a beautiful Kyoto-esque design, and a large “obanzai” (おばんざい) on the front, but the contents were still a little difficult to see.
Returning home, we thawed the bags in the refrigerator, as recommended, before checking them out.
The three dishes we got were Mibuna and Kyorage, a simmered dish of local Kyoto greens and thin strips of fried tofu…
…Beef with Kujo Green Onions: a savory mix seasoned with yuzu citrus fruit and sansho (a peppery spice)…
… and Kyoto Namasu: a vinegar-based salad often served at celebrations, topped with bonito flakes.
Each dish provided a delectable mix of flavors that lacked any of that “frozen” taste we had been expecting. They were all incredibly delicious.
Since these items are frozen, you’ll be wanting to take a cooler bag with you to preserve the food quality. If you happen to be staying in a place with a kitchenette, then you’ll feel like you’ve hit the jackpot with the amazing value for money this vending machine offers, just don’t forget the Obanzai Gacha is only for a limited time. No matter where you go in Japan, don’t forget to check any and all vending machines you pass, because you might find some fantastic surprises in the most unlikely of places.
Vending machine location
Nomura Foods / ノムラフーズ
Address: Kyoto-fu, Fushimi-ku Shimotoba, Nishiserikawa-cho 66-banchi
京都市伏見区下鳥羽西芹川町66番地
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Dining and Cooking