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Frozen home-style cooking with unbelievable tastes.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n If you ever find yourself away from the bustling crowds of Kyoto\u2019s<\/strong> cultural hotspots, wandering around the quiet industrial pockets of Fushimi Ward<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n In most parts of the world, vending machines offer soda or snacks, but in Japan they are a conduit of creativity<\/strong>, with some even providing edible bugs<\/a> or help finding a person to marry<\/a>. This vending machine, though, is a window into the world of Kyoto cuisine: the Obanzai Gacha<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For 400 yen<\/strong> (US$2.50) you can enjoy a bundle of three frozen packages<\/strong>, but due to the \u201cgacha\u201d element, you\u2019ll have no idea what they can contain<\/strong> until they clatter out of the machine. But what sort of obanzai dinners could you be getting\u2026and just what is obanzai?<\/strong><\/p>\n 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<\/strong> that is rooted in the philosophy of not wasting anything and using seasonal, local ingredients. It\u2019s the kind of nostalgia-seasoned cooking one might have during childhood visits to their grandparents\u2019 house, with dishes like simmered radish or grilled eggplant in broth.<\/p>\n This vending machine on the doorstep of the Nomura Foods<\/strong> 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\u2019t resist and went to investigate the veracity of this claim.<\/p>\n Looking at the machine in question, we were astounded by the aura of an extraordinary bargain: considering it\u2019s 400 yen for three bags, it\u2019s just a bit over 100 yen for each.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n For a start it was a vending machine, with no handles to turn<\/strong>, but more surprisingly, it was entirely cashless<\/strong>. For a country that\u2019s still very cash-heavy, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n After payment, we received a container with a beautiful Kyoto-esque design<\/strong>, and a large \u201cobanzai\u201d (\u304a\u3070\u3093\u3056\u3044) on the front, but the contents were still a little difficult to see.<\/p>\n Returning home, we thawed the bags in the refrigerator<\/strong>, as recommended, before checking them out.<\/p>\n The three dishes we got were\u00a0Mibuna and Kyorage<\/strong>, a simmered dish of local Kyoto greens and thin strips of fried tofu\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026Beef with Kujo Green Onions<\/strong>: a savory mix seasoned with yuzu citrus fruit and sansho (a peppery spice)\u2026<\/p>\n Each dish provided a delectable mix of flavors that lacked any of that \u201cfrozen\u201d taste we had been expecting. They were all incredibly delicious<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Since these items are frozen, you\u2019ll be wanting to take a cooler bag with you<\/strong> to preserve the food quality. If you happen to be staying in a place with a kitchenette, then you\u2019ll feel like you\u2019ve hit the jackpot with the amazing value for money this vending machine offers, just don\u2019t forget the Obanzai Gacha is only for a limited time. No matter where you go in Japan, don\u2019t forget to check any and all vending machines you pass, because you might find some fantastic surprises in the most unlikely of places.<\/p>\n Vending machine location<\/strong> Photos \u00a9SoraNews24<\/em> Frozen home-style cooking with unbelievable tastes. If you ever find yourself away from the bustling crowds of Kyoto\u2019s cultural hotspots, wandering around the quiet industrial pockets of Fushimi Ward, you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/imgi_302_a_IMG_5032_noEXIF.jpg?w=640\")
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\n\u2026 and Kyoto Namasu<\/strong>: a vinegar-based salad often served at celebrations, topped with bonito flakes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/imgi_333_a_IMG_5079_noEXIF.jpg?w=640\")
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\nNomura Foods \/ \u30ce\u30e0\u30e9\u30d5\u30fc\u30ba
\nAddress: Kyoto-fu, Fushimi-ku Shimotoba, Nishiserikawa-cho 66-banchi
\n\u4eac\u90fd\u5e02\u4f0f\u898b\u533a\u4e0b\u9ce5\u7fbd\u897f\u82b9\u5ddd\u753a66\u756a\u5730
\nWebsite<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"