Japan is known for it's convenience,
and nowhere can you see it best than it's vending machine
many of which we featured in our series
There is the hot food vending machine
Fresh brewed coffee
Ramen
and banana vending machine
There is also a vending machine standing bar
and Crepe vending machine
Japanese Sake taste testing
and of course a totally unstaffed vending machine restaurant
There are also Gachapon toy machines
Dispensable unique and collectable toys
and in this episode I'm introducing to you a brand new vending machine
one that is like a department store opened 24hours a day
The perfect place to buy a gift, whether it's for...
a birthday, an anniversary,
or in this case, Christmas
Just think,
if you can avoid the store lines,
and the delivery wait for online shopping,
wouldn't that be the perfect solution for Christmas shopping?
This machine seems to be that answer for me
A simple solution for lazy guys
who want to be done with it in 5minutes or less
Get into the spirit of vending machine shopping
This machine is loaded with goodies
There are many reasons this is the perfect one stop shop
They are convenient.
There are over 600 of them around Tokyo
It's quick
Push the button, and done
It's 1000 yen, or about 10 dollars for each gift
If the gift is no good, it's not your fault
Blame the machine
Oh, and it's fun
That's the way shopping should be
All you need is a wad of 1000 yen notes
The first gift was a pair of LED glasses
Next, a smart egg
It's kind of a puzzle
This one's a mystery
A box. I wonder what's inside
The hard part is deciding which button to push next
Ah, a pair of wrap around head phones
Hmm...should I go high, or low?
Maybe I'll go low this time
and a pair of walkie talkie watches
That's enough for now
I should've brought a Santa sack for these presents to be
It's quite a haul
and very little fuss
Ah, my friends are going to love these
So, what's the deal?
Let's ask Nakajima-san
The CEO
What exactly is this vending machine?
This is a Gachapon machine for adults
You will find various products from many brands
is what you'll get from this vending machine
Where the heck did you come up with this concept?
Well, to be perfectly honest...
when I was a child, I loved to
play with Gachapon capsule toy machines
I wanted to play Gachapon for 24hours
but that kind of Gachapon does not exist in Japan
When you think of Gachapon,
it's usually made of plastic,
with weak security
you can't leave them out
on the streets for 24hours
It's normal now that when the store closes,
the Gachapon machines are brought inside
and locked away
I wanted to overcome that and,
make something available for 24hours and
fixed up the old vending machines and
created a 24hour Gachapon like vending machine
There are expensive things in there, right?
Sure, there are expensive things in there
Is that ok?
I mean it's only 1000yen
It's 1000yen but
Thanks to bulk buying, we can keep the cost low
so we are able to provide everyone with
something worth 1000yen or more
and in every 300 to 400 items,
we add goods worth 20,000 yen or more
There are luxury items in there as well
What we like to call it is
THE DREAM VENDING MACHINE
It started out with just one machine
but now there are nearly 650 of them
Inside the machines are
20 items, right?
Inside them are actually
4 to 50 items in the machine
-50 items? -That's right
But there are only 20 buttons
There are 20 buttons but,
each slot may have 2 items
or even 3 items
It's a secret but toda
I want to show you what's inside
What's inside?Let's reveal the secret treasure
Nakajima-san designed these machines himself
Recycling old machines exactly for this purpose
to give small gifts to people
Here's what's inside
The product lineup is like this
The items fall from different places
For example, let's see...
He converted old Japanese book vending machines
into a mystery box dispenser.
refitting the button and style.
The button lights up when the item is available
in that position
When pushed, the machine simply releases the box
in that location
Box drops
and it's yours
Just like that
The system is really simple
Nakajima-san made the first machine for himself to play with
so he can stop by after work near his office
Normal Gachapon machines aren't 24 hours
and he got off work late
Of course his friends made fun of him
but who's laughing now?
He's got around 650 machines around Tokyo
His job is leasing vending machines
but when the book vending machine leases were up,
he was stuck with 1000 of them
Instead of throwing them away,
he converted them to these
This is really cool
Cool
There is a postcard in here
When you win this, and you send the post card,
this will be sent to your house
This is not 1000yen
This is 1000yen
1000yen and this may come out
Sort of looks like a Pokemon Ball
It's really hard to copy this machine
No way it will be copied
Loaded with gifts, it was time to make my Christmas deliveries
First up, Simon and Martina
I gave them the pair of walkie talkie watches
Look at the twinkle in their eyes..
Yes, they really do work
Ahh, the spirit of Christmas
Next stop, my friend Shingo
He loves to solve problems at work,
so I knew he'd love this one
A smart egg
You have to be smart to key threw the egg in a minute or less
I have no doubt he'll figure it out
I found Peter in Akasaka
He's a big audio file and always dressing stylish
so I knew he'll love these
Wrap around head phones
Rock around town in comfort and style
Here is Joseph
The ultimate LED do it yourselfl tech wizard
Nothing could be more fitting than this
LED glasses that lights up to sound
They also lit up a big smile
Next, off to my favorite neighbor's house
Mr.Seiichi
My 95 year old neighbor
has always shared his wisdom about Japan with me
Today, I'm going to enlighten him
Yep, those LED glasses again
It'll be perfect when he sings Karaoke
next time with his friends and family
5 for 5
This vending machine was the perfect answer
to my last minute shopping
So, if you come to Japan,
give the KING's Treasure Box
or the Dream Vending Machine a try
You might get lucky and win something big
or you just might get something fun
like these
Merry Christmas
I went back to get myself a gift
These machines are all over the city
If you want to see what I got,
Check out the ONLYinJAPAN instagram page for the answer
Thanks for watching ONLYinJAPAN
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See you next time. Matane