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Japanese train station vending machine has the best souvenirs for rail otaku

Oona McGee Dec 22, 2024
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A chance encounter leads to a deeper love for Japanese trains.

As you make your way through train stations in Japan, you’re bound to come across more than a few vending machines, and if you stop to take a closer look at them, you’ll find that they’re not all made the same. That’s what happened when our reporter Haruka Takagi found herself face-to-face with a vending machine at Kinki-Nippon Railway‘s Osaka Namba Station that made her do a double-take.

The signs beside the machine helped to draw attention to it, with the words “Railway goods now for sale in a vending machine“.

▼ And that’s exactly what was inside.

Looking closer, she found an interesting note addressed to customers purchasing the “Train Operating Staff Table (Part Three)“.

The points raised were as follows:

This is a popular item so it may sell out quickly
Products cannot be exchanged or returned
Consists of 108 types in total, which are sold at random.
The staff table of “A specification Special T9-No.4” is not included.

This was pretty much all gobbledygook to Ikuna, but the one thing she gleaned from it was this was a very popular product. As she inspected it through the window, she could make out that it was a time management table for the train crew, and there were two types available — one for the driver and one for the conductor.

To her untrained eye, this was a strange item that held little meaning, but she had no doubt that it would be highly sought after by train otaku. Looking at the buttons next to the display confirmed the table’s popularity, as the corresponding number was marked with a cross, indicating it had sold out.

With the table unavailable, Ikuna turned her attention to a different product…

▼…the Mini Mini Hinotori Destination Display.

This was one of the highly recommended items, and the one Ikuna wanted the most, so she purchased it for 1,760 yen (US$11.24) and hopped on the Hinotori train, a newer style limited-express train that debuted in 2020, with a greater appreciation for it.

▼ “Hinotori” is the Japanese word for “Phoenix”, literally translating as “Fire Bird”.

After being dropped off home by the Hinotori, she was able to play around with the destination display, which was an analog reproduction of the LED-type displays commonly seen on the train.

On the front, it had the same glossy, fiery red hues of the Hinotori, and on the back, you could see the simple yet effective construction behind the design.

▼ Turning the top knob, Ikuna was able to scroll through destinations like Nagoya and Osaka-Namba.

▼ Scrolling further revealed more options, in both Japanese and English.

The gadget lets you switch between a total of 33 displays, covering a variety of destinations as well as irregular messages such as “trial run” (“試運転”), “chartered,” (“貸切”) and “test run” (“試乗会”).

Despite not having a passion for trains, Ikuna found herself glowing with happiness while playing around with the displays.

▼ In the end, her favourite was the one that read: “Hinotori“.

While she enjoyed playing with the gadget, she was surprised to find it jogged her memory of riding the red Hinotori, increasing her fondness for it. It also increased her desire to purchase some of the other items in the machine, which she snapped photos of for future reference.

▼ Hinotori Metal Keychain (800 yen), Squishy Train Keychain “Shimakaze” (880 yen)

▼ Mini Mini Destination Display Hinotori LED (1,760 yen), Mini Mini Destination Display Shimakaze (1,760 yen)

▼Mechanical Pencil Kurutoga Hinotori (990 yen), Limited Express Series Hand Towel (550 yen)

▼ Jet Stream 4 & 1 Hinotori (1,540 yen), Six-sided Puzzle Express Series (1,210 yen)

▼ Train Operating Staff Table (400 yen), Melamine Cup Kintetsu Limited Express Pastel Yellow (880 yen)

All the railway goods now looked appealing to Ikuna, who vowed to return to the machine for another purchase. After doing a bit of research online, she discovered that in addition to Kintetsu Namba Station, these vending machines can also be found on platforms at Kintetsu Nagoya Station and Kintetsu Tsuruhashi Station, with all of them open during train operating hours.

She didn’t expect to fall in love with the railway goods, but now that she has, she can totally understand why trains on the Kinki-Nippon Railway, or Kintetsu Line, as it’s more commonly known, tend to attract a lot of rail fans. It’s no wonder they fell in love with the Nara Deer Train and the Kintetsu Curry enjoyed by employees at the staff cafeteria!

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[ Read in Japanese ]