Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog » Eki Tama and train station kiosk innovations

Eki Tama and train station kiosk innovations

Written by: Rebecca Milner on June 30, 2008 at 11:58 pm | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends |

Here is a surreal take on the fast food stand: Tamachi’s station’s new Eki Tama (“station egg”).

This minimal, spacey pod designed by Osaka based Graf and developed by Ecute serves up designer hotdogs and is, appearance-wise, light years away from your average station kiosk or coffee shop.

Tamachi is a relatively high-traffic station near Shinagawa where lots of medium-sized companies have their offices, and in addition to appealing to the local lunching crowd of office workers, the Eki Tama gives Tamachi station a unique talking point to the tune of, “hey since we have to go to Tamachi today for that meeting let’s get food at that egg thing we saw on TV.”

If you spend enough time going to various stations around Tokyo (or enough time watching TV shows that do this traveling for you) you’ll notice that most of them have their unique points. I am personally fond of the okonomiyaki filled taiyaki at Sasazuka station, the cold coffee in glass bottles from the Green Farm at Shibuya station, and often wonder if I’ll ever catch anyone using the umbrella vending machine at Suidobashi station.

umbrella-vending-machine-suidobashi-station-shibuya-green-farm.jpg

Yotsuya Sanchome station recently made a name for itself by becoming the first vending point in Japan for the latest food craze, “Hole’d Baguettes.”

This Danish food innovation involves piercing a sandwich-sized chunk of baguette and filling in the hole with some variety of meat, cheese, etc. Hole’d Baguettes is planning to start a franchise this year, but until then, we’ll have to come up with an excuse to visit Yotsuya Sanchome.

Tags: food, Train Stations
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends

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A hot dog restaurant in Waikiki (Puka Dog) has the hot dog bun toaster, too. They’ve been open for a while, but I have yet to visit, sadly.

Comment by Erin — July 1, 2008 #
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Pingback by Pages tagged "fond" — July 1, 2008 #
[...] Scout Japan - Eki Tama and train station kiosk innovations Les stations japonaises se personnalisent à travers l’alimentation. Pour goûter une nouvelle spécialité, il vous faudra trouver une excuse pour vous rendre dans la bonne station ! [...]

Pingback by L’Internet des Objets » Blog Archive » Links for 2008-07-02 [del.icio.us] — July 3, 2008 #
Heh, this was hit in Hungary in the 1980s. They are there still here nowadays, but only selling frankfurter in it, like some kind of hotdog. :) Yeah, in something we are before the japanese. :D

Comment by Marton — July 9, 2008 #
The Hole’d Baguette reminds me of a thing called Ketwurst, developed in the late 1970s in East Berlin.
Back then, the goal was to supply food to a lot of people as soon as possible at places of interest. Well, seems like that idea hasn’t changed a lot since then…
Link:

Comment by Johannes — July 21, 2008 #